Did you ever notice that men on cruising boats speak more kindly to their wives than non-boaters? Asked of me today by Chuck Stiles, M/V Francesca.
Duh! We knew there was soot getting below deck as we kept cleaning it up in the engine room. Problem was we couldn't find its source. Today we did. Right next to the Cummins wet exhaust thruhull is an abandoned diesel furnace thruhull. This thruhull is high on the transom so I'd left it open to vent the lazarette. Big mistake. The Cummins engine is really a big air pump. It draws in a lot of engine room air and exhausts it out the stern. This means that air from all over Nellie moves towards the engine room. It's that old 'nature abhors a vacuum' thing. Bottom line, the lazarette vent was sucking in lots of diesel smoke. Duh!
Tenn-Tom Waterway
The next small bite into this big trip will see us traverse the 10 locks of the 234 mile long Tenn-Tom Waterway from Demopolis, Alabama to Iuka, Mississippi. At the northern terminus of the Waterway is the very scenic Tennessee River.
In Demopolis, Alabama. 1499 miles total. DBH
