Still at the Marina!

Sunday morning we prepared to leave the marina and be on our way again.  I had found and repaired the fuel filter housing problem and the engine was running great.  We paid the marina, filled the tanks with fuel and water, and motored away happily.  I was settling in for a long day at the helm.  It was cold and windy, but I dressed up warmly and sailed (motored) onward.

About 45 minutes into the trip, Alison called up to me from the cabin and said she smelled diesel fuel.  We were in the middle of a large lake, so I stopped the motor and went down to check it out. I found that one of the fittings I had removed while checking out the fuel system was spitting diesel fuel on the engine.  Diesel isn't especially flammable, but it was urgent to find and fix the problem so we could be on our way.  I grabbed my handy tools and tightened up the bolts that were leaking.   It still leaked, so I tightened it again. And again.  And this time the bolt broke off in my wrench.  S***!!  D*** it!  Without this bolt, we were literally "dead in the water."

The winds by now had begun to pick up a lot.  There were dark clouds and spitting rain and winds of about 12-14 mph.  So I put up the mainsail with a reef (that means I only let out part of the sail) and let out a little bit of jib sail and prepared to sail back to the marina, just a few miles away.  Unfortunately, the winds were coming directly out of the Southeast and the marina was directly Southeast.  That meant that I had to make my boat travel upwind to get to where I needed to go.  With reduced sail, that is even harder to do.

Alison had already begun cooking eggs for breakfast when I put up the sails.  Imagine trying to cook in a kitchen that is rocking unpredictably!  It's even hard to just pour a drink of water in those kitchens.  But Alison soon presented me a hot breakfast of two eggs over medium and a piece of hot fried toast.  I was quite busy keeping the sailboat under control because by now, the wind gusts were approaching 16-18 mph.  I was trying my best to keep the boat from heeling over too much because I knew Alison was trying to cook.  In a relatively calm moment, I considered how to eat my breakfast sitting there.  In these conditions, I needed all my attentions focused on sailing the boat.  I scooped the eggs up in the toast and folded them over in a sandwich and took a big hungry bite.  Yellow egg yolk shot out of the sandwich and landed on the seat and all over my expensive binoculars.  No time to worry about that now, just keep sailing.

I called the marina to tell Alan, the manager, to expect me back because I was having engine trouble again.  He said he'd meet me with the marina barge. "Barge?" I thought.  Whatever, as long as he gets me back to the dock.  The winds were still gusting 16-18 mph straight from the direction I needed to go, so I had no choice but to tack back and forth to make forward progress.  Waves were one to three feet.  It occurred to me that to Alan it must look like I was just out there enjoying a fun day of sailing since I was sailing every direction but toward the marina.  So I called him and explained why I was having to get to him so indirectly.  He said he had wondered what I was doing when I was sailing away from the marina, but that he was already on the water heading my way.  I looked and saw what looked like something from a Mad Max movie, only without the guns.  It was square and floated on square plastic pontoon floats.  It had a crane mounted to the front and a 9 horsepower outboard motor on the back.  Alan sat on top of the motor and guided his barge slowly and erratically my direction. A sailboat under sail has no brakes.  It will keep going as long as there is wind.  And we had plenty of that! So I had to time my approach to his barge just right to keep from zooming past him or colliding with him.  As I approached, I dropped both sails and coasted his direction while he piloted his barge toward me.  When we got close enough I tossed him a line that he tied onto his barge.  Surprisingly, his little 6 hp motor slowly but surely towed my big 13,000 lb boat the rest of the way to the marina just in time for the rain to start pouring down.

Pictures of the Guntersville "Mad Max" towing barge.

Monday morning I got up at 6:30 am to get an early start.  I was still smelling diesel though.  So I searched the engine compartment and it was clean.  I had thoroughly cleaned it yesterday of all diesel fuel.  Further searching revealed that there was a substantial amount of diesel in the bilge (the lowest part of the boat that catches any spills anywhere in the boat and is pumped out by an automatic pump).   So the first thing I get to do before breakfast is clean out a nasty, diesel contaminated moldy bilge.  YUK!   After that was done, the boat smelled more like home and less like a truck repair shop.

By then, it was time to go find the part I need to get the boat running again.  Again, the marina generously loaned me a nice Dodge Caravan to drive-no charge!  I went to the auto parts store they reccomended, but they didn't have anything like it.  But Bill told me to go see Larry down the road, and gave me directions: "Go left out of here to the next light then turn right.  When you get to the four lane highway, turn left and go about 8 miles.  Larry's place is right past the Erwin marine dealership and just before the Guntersville Dam sign.

I drove off hopefully to find Larry.  I found him right where Bill had told me he would be.  It was a small blue steel building with small boats in the yard next to it.  No sign.  When I walked in, I saw about eight men sitting comfortably in an irregular circle. Some were leaning back in their chairs and a couple were sitting with the back of the chair facing forward. They all looked at me when I came in and I said: "Looks like all the smarts in the country are sitting around here in this one building.  Must be an important meeting going on here!"  A middle aged man on the right said: "Yep, If a bomb was to be dropped on this building, the world would suddenly get dumber by a sight."

I said: "I'm looking for Larry."
A middle aged man behind the desk in the center of the group said: "You just found him. What can I do for you?"
I showed him my problem bolt.  He looked at it carefully and concluded he didn't have anything like it.  The others in the group of offered some suggestions of where to find one, but  Larry said I should go to Imperial Fasteners in Huntsville.  On the way, he said I could stop by S&S.  They work on motors like mine and might have it.  I thanked them and headed out to find both of the recommendations.

I found S&S and showed an older man what I needed.  He was wearing what used to be dark blue trousers and jacket just like my dad used to wear.  He took me out in the field out back to show me the engines he said were like mine.  When we got there, the engines were covered in  vicious five foot high briers.  To reach those engines would require the sacrifice of much blood and a good possibility of snake bite.  He said we should go back inside and talk to Jerry, the owner.  We found Jerry in front of the store talking to a couple men that were just leaving.  Jerry wanted to help, but didn't have a bolt like that.  He said I should try Imperial Fasteners.

So I programmed my GPS for Imperial Fasteners and drove off hopefully.  The GPS immediately took me through miles of single lane country roads and over a small mountain.  Just as I was sure that my GPS was taking me on a wild goose chase, I began to see signs of civilization.  Just two more miles and I'll be there.  When I arrived at the address the GPS told me to go to, I was in the middle of a large subdivision.  There was no commercial buildings to be found anywhere. I looked up the address and told my GPS to take me there.  When I got there, it wasn't there.  When I found a phone number, the guy that answered said that they were not in business any more.  But he did tell me the name of the place I should check.

That's just the beginning of my very frustrating day.  I called and visited a couple dozen places.  Did you know that many places close on Mondays?!  Who knew?  I finally gave up and came back to the boat. I looked up the distributors of parts for my boat and asked if they had the parts.  They have the parts, but it's too late to overnight them today.  So the earliest I can get my parts is Wednesday.  That means two more days delay!  So we'll make a few more minor repairs to the boat tomorrow and just wait.  All this for a single bolt!

If you read all of this long story, you are either a beloved family member who finds anything I write interesting, or you don't have much to do.  thanks for reading!

Larry