My last post left you with a teaser, now I have to deliver. Shortly after I finished the draft of the previous post, we had a little excitement that quickly became a problem. Let me tell you about it.
I had just finished off the draft as we enjoyed a nice ride south on the Delaware River. Since we had to be “turned” at the Delaware City Marina in order to get out, we were the last in the line of boats heading to Cape May. Just ahead I could see the Miah Maull Shoal light that would mark our turn toward Cape May and our final 17 miles for the day. In front of us a sonar boat was criss crossing the channel taking readings. That’s when we heard a noise. It took us a few seconds to realize that this was an alarm of some sort. “What’s that alarm?” Seemed to come from both of us. The alarm was somewhat faint and seemed distant. My first thought was that it was coming from the sonar boat, but that didn’t make sense that the crew on that boat would have to constantly listen to that noise. Tim jumped on the fact that the alarm was actually coming from our boat, from us! I took over the wheel while Tim ran below. As I glanced down at our instruments, I saw that the oil pressure on the starboard engine had dropped to 0. The temperature gauge was normal. Below, with the alarm blaring, Tim shut down the starboard engine then opened the door to the engine room and saw the bilge full of black oil and knew we had a big problem.
After reporting back to me, Tim returned to investigate further. He added 2 gallons of oil to the engine and started it. Oil sprayed out of the high pressure line that feeds the remote oil filters. Immediately he shut her down again. At least it started. Luckily Tim had a huge stash of oil absorbent pads and he began the messy cleanup process. This was a time when we were extremely grateful that we have two engines. The port engine did her job and got us into Cape May.
Secured in our slip, Tim found where the oil line had been chaffed and split. Now he had to get the sucker off and find a replacement. Finding the replacement wasn’t easy. The first two places Tim checked (referred to him by the marina) couldn’t help. He contacted Brian, the Harbor Host in Cape May, and he gave us a few more suggestions. As it was too late to call them, we had to wait until morning. Meanwhile I noticed a neighboring boat that looked familiar and had a hailing port of Houston. After talking with the people on board I found I had good reason to think I had seen the boat before. They are from Lazy Bend, the neighborhood right next to us in Clear Lake Shores. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner that night with Maridee and Mark Sandridge, Folie a Deux, at The Lobster House.
They headed north the next morning while Tim began the search for new hydrolic hoses and I continued the cleanup of the engine room. Fortunately, the first place Tim called was able to help and after a quick Uber ride, Tim returned gallantly displaying our new $800 hoses. Yes, we also thought that was pretty expensive. Turns out these hoses have very special, British fittings with British threads. That makes sense since our Perkins diesels are British. Within a few hours, we had the new hoses on and had done a pretty decent job of cleaning up the oily mess.
We took Subject to Change out for a couple hour sea trial to let her come up to temperature and found she checked out good. Yee Haw, we were back on the roll again.
So now we are off the coast of New Jersey. Behind us are Bob and Diane on a DeFever 44, Sea Cottage, and Rick and Linda Neilson who we met at AYB on Nautical Dreamer. The plan is to anchor at the Brigantine anchorage near Atlantic City and then get an early start for Sandy Hook. NYC here we come!