Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Shakedown Cruise

We started the day really excited about the possibility of getting off the dock...finally...after 3 weeks of work getting the Hoot ready to go out.  Chrissy  loaded the life jackets with the CO2 cartridges, attached a couple of other things that we hope we'll never need.  


She put the finishing touches on our boat registration letters/numbers so we would be street legal.  


After our first night without being connected to shore power, we learned that our Starting battery was not up to snuff, but our house batteries would suffice for the day. 

Under perfect conditions, we carefully motored through the tight and barely-deep-enough channel.  The engine settled in running a little hot, but steady.  As we finally made our way to water deep enough that we didn't have to hold our breath, we unfurled the jib and we were in a moment, motor sailing. 

       

After a few minutes enjoying how well it was going so far, I decided to unfurl the mainsail.  You see, the Hoot has a very nifty roller furling mainsail. However, getting the sail in and out is tricky and  I jammed it on the way out, about half way out...I knew that wasn't good but also that it wasn't going to ruin our day.


           

As I worked to un-jam the main, Chrissy yelled at me looking terrified.....honey, is that smoke coming out of the cabin?    OMG, yes, we had smoke coming from inside the cabin.  Quickly we shut off the engine, now VERY HOT, and I went below to see if I was going to have to use a fire extinguisher.  Opening the engine compartment I see immediately that the radiator cap is gone and all the coolant has boiled out all over the engine and into the bilge.  Wow, we were in deep trouble.

We collected ourselves, sailing along now with a jammed mainsail and an out of commission engine.  Shakedown cruise was working. 

We got the mainsail in after getting all the pressure off of it pointing into the wind.   If necessary, and if things went just right, we could sail back in with no engine and the jib.  

I remember seeing a spare radiator cap in one of the boat compartments and Chrissy remembered seeing a gallon of engine coolant (unopened as it turns out). 

After letting the engine completely cool down, we filled it back up with coolant, put the new (spare) radiator cap on, and crossed our fingers that she would start.  I need a miracle now!   And yes, miraculously, she fired right up. Holy @€#%!  Tragedy averted!



Decided to save the engine until we needed her to dock and proceeded to sail up and down the coast for the next few hours until out tide window was better, and hoping to beat the sunset!  

Things went perfectly from there although the  water was shallower than when we went out. We held our breath a lot as the reading on the depth finder was less than our draft.  But, we made it through, We got her docked, tied up and were welcomed back by the Mosquitos and no-see-ins who must have been afraid that we would never return. 

Today, we begin to work on the issues that our shakedown cruise, shook out.  It was a chapter in our adventure that neither of us will ever forget.  Yet confidence is high that we will be under sail soon headed for home and the beach that we're missing.  



Never leave home without a spare radiator cap and spare coolant.  

3 comments:

  1. "Some rise, some fall, some climb," some sail?! Glad y'all are safe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOW!!!! What a scarey story, glad all ended well........You Got This!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Extra parts and fluids are always a good thing. One more thing the learning curve will throw our way . Your doing great

    ReplyDelete