We pulled up the anchor in time to make the 0815 opening of the Memorial draw bridge in Daytona Beach. The WX was good but we were going against a strong tide and light choppy seas for most of the day. About an hour into our voyage we experienced the same old electronic engine control problems I thought had been repaired at great expense. The engine went to idle and came out of gear. I went through a quick reboot of the system and the controls came back on line for about ten minutes before it went belly up again. This time the controls did not come back on line and we were drifting out of the ICW due to the wind and current. I was able to get the anchor down in time to stop the boat before we drifted too far out of the channel. We were in keel deep water when we stopped. I tried re booting several times to no avail. I remembered that years ago my sister told that when all else fails, read the directions so I got out the manual to find that I had already done all that I could have done under the circumstances. At this point I relented and put in a call to TOW BOAT US. After giving the dispatcher all of the necessary information I was put on hold. While waiting I attempted to reboot the system and of course it came back on line. I canceled the tow boat, crossed my fingers and continued underway. While enroute I made several calls to Cummins Diesel, the manufacturer of the control system to find that there were to technicians available to do diagnostic testing until next week. So we decided to press on. We are now at a marina adjacent to St Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S., after a very long day. The adverse current was with us most of the day and we set a record for the most fuel consumed in a day during or adventure (except the overnight Gulf crossing). The forecast is for strong winds tomorrow and moderate chop in the ICW. We decided to spend tomorrow doing boat chores and shopping to restock supplies for the galley here in St Augustine.
Tonight we went to dinner with the couple we were with on New Year's eve in Panama City and have met several times since during our aventure. After dinner we walked around the old section of St Augustine to enjoy the sights and act like tourists. Tomorrow we will do ore of the same.
Y'all stay vertical,
Capt John and First Mate Sue
John, I'm going to guess it's your circuit board.
ReplyDeleteKidding -- I have not a clue! I just know that over the past four weeks, sometimes our furnace would work and sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes if I reset it, it would work and sometimes not. So the guy came out and it worked... and then it didn't (Ah Hah! Sorry, my weak sense of self feels better when the "fix-it-guy" can actually see the problem). In the end, new circuit board.
So, that's my current solution to all problems.
A new circuit board.