We left Sarasota yesterday morning. Soon after we were in the ICW we had our next test in our adventure. While cruising along the engine suddenly reduced to idle power with no change in the throttle position and the transmission shifted to neutral. The engine would not respond to throttle changes. This is an electronic system so I reset the circuit breakers to attempt to regain control of the engine. That didn't work. I went to the Fly bridge and found that I could regain engine control by using the throttle quadrant located up there and we continued southbound. With the strong north breeze and the cool temperature it was cold up there! Sue and I bundled up to stay warm and tried to enjoy the scenery. There were numerous signs reminding us to be on the watch for Manatees and to sure to avoid them. However, we never did see any of the big sea creatures. About five hours later we turned up the channel to the Gaspirilla Marina ready to retreat to the warm cabin. I made some phone calls and found a Cummins service center in Ft Myers. We made arrangements for a service call this afternoon. The technician showed up and did some diagnostics on the engine but he couldn't come up with anything conclusive because the controls were now working properly. He swapped the upper and lower engine control units and planned on following up with us when we arrived in Ft Myers where we plan to be tomorrow. We have our fingers crossed. Just another phase of our adventure.
Ours will be the fourth North Pacific 43 in southern CT once we are back home. We had met all of the other owners before we bought our boat. We knew that one of the couples was going to be visiting friends in FL this week so we gave him a call as we traveled along the ICW. He said he would meet us in the marina after we arrived. Hard to believe but the friends they are staying with own a boat docked in the same marina we planned to be in and we tied up to a dock only a few boats away from theirs. We met and had happy hour and a debrief on our boat before going to dinner with them. We got together with all of them again today and dinner again tonight after the Cummins tech left. At dinner we decided that our CT friends would join us for the voyage from Placida to Ft Myers and their FL friends would pick them up and bring them back to Placida. It will be nice to have another NP 43 owner aboard to compare notes. They have had their boat four years and I'm sure Sue and I can learn from their experience.
Y'all stay vertical,
Capt'n John and First Mate Sue
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