Blogging

Push the button, the engine starts. What’s so strange about that?

Or simple pleasures…

A little more than two years ago, I started having trouble getting the engine to start if it sat more than three days.

To remedy the problem, I made sure I started it more often than than that. When went our three week trip up the west side of Vancouver Island that year, it was never a problem: we never went that long without starting the engine. Continue reading “Push the button, the engine starts. What’s so strange about that?”

Our Kill may not be killing, but merely strangling…

We’ve had engine starting problems, but only sometimes — Aside from the known problems with air in the fuel lines — Yep, problems, problems, problems, worse than a house.

Caro Babbo and Ranger 11 dinghy at Port Townsend Boat Haven waiting to sail home to Lake Union

Continue reading “Our Kill may not be killing, but merely strangling…”

Back in the water, again

Caro Babbo went into the water at lunch Thursday. The wind had been blowing mid-twenties gusting to 30. The Travelift operators, who I’ve gotten to know across the five weeks, came by often to find out what I wanted to do. Continue reading “Back in the water, again”

Five weeks on the hard in Port Townsend’s Boat Haven

Rather than the write book that is the five weeks in Port Townsend’s Boat Haven, here is a gallery of pictures. Much of what was done wasn’t photographed, so I guess the book is on the way.

Caro Babbo is due to go back into the water tomorrow – we’re on standby. And then to be sailed back to Lake union on the weekend. There is no mass transit in Jefferson County on Sundays, so we’ll be in Seattle until Monday.

There is still much work to be done: replacing coolant hoses, installed new fuel filter, replacing heater fan, to name three. Continue reading “Five weeks on the hard in Port Townsend’s Boat Haven”

Replacing Fuel Injectors

When we returned from our trip last fall, the engine had low power after we arrived at Port Ludlow, before we crossed Puget Sound through the canals and home.

I figured and, after speaking with our marina mate, Nate, decided that we had injector problem.

In late February of this year, I spoke with Rick at Seattle Injectors, the company that Nate suggested. They would have time to do our injectors the day after I dropped them off. Continue reading “Replacing Fuel Injectors”

Hemorrhaging money and getting back to Port Townsend

Today is the day we really start hemorrhaging money.

I ordered the copper coat: seven kits at $120 per kit are necessary to coat  CaroBabbo. It is a four-day process, however, this should be the last time I put a bottom on CaroBabbo. Continue reading “Hemorrhaging money and getting back to Port Townsend”

On Board on Lake Union

The journey from the Port Townsend house to Caro Babbo is two buses, then the ferry and a bus. Total cost in this direction: $5.75.

Door to door, it is about three and a half hours.

I was aboard last Wednesday on my way to Port Townsend from New York and nothing much had changed.

The purpose of being here this week is to get the boat ready to be moved to Boat Haven Marina in Port Townsend next week: Fixing the engine.

Continue reading “On Board on Lake Union”

The demise of the Taylors Stove?

‘‘ Jet A is nothing but kerosene,’’ was a statement that we received over and over again from pump jockeys on our Alaska trip. On the web all the sites I found before we left concurred, JET-A is nothing but kerosene.

[15-DEC-2019 – We eventually tracked all of the stove problems to using the wrong fuel. One MUST use 1-k Kerosene. Nothing else will work. Marine stores carry it, as do most home improvement stores like Home Depot and Lowes.]

However, all three burners on the stove had pretty much stopped working by the time we returned to Lake Union. John Gardner, from whom I bought the stove, had suggested that we not clean the burners as  suggested at the websites, and we did not. I came to believe that was the problem.

Continue reading “The demise of the Taylors Stove?”

There are no sailing seasons in the PNW, but there is sure a lot to buy before springtime arrives.

I don’t like to think of sailing as seasonal. Being seasonal is what I think of as differentiating east coast sailors from west coast sailor – 3000 miles, notwithstanding. We keep Caro Babbo in the water 12-months a year and enjoy winter sailing.

This year and last we decamped to Phoenix to work on a house there, making sailing seasonal, even if that was not our intent. Three months prepping a house, only to return to Seattle to spend months prepping the boat, delineates boating seasons as much as I would rather have sailed continuously. Continue reading “There are no sailing seasons in the PNW, but there is sure a lot to buy before springtime arrives.”