Pouf!

This morning I sailed out of Lake Sylvia and headed to Virginia Key. Well, I sailed out of Lake Sylvia alright. I merely entered  the chanel when I saw the smoke coming from my floor! I thought: OMG this is it! The boat is on fire or the engine bought it!

I opened the engine hatch and smoke came out. I heard vapor venting out of something. I stopped the engine and anchored outside the channel, at the intersection of the intracostal and New River.  Somehow I managed to anchor out of the way. I called SeaTow and started working on my engine.

I found the problem really fast. The nice thing about old diesel engines is that problems are often obvious. I had to take some insulation off and there it was, a disconnected pipe! The pipe corroded through it’s threads.

I was able to disassemble everything before the tow boat arrived. Somehow the fitting had not welded themselves to the engine. He got me back to Lake Sylvia and gave me a few tips. SeaTow is in my good book now.

burst pipe