If it taint one thing, it is another!

Gosh, what a day on Friday, September 12.  We slept late, until 6:30 or so, but we were leaving the Lansing Municipal Marina by 8 AM.  We had passed on the Tiki Bar in Lansing the night before.  When we walked by the Tiki Bar, there were three guys drinking beers and "talking about wimin" . 

The day dawned rainy and cold.  As we prepared to leave, Tim checked the weather forecast.  The high for the day was to be 57 degrees, and it was much colder than that!  We have a new sport on the boat, and that is the same as dumpster diving.  It is locker diving.  We have storage areas underneath the bed, the settees, the lazarettes (the sitting places in the cockpit).  So everything that one wants needs to move other things.  Tim locker dove to get our foul weather pants. Do note... Kathy still has on her pearl earrings!

 

We proceeded to Lock #9.  We entered the lock right away.  The Lockmaster was a kick of a woman who informed us of a couple of things.  First of all, I think she would have preferred to have us float in the pool of water, but Tim chose to tie up.  She also told us that sailboats have preference in the locks over "pleasure boats".  That was good to know. And then we left the lock.

 

200 yards from the lock and dam, our engine started to have cooling problems.  There was smoke coming out of the exhaust, and there was no cooling water coming from the exhaust, as it should have been. And the engine temperature was overheating.  Tim shut down the motor.  And we navigated for awhile by keeping the boat in the channel using the current and the wind.  Tim checked the raw water filter whose job it is to filter the water coming into the engine.  It was ripe with duckweed and other plant life  (duckweed is  this green slime that floats on the river,  so the river often looks like a swamp).  We started the engine, got some water through, but not enough, and the engine continued to overheat.    Again, we coasted, fearful that a bunch of barges would come up our way through the channel.

 

Kathy spotted some docks and boats on the  eastern side of the river, so we alternately coasted, started the motor, coasted...and got in 12 feet of water, near this little conclave of RVs and homes.  Tim set the anchor and went down below to check more options.  Kathy stayed in the cockpit to make certain that the boat didn't drift.  And the rain continued. As did the win,

 

Tim went through all sorts of investigations to determine the problem. 

 

He looked at the impellor (the thing that makes water go through the system.)  NO NO, not that. 

He checked hoses to see if they were clogged, checked the filter...NO NO.  Finally, he checked the seacock (a valve on the bottom of the boat that lets in water),  and when he opened it, it should have spouted like a fountain.  But NO NO, only a dribble came out.  The water intake was totally clogged from the outside of the boat.  Tim, not liking getting wet and not wanting to dive below the boat in 2.5 knots of current,  found another solution.  He used his Dad's old flyswatter with a wire handle to force the crud out of the water intake.  That cleared the debris. When we started the motor, lo and behold, water came out of the exhaust port...as well as more vegetation.  But we were operational!  We lost about 2 hours of our travel time.

 

We were both afraid that the Yanmar motor, noted for its reliability, had failed.  And that there, in Northern Iowa, our trip was done.  But Tim "McGiver" Bitney fixed the problem.  It was a scary time.

 



The box of Yanmar motor parts

Duckweed from the water filter

Tearing apart the motor



We navigated to Lock #10, in Guttenburg, Iowa.  As we approached the lock, the sun came out...first sun in a few days.  The guy who came down to help us dock told us of the happenings in town.  One of the things he suggested was a 2 mile walk along the river to view the river.  We allowed as how we had already seen it.

 

Today, Saturday, in Guttenburg, there is a classic car show.  300 classic cars will line the streets and adorn the fairgrounds.  We are tempted to stay and walk through town...especially as the temperature is 37 degrees.  But I guess that we will be off by 8:30 to get to Dubuque by noon.  The National Mississippi River Museum is there, and it is supposed to be amazing.  And its about time to do the laundry.  Such is life on Sea Fever.

 

Thanks for reading.