Tuesday August 21: Leaving Orillia

It was a gorgeous sunrise Monday morning at Big Chief. One of the calmest nights we've spent at anchor. There were only 4 boats that stayed the night and no loud noisemakers – nice :-) By the way, I was the one that was up to take this picture!

So the question of the morning was: cause and effect – or coincidence??? Sequence of events: Saturday: finally have the thermostat working so the engine is actually running at 160 degrees instead of 100 degrees – Sunday: the boat will no longer plane off and max RPM is 2500 instead of 3600 or so. Runs fine at 1600 RPM (our usual speed). So the question became did getting the engine up to it's proper operating temperature cause the drop in RPM? Or was it just a coincidence?

Out came the thermostat again to check. Steve is getting so he can do this in his sleep! Ok – head the short 4 miles to Orillia and we'll see if the engine still boggs down at 2500 RPM. Fingers crossed, off we go. Mmmm... it really was just a coincidence and not the cause - still bogging down.

Interestingly enough though, upon closer inspection of the thermostat housing Steve found the retaining ring for the thermostat in the housing right were it should be! So with that ring removed, he was able to put the thermostat back into the housing just as it is supposed to be. Well, that's good at least :-) How the thermostat originally got out from under the retaining ring remains a mystery though.

Now on to solving the bogging down problem. One thing I've noticed is that Steve and I both are pretty sure of ourselves (translates to stubborn) when it comes to trying to fix a problem. So I think it is definitely a fuel issue and we need to change all of the fuel filters (there are two of them). He thinks it is in the ignition area so change spark plugs, distributor cap, points etc.

We've seen this before. We talked with Dave. We scoured the internet. So we decided to just do everything! Two test runs: first after the fuel filters were changed. No go. Second phase: change all spark plugs, distributor and rotor. Still no go but better.

Mmmm... maybe it's water in the fuel as we purchased fuel in between when the engine ran fine and when it didn't. Another coincidence??

Fortunately Steve had bought several bottles of dry gas at the auto parts store – put in enough for the amount of fuel in the tank. Slosh it around a bit and while not an instant cure, the engine was definitely running better. Will add more fuel today (and more dry gas) and I think we're good to go. Probably the cold nights and an aluminum fuel tank producing condensation in the tank.

Just when we thought the day was going well again, I tried to be nice and help a boat in that was having trouble with the wind. No problem – we do this all of the time as it's just what boaters do for one another. Sadly, somehow, my face go too close to his boat and it smashed my glasses into my face and off the glasses went – into the drink! Steve was nice enough to jump in and rescue them :-) I've often wondered what we would do if one of us were to lose our glasses – guess I almost found out. And my black and blue eye should be back to normal in a matter of a few days …....

Off to cross Lake Simcoe today. Next internet is Cococonk in a day or so.