I was overdue, it would appear...

Left Titusville yesterday AM, happily motoring along, when suddenly the Yanmar 3GM in this thing starts clattering alarmingly, and losing RPMs... No gauges, only alarms, but nothing goes off... Shut her down, jump down to open the engine compartment, and exhaust and soot comes pouring out... At first, I thought I might have had a fire...

For perhaps the first time on this trip, I had some breeze in my favor, so I sailed 20+ miles down the Indian River to the Eau Gallie Causeway, and right on into the dock at the Anchorage Marina, a funky little place where the folks there have taken very good care of me in the past... Naturally, their diesel guy had Monday off...

One problem with this boat, is I can't crank the engine and observe it simultaneously... But, as soon as the guy came aboard this morning, and turned it over, the problem was easy to diagnose... A cracked exhaust mixing elbow was dispensing exhaust into the compartment, and diesels prefer fresh air, instead of ingesting that shit...

Of course, no replacement parts available locally, but fortunately a distributor back up in Cocoa had what we needed, so I rented a car to pick it up, and as of about an hour ago, I'm back in business...

And, my record of breaking stuff on boats remains intact... (grin)

Looks like I may finally get a break with the weather... I'll just run down to Ft. Pierce tomorrow, hopefully meet Pete Linwick from Florida Rigging for dinner at Harbourtown, then ride the forecast NW breeze down the coast, we shall see... Sure would be nice to get to sail for a bit, this is one sweet sailing boat...