Taking Dodger Parts to Dror
Rani here, I will be posting here as we continue our trip south from the Sakonnet River, Naragansett Bay, RI to New Bern, NC.
Jack , Shuki dog, and I moved on board SV Dror, our 39 foot O’Day sailboat, Oct 2nd with the help of our son, Cheni, and friends Harry and Nancy. We took a couple of days to get organized, fill the water tanks and fuel tank at the marina dock. On the way back to the mooring, with the new fuel filter system, the engine stopped. In the mooring field. Not far from another moored boat. I quickly dropped the anchor as Jack tried to get the engine started again. It hiccuped back to life and we managed to get back to the mooring. Hmm, not an auspicious start to a long cruise. Jack spent the rest of the day bleeding the new fuel filter system, figuring some air still needed to be purged from the system. He tested the engine on the mooring, revving it up to put load on it. All was fine.
Tuesday the 4th, we dropped the mooring, taking the lines with us, and headed down the Sakonnet River.Chugging along at about 6 knots, we passed the island , raised the main sail and carried on motor sailing. An hour later, the engine started to cough, splutter, die. It did this repeatedly, while I, at the helm, reminded myself that I am a sailor first, and I had a sail up, so we still had forward motion and control. Jack got the engine started and we continued. Splutter, cough, cough, loss of power, engine restart: all the way down the river to Third Beach.
If something was wrong with the engine, it’d be better to stay where we knew we could access a good diesel mechanic. We picked up a mooring in Third Beach and Jack checked the new filter system. He wasn’t sure what was wrong, but air seemed to be finding it’s way in somewhere. He reinstated the original fuel filter, the engine was fine. We headed back up river to our mooring , the engine was charging along with no problems. We decided to keep the old system as the engine preferred it. Jack would work out what was wrong with the new system along the way.
So that was our “shakedown” cruise! Two days later, Thursday, Oct 6th, we headed out again. This was it. We were on our way. First stop: Point Judith.