Diagnosing engine death, upgrading wiring

 For several years, we have had intermittent engine death at some better and worse times. About annually. And it has defied easy answers, with the pressure gauge on the Racor 500 not showing an increase in vacuum, and no other obvious causes. This latest time caused me to need a tow about 100 meters back to my slip in FH. How embarrassing for this careful boat maintenance sailor. 

I posted my problem on the cruisers forum and have had some helpful replies. I went to the boat this President's Day weekend and learned useful things. 

Here you go: 

• I learned there is an internal filter screen in the Walbro 13-2 that is accessed by removing the bolt from the bottom and removing the lower housing. Straightforward. This screen on mine was clean, minus a few bits of something. Nothing close to being clogged. Be careful putting back together as the Oring does not stay put and is easily misaligned. 
• I ran the output from my Walbro lift pump back into the air vent hose that on Aeolus has a junction near this area. I ran the pump and watched as fuel ran through the Racor 500. For one thing, the fuel was clean, showing no signs whatsoever of any gunk even after gallons had gone through. 
• HOWEVER, and this is a big HOWEVER, I noticed that there were air bubbles coming out of the turbine. Light bubbles at all times, as the pump was pulling about 4inHg which is about 2psi. When I turned the fuel flow off at the three way valve I have installed, the pump would stop, and when I turned it back on the there were big and numerous bubbles from the turbine area. Didn't matter whether I turned the fuel flow off at the three way valve, or at the tank. When I turned it back on, bigger and more bubbles. 

SO, I thin, my problem all along has been air in the system accumulating. I've purchased some clear tubing, and this is a great way to install temporarily to see if the bubbles are coming from the tank, from the three way valve, or out of the Racor 500, or all the above! 

This is the current style that is reported to be often faulty and leaking air. 

I strongly suspect the culprit is the brass three way valve as a comment on Cruisers Forum said he has had several of these leak air. If so, shame on them for building a fuel valve that leaks air! I've already purchased a different style three way valve that is a ball valve style said to be rated to 350psi! 

Another trick is that you can leave the manual fuel bleed valve open fully or partially and that will bleed air out of the system continuously. Best to fix any air leaks, but no harm in having the Walbro work continuously at full tilt as they are rated for 18,000 hours! 

While in there, I also went ahead and finally tackled the old RV style wire junctions that are so famously bad. Rather ashamed I had not already done this, but I'm not perfect! The hardest part is physically working in the tight space while bruising your ribs and such. I put padding down on the floorboard supports but it's still pressure on your chest. 

You can track which wire goes to which pretty well by their colors, but it's not exact. For some reason due to fading or whatever, they do not match perfectly. But the process is simple but laborious. You cut each wire and do all the butt connecting and ring terminal installation and attach them to the terminal block. I use Blue Sea connectors and a 30amp rated 8 position terminal block. While doing this you also replace the crappy inline glass fuse that is on the starter activation wire. I had my engine fail to start this last episode of engine death, which added insult to injury. It turned out to be a oil fuse in that crappy car style in line fuse holder. I replaced that with a proper waterproof ATC fuse holder and used a 30amp fuse. I need to get some more shink wrap to finish up a few spots, as you will see in the photo below. I used cable protectors to neaten things up and prevent oily exposure to the wires themselves. 

This photo shows the current state in need of some more shrink wrap and adjustments. There is another one of these on the Gulf 32 behind the electrical panel. That will be easier to access and will be the next one I tackle. 

Mostly done. Convenient support board for mounting terminal block. 

Good stuff

Rip these out! 

Stuart Island on blue sky January days

Escape to Stuart Island on this three day weekend and we were delighted to have blue skies every day. Saw humpback whales in San Juan Channel! Wow! Two adults and a young one. Haven't seen them there before, only further north. Then saw large groups of sea lions at Speiden, per usual. About twelve bald eagles on the south side of the island, in the usual spots. 

Two nights in Reid Harbor and hikes all around. What a time to be up on the mountains and out to the Lighthouse. Group of sea lions at the lighthouse too.

Sea Lions!

Upsetting thing is that the motor died right at the entrance to Friday Harbor. Despite all my considerable efforts to keep the fuel tank clean with bug killer and lubricant, using R99 fuel, I keep getting fuel cut off engine death. I polished the fuel last year and it was quite clean, so what gives? I even then had the starter stop working. Had to get towed by Boat US the few hundred yards back to our slip. Upsetting and embarrassing for this careful boat mechanic. 

Winter Jones is always wondrous

I remain baffled why people don't use their boats in the winter. Most often, the weather is benign and the temperatures mild, and you have the islands to yourself. We sure did on this trip, as usual, have them to ourselves. Leaving the slip in Friday Harbor on Saturday morning we were the only boat in San Juan Channel. There was a light southern wind pushing us north toward Jones. For fun and variety, we went through the Wasp Islands a bit and up the East side of Jones. We were alone in the north cove and on Jones. Just incredible. In summer, it is overrun with hordes of folks. We walked all around, circumnavigating the island and saw a remarkable number of seals. We tossed a frisbee. We watched birds. We admired the cactus that grows on Jones. CACTUS! Saturday night had some wind but as forecasted, it was from the SE and SW and were fine in the north cove. Boy those king tides are the real deal, right now. Never seen them higher at Jones. Overnight is the low low, and the speed of that change had to drain about 12 feet of water out of the Salish Sea. Amazing. We came back Sunday morning for an early ferry back to the mainland. Once again, the calendar says a brief weekend turn around, but it feels like we are gone for far longer. Clocks and calendars only tell one version of the truth!

Haul out at Jensens, big surprise!

 I let more time go before this haul out than any other I can recall. It had been three full years since I last hauled. In that time we did a big summer trip up to Desolation Sound and countless shorter trips around the San Juan and Gulf Islands. I fully expected to find a prop well covered in barnacles and a missing anode, with maybe even hard growth somewhere on the hull. 

This was the condition after 3 years

But what to my wondering eyes should appear out of the murky depths but a perfectly clean prop! Let me say that again, after THREE YEARS a PERFECTLY CLEAN PROP. 

No words can convey my delight at having found a prop treatment that does this. For the entire time I've had Aeolus I've tried various things, usually Lanocote and found problems with hard growth and algae growth before a year had passed. I would have to snorkel down on the boat to scrape off barnacles and mussels on the prop to not ruin the performance of the little beastie. 

So this is what I want to announce to all my sailor friends out there, I tried something new and it worked a dream. After cleaning the prop, I sprayed two coats of Petit Zince Prop Coat. Many people stop there, but it says right on the can that for longer protection apply Hydrocoat bottom paint. Hydrocoat is a non-metallic ablative bottom paint that I use in black. This combination kept my prop absolutely clear of any growth, despite being pretty well worn away after three years and a lot of use. Astonishing. 

I also found that the aluminum prop anode lasted those three years, and was still intact and about 30% present. Never get that from a zinc anode, and I haven't had any change in the performance of the corrosion protection visible on the prop. 

This haul out was initially going to include the PSS Shaft Seal, as they recommend replacement every 6 years and it has been about 10 on mine. But I inspected it closely and the darn thing looks pristine, like brand new. Absolutely zero sign of any rubber aging or flaking or fatigue. So I put the replacement off for another haul out in the future. 

Same treatment and ready to go for a few more years!

She's not too clean or made up pretty, but boy she's a beauty

So this one was just bottom paint, prop treatment and a few odds and ends. Was only out Friday to Monday morning. 

One thing I always do at haul out is put lanolin on the balls of the ball valve. I keep a tub of lanolin on the boat that will last me my lifetime, I think, and it comes in handy. By putting lanolin on the valves, it keeps growth from happening on them and keeps them easy to exercise. I routinely exercise all the ball valves on Aeolus as a regular thing to do, but when I treated them this time, I could see with a headlamp that they still had lanolin visible on them and no growth. 

A word on bottom paint. I've been using West Marine PCA Gold for many, many years. This will be my last time. The can I bought was nowhere near the product it used to be. It was so thin and light compared to the copper content the prior versions had, and they no longer use Igoral or whatever it was because it's been banned as nasty stuff. I'll do some research and use a different product next time. 

My time at Jensens is always easy and delightful. Being on the island is always so fulfilling. The weather cooperated and I had an awesome few days with a friend and even Amy came up for the weekend. 

Aeolus is good to go for our big 2026 trip to Desolation Sound environs. Can't wait! 

P.S. I had two different guys walk up to me and offer to buy Aeolus while she was hauled out. She was flattered. Another person left a note on her asking if I would sell her. Sorry folks, she's mine for a good while longer. I tell people that if I won the lottery and had millions more, I'd keep her and just fix her up some more. There's not a boat in the marina that would do better what we do with her. 

Gratuitous Cattle Point shot looking toward Olympics. One of my deep home places. 

New Windlass batteries for Lofrans Tigres

 I checked my windlass batteries the other day and saw they were new in 2009! Though they still seemed to be holding a charge, I knew it was time to replace them. 16 year old wet acid batteries are a testament to the quality of the Interstate batteries from Costco. I use two of them to power our Lofrans Tigres windlass that pulls a lot of power, and I always do this with the engine running, alternator powering, and the windlass batteries linked with the house batteries, also two deep cycle. So in effect, there are four batteries putting power to the windlass. We never lack power for pulling up our rode! 

High Summer seas and trails

After an awesome family backpacking trip at Glacier Peak wilderness, we had a few days to get to the boat and head out for some water time. It was a relief to be back near the sea, with moisture and cooler temps, after the intense solar radiation and blue skies of the mountains. It was just Amy and I aboard, which makes it easy and lovely. We went to Jones first, enjoying a night in the north cove and a bit of walking on our tired legs. The next day we went to Prevost Harbor, which always feels more like Canada than the San Juan's because of how it orients. We wanted that view and the shorter walk to the lighthouse, as we were still recovering from our hike. Glorious weather and the lighthouse was open for the usual summer tourist season. What's remarkable is that even in summer it's really not that busy in these places. I mean, they are far busier than in winter, when we have them to ourselves, but considering how many boats are in Puget Sound, it's not a high concentration of them. And once you get out and walk, you are alone enough to not mind the few you pass. Heard a story of a big sailboat, 50+ feet, that ran aground near John's island last week because they were too close to shore. We all make mistakes, but with modern chartplotters and GPS, there is really no excuse for running aground in that area.

View from our favorite high spot near the lighthouse

Another day at the prettiest spot in the San Juan Islands

Prevost view out

To Jones with visiting family

 Such a pleasure to have taken so many friends and family to Jones over the years. It was packed this weekend with boaters and campers, and reminded why we enjoy it in winter so much. But we were able to anchor in the North Cove in about 50 feet of water. 

Conditions were benign this weekend, with mild temperatures and light winds. We had family visiting with their young son, which brought back all sorts of memories of raising our own sons in the islands. We dinghied around, hiked around, played around. Going feral in the islands is one of the greatest pleasures in life for all, but especially for little kids. They don't get that freedom at most homes, or in cities. 

We all enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and noted the benefits of being in that semi-wild place while the world seems to crumble around us. I thought often of Wendell Berry, Edward Abbey and Thoreau. Thank you Aeolus.