We left Beaufort Monday at 6:30 am. By 9:00 am we were far enough offshore to have no cell service so George used the Iridium satellite phone to call the Coast Guard and inquire about our vessel documentation. A very nice woman confirmed that the documentation had indeed expired but she also confirmed that George had applied online to have it reinstated. George explained that we were on our way to the Bahamas when he discovered it was expired and she said it would be mailed out Monday or Tuesday! Yay!
Yesterday morning—as we were motoring off of the coast of South Carolina—George noticed white smoke coming out of the exhaust. There is not supposed to be any smoke in the exhaust. In addition to the white smoke we noticed that we weren’t getting the power we would expect from the engine. We normally travel at six knots with the engine is set at 1800 rpm. Instead of six knots we were traveling at around 4.8-5.3 knots. We bumped the engine up to 2200 rpm, not only for the extra speed but also because we had heard diesel engines are happier at higher rpm. It was worth a try. In the meantime, George got out his diesel mechanics book and consulted a few people by text using the sat phone. It appears that we might have either water in the fuel, a bad fuel injector(s), or a cracked head gasket. George emptied out the garage to look at one of the fuel filters and there does not appear to be any water in the fuel. George called a few diesel mechanics in Brunswick—we decided we should go there rather than travel an additional two days to Ft. Pierce, FL—and was told they were backed up three to eight weeks. Yikes. A minimum of three weeks in Brunswick waiting for even a chance to have the problem—whatever it is—fixed.
Last night on my watch I noticed that instead of moving at around 6.3 knots we were moving at 7 knots or more. It was dark so I couldn’t see if we had smoke in the exhaust. After the sun came up on my early morning watch I took a look and there was no smoke! The consensus so far is that we had build-up on an injector that eventually burned off when we ran at higher rpms. We will talk to a mechanic and continue to do some research on the issue.
We will likely stay in Brunswick at least a week waiting for a weather window to sail to southern Florida.
Sunset off of South Carolina.
Sunrise just south off Savannah.
Shrimp boat in St. Simon’s Sound. Notice all of the birds on the lines.
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