At around 8:00 AM, Captain Mark and Sidekick Sue moved to the “blue line” for the lock in Smith Falls. They wanted to be first in line when the lock opened at 9:00 AM (or at least be in front of the “bumper boats” being rented to tourists across the canal). It turned out that they were the only ones in line, so they were quickly locked through. Right after the lock was a swing bridge that was also opened by the locktenders. The bridge seemed to be a major thoroughfare in Smith Falls with a steady stream of traffic, so the Explorers felt slightly guilty shutting it down so close to rush hour, but not TOO guilty since they had to wait for that traffic twice the night before during their walk (and Captain Mark waited twice more on his beer/ice run). Just two miles later, there was another lock, and passage was uneventful.
After the lock, the waterway changed significantly. Instead of a narrow canal, it turned into a series of connected lakes, with a channel marked by green and red buoys. This was to be their scenery for most of the day, which really led to an uninteresting day…. UNTIL… the Explorers experienced their first mechanical problem of the trip….. the diesel engine shuddered and shut down.
First, a little backstory….. when Captain Mark retired after a long career of field service in the oil and gas business, he declared that he was never going to work on a fuel system again. After coming home for many years smelling like fuel, oil, and other industrial liquids, he vowed it was over. He ripped the diesel engine and tank out of his Tayana sailboat and replaced it with a solar power system for the limited times when motoring is needed. However, a few years later, he learned about the “Great Loop” and got the urge to give it a go (in segments, over time, not one continuous loop). Realizing that a sailboat was not the best vessel for the job, he bought an old 1988 trawler and renamed it the Wayward Explorer. Of course, buying this trawler meant that Captain Mark was now back in the diesel engine business. But, it’s just ONE diesel engine, and he has already worked on it extensively…. commenting “it always starts on the first try” EVERY time. On this trip, the engine starting on the first try is a good thing because it has to stop and restart every time the Explorers dock or go through a lock.
Back to today’s story. As luck would have it, when the engine stalled, the Explorers were in a wide, open lake with relatively shallow water. The wind blew the vessel out of the marked channel, and Captain Mark dropped the anchor. This left the Explorers floating on anchor while Captain Mark quickly assessed the situation. When he opened the vent for the secondary fuel filters, he noticed a release of pressure indicating that there was air in the fuel system. He bled off the air, was able to restart the engine, let it run for 5 minutes and decided to pull up the anchor and keep moving. After only a mile (about 12 minutes), the engine stalled again. Once again, the Explorers were in relative safety in the middle of the lake and were able to anchor again. This time Captain Mark changed the primary fuel filters, bled off air, pulled the anchor up and headed out again.
The Explorers ran for another 6 miles. Sidekick Sue was in the cabin doing a little sewing when the engine rumbled to another stall. This time, they were in over 140’ of water, which was too deep to anchor. Sidekick Sue took watch on the front deck to keep an eye on the surroundings to make sure they weren’t going to hit anything or anyone, and she tracked their location on the Navionics app on her phone so she would know if water got shallow enough to anchor. Captain Mark, once again, tried to troubleshoot the fuel system. This time, he changed secondary fuel filters, bled the air, started the engine and they resumed their trip.
After 12 miles, they approached the next lock. Captain Mark, worried about stalling during the lock-through, asked the locktender for permission to keep the engine running. The locktender agreed.
The water level difference on either side of this lock was very small, and the Explorers noticed that the water was extremely choppy on the other side of the lock. The locktender said it was because after going through the lock, you are at the highest point of the lock system and the winds, which generally came from the west, always made this particular lake rough because there was nothing to shield from the wind. When the lock opened, the Wayward Explorer moved on, the rough water still not bad compared to some of the open waters in Albermale Sound and the Chesapeake Bay that they had experienced last year.
The Explorer had one more lock planned for the day before docking for the night in Newboro. As they approached, the lock doors were closed, so they pulled over to dock on the blue line and turned off the engine. The locktender approached and explained that they had another boat in the lock coming the other direction and they would open for us momentarily. With that, Captain Mark went to restart the engine…. and…. it wouldn’t start at all. We told the locktender we were having issues and told him not to hold the lock for us. Captain Mark bled the fuel lines (again), started the engine, asked permission (again) to leave the engine on, and made it through the lock. As the Explorers had reached the top of the lock system, this was the first lock to lower the boat. The Explorers realized that they would need to alter their “process” a little, as the cables were too low to reach. Going forward, sidekick Sue will have to jump off the boat to thread the lines through the cables, and fend the boat off the wall until the fenders are below the wall. Luckily, the locktenders at this top lock must see this every day, and they were prepared to step in and help.
After the lock, the Wayward Explorers found plenty of available dock space and picked a spot away from other folks so they could run their generator to make dinner. First, they took a walk into the small down about a half mile away. There was a wonderful “department store” that looked like a typical tourist town general store, but it was HUGE, even having departments like men’s clothes, lady’s clothes, shoes, furniture, toys, a small grocery, etc. The Explorers splurged on some traditional tourist fudge, walked home, cooked and ate dinner (and fudge).
The docking area is a very nice one. It has a park with picnic tables, grills and restroom facilities. There is a large group of scouts camping on the other side of the lock. While Captain Mark started some serious trouble-shooting of the fuel system, Sidekick Sue went to take care of the recyclables and look for a water spigot (success). Now, with time to troubleshooting thoroughly and thoughtfully, Captain Mark almost immediately found a loose fuel hose fitting on the suction side of the fuel pump which would have been allowing air into the fuel system. He tightened it, bled the air (again), and started the engine on the first try. He is 99% sure this is source of today’s mechanical challenges. Tomorrow will be a great test of that hypothesis. He finished his chores by adding a few more containers of water to the water tank, and celebrated with a relaxing beer on the flybridge.
