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| A glassy Long Island Sound |
We raise anchor and get underway early as the winds are forecasted to build throughout the day. They do, but we survive.
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| A sub in dry dock. |
My favorite definition of cruising is, fixing a boat in new and interesting places. I bet you can guess where this is going. We stopped at Burr's Marina, just up the Thames in New London, Connecticut, to put 101 gallons of diesel aboard. Immediately after departure Nellie's engine started revving. Bicki and I shared a knowing glance--there's air in the fuel. The diagnosis was confirmed by a quick glance at the fuel filter's sight tube; air bubbles were indeed streaming past. We throttled back and limped up the Thames to our slip at the Navy Submarine Base at New London--a new and interesting place. Diagnosing problems at the dock beats the heck out of doing it underway. So, where was the air coming from? My conclusion, after exhausting all the usual suspects is, there's nothing wrong with Nellie. Rather, it was a procedural problem. Long story short (shorter?), the stream of fuel from Burr's high volume pump entrained air as it struck the surface of the fuel in Nellie's tanks. This well and completely aerated the fuel--think diesel milkshake. [Update: no subsequent revving problems, the engine is running fine.]
I need to backup a little and tell you about the approach to the sub base; it was intimidating. We first hailed and then were closely inspected by a heavily armed Navy gun boat. After passing muster we were cleared into the marina. The base offered a nice respite from both high marina costs and the hubbub of the public ports.
41 miles in the last two days. 1,037 miles into 2019 and 9,262 from Naples. DBH
