Where to begin. Perhaps by paraphrasing Captain Ron's Martin Harvey,
'Nellie runs badly.'
At the crack of 10am we prepared to leave the St. Pete marina only to
find Nellie's engine wouldn't start. An hour's worth of head scratching,
trying this and that, and bleeding the entire fuel system, several times,
finally yielded results. About an hour into the trip, while just north of
the Sunshine Skyway bridge, the engine started revving. This we'd
experienced four years before. Air was getting into the fuel line. In the
middle of Tampa Bay we pull over, drop the hook, and kill the engine. Sure
enough, both Racors were low on fuel. After topping them up we turn the
ignition key and ... she won't start. More head scratching and fuel line
bleeding was rewarded shortly thereafter by the engine coming to life.
Thirty minutes later, while we're right in the middle of the shipping lane,
the revving returns. Chastened by our last attempted fix we decide to
press on for Sarasota. The next four hours pass with the sound of revving
grating on our nerves.
After safely arriving in Sarasota, and downing a beer in celebration, the
search began for the smoking gun. We found it. The fitting connecting the
fuel supply line to the first Racor was allowing air into the system. A
lot of air. This explains all the symptoms. Tomorrow will tell if our
diagnosis is correct or not.
Oh, the failed fitting, it wasn't one we even touched during the engine
room makeover. Go figure.
Fingers crossed tomorrow goes better.
