Tuesday November 25: The Generator LIVES!!

So this is a picture of the water coming out of the thru hull fitting for the generator. You know - the one I decreed dead and ready to become our next best anchor!

Steve wanted to give it one more try today - no objection from my end but then I wasn't involved as I had already declared it dead and nothing but a weight in the bottom of the boat.

After checking that all of the cooling lines were free from obstructions and that the impeller was fine (assumed to be so but not checked), there was absolutely NO reason why this thing should not run as intended.

Of course the last time we started and ran it, one of the guys near us thought our boat was on fire - there was that much black smoke coming out of the exhaust outlet - which is actually under water! Only thing we could think was that the muffler didn't have enough water in it (which is a weird think all by itself but that's the way it's designed) and we weren't willing to let the generator run long enough to see if that was really the issue. I mean, if someone thinks your boat is on fire seems to me it's time to shut it down!

So after filling the muffler with water and THEN starting the generator - perfect :-) Good thing for it - I was definitely ready to deep six the sucker :-) I think we need a name for the generator. Any suggestions?

Anyway, back to yesterday. The neighbors had invited Steve out for a fishing trip to the gulf stream (about 20 miles out) on their sailboat-coverted-to-trawler called a Strawler Cruiser. Quite interesting all by itself.

Great day at sea though, as Steve would say :-) A VERY nice Spanish Mackeral (that's the neighbor Rene holding the fish), several small tuna fish, two crevel jacks (fun to catch but not great to eat - just our opinion) and one GIANT crevel jack that "got away."

Steve fought the fish for 30-45 minutes trying to get it in and when it was about 10 feet from the boat, it broke the line. Sadly no picture but Rene saw it and guessed it to be 40 to 50 lbs!! Not something you would keep anyway but a picture would have been nice :-)

Even with both Steve and I cleaning fish, it took a while to get it done. Nicely the marina has a fish cleaning station with running fresh water and a great space with a large cutting board area.

In the meantime, Rene spent the time hosing off and cleaning up their boat. as even though it was calm here at the dock, they ran into 2 - 3 foot waves as the winds picked up throughout the day.


I had to suffer and spend a whole 6 1/2 hours on the boat by myself. What I don't put up with somedays :-)