Been working hard & not visiting here much. My loss!
We went down to Stuart Island (Washington, not BC) Friday morning for a yacht club rendezvous in Reid Harbor with a friend along for the ride. Everything was fine all the way down - even had pretty flat water in Georgia Strait for a change. Sunday morning we got up early, had breakfast, stowed our gear, & headed back to Birch Bay. We got north of Flattop Island and, since our guest needed to get back to the Seattle area for a meeting with a contractor, I opened the throttles up a little to blow some carbon out, etc. About 5 minutes into this activity the port engine suddenly started loosing power; temperature spiked a little, but not enough to worry about, oil pressure was fine. I shut down & headed below to see what was happening. The main cabin was filled with smoke! I started to reach for the hatch then thought better of it, called up to the bridge & had the Admiral check the automatic fire extinguisher - okay there. Lifted the hatch & smelled burned rubber big time. Belts were fine & nothing appeared amiss. Ended up limping home on one engine. Fortunately, the tide turned & we were able to pick up a couple of knots on the way back so we were only 30 minutes late getting back to Birch Bay. The mechanic is going over sometime today & will report back when he knows something.
Thus ends my tale of whoa. After a start to the cruising season like this, it can only get better.
We went down to Stuart Island (Washington, not BC) Friday morning for a yacht club rendezvous in Reid Harbor with a friend along for the ride. Everything was fine all the way down - even had pretty flat water in Georgia Strait for a change. Sunday morning we got up early, had breakfast, stowed our gear, & headed back to Birch Bay. We got north of Flattop Island and, since our guest needed to get back to the Seattle area for a meeting with a contractor, I opened the throttles up a little to blow some carbon out, etc. About 5 minutes into this activity the port engine suddenly started loosing power; temperature spiked a little, but not enough to worry about, oil pressure was fine. I shut down & headed below to see what was happening. The main cabin was filled with smoke! I started to reach for the hatch then thought better of it, called up to the bridge & had the Admiral check the automatic fire extinguisher - okay there. Lifted the hatch & smelled burned rubber big time. Belts were fine & nothing appeared amiss. Ended up limping home on one engine. Fortunately, the tide turned & we were able to pick up a couple of knots on the way back so we were only 30 minutes late getting back to Birch Bay. The mechanic is going over sometime today & will report back when he knows something.
Thus ends my tale of whoa. After a start to the cruising season like this, it can only get better.