Leaving Knoxville for south Florida on a 4788

Yep I think golf just took another step down. And she just got a new driver. Lol

Ok one more but we gotta get across this pond before dark.

Sorry guys she's not gonna want ta go shopping with the girls. She's coming with us. So much for getting sea sick. Her an Chloe either were bothered by the motions.

We made great time except for the little bit I had to go 9mph and shift to neutral when she started screaming. About 3/4 of the way my port engine started slowing down and speeding up. Well I let it go a minute but I knew what it was. Fuel filters. I should have changed them at anchor before trying to cross 160 miles.

I had Bonnie keep her into the waves and on coarse with the one engine while I changed both fuel filters on the port side. It slowed us maybe another hour after prep and getting the job done. Bonnie did great I didn't hit my head or roll to bad. Might be a first mate if she can just learn to tie a knot.

We have black every where on the Stearn. I'm not sure if it's the engines smoking or maybe from running the generator at anchor. It's bad tho and everywhere aft

Catching fish is cool and all but balls out on plane is more fun. Maybe Ski can help diagnose the soot.

Greetings,
"...black every where on the Stearn" Tuna poop?

David Carter said:

As we were going out to our starting point and trying to find the markers in the fog. Wouldn't ya know it there was two outta the three that left coming back. I saw a loopers flag but they can't be loopers. Really...

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One thing some of the slow boat (overnight) loopers do is head out to the starting point and set a bread crumb trail so they can follow it back out when they start the trip. This helps if the fog is bad when they plan to leave for real. That may have been what you were seeing.

Sorry for being late to this thread, would have liked to say hi as you were heading through Gulf Shores. We're going to be here till January before heading west into Louisiana for a few months. We completed the loop this fall and are now slowing down to enjoy more time in favorite places.

Have a great time out there and keep the posts coming!

Almost certain to be the genny. I have the same boat and at anchor, on a still night, she will get soot on the stern and that's with a brand new genny.

Good Morning Capt. Dave. Love following your adventures since leaving TM. Sitting on Twilight Time here at Blue Turtle Bay Marina for a few days doing boat chores. How long has Chloe been on board? Where do you plan on spending Christmas? Stay safe.

My genny only had 50 hrs when we started. So pretty new. I'll probably check those injectors tomorrow also.

Bob. Chloe came on in Destin. Bonnie got off in a rents car at one stop went home for a day got her and came back to the next stop. They both did very well on the crossing. Chloe is 4 and by 16 she'll be ready for her Captains license

David Carter said:

My genny only had 50 hrs when we started. So pretty new. I'll probably check those injectors tomorrow also.

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Should be pretty easy to check the smoke, can you run without the genny for while, after cleaning off the stern??

It's good you changed the on engine filter plus the primary R120p. I got caught changing the primary and not the on engine. Yuck!! How long has the engine/s run since you left 150 hrs maybe. Bum fuel, maybe some Sh.t in the tanks. Get plenty of spares of both.

As an aside, I took my boat for a run the other day and noticed the EGT was higher in one engine over 2000 revs. I pulled the aftercooler core and sure enough it appeared to be clogged. So cleaned that and in process of refitting. So while there is no black smoke, the engines can be working much harder hotter than they should even though the coolant temps don't show it. 500 hours/5 yrs so keep an eye on those and the million other things.

Look forward to your next exciting post . Cheers

Dave,
Brian said you are looking for a place to leave the boat over Christmas. You are more than welcome to use our dock. We will be gone 12/22-12/28 but no worries here and you can fly back on Allegiant. 18 miles to the airport.

We pulled 5 injectors outta the port engine All five need to be replaced. So I didn't even check the others I just ordered 12 new ones. After watching the testing I understand where all the smoke was coming from.
Buying a boat with only 300 hrs in 15 years has its problems.

captn. bob said:

Dave,

Brian said you are looking for a place to leave the boat over Christmas. You are more than welcome to use our dock. We will be gone 12/22-12/28 but no worries here and you can fly back on Allegiant. 18 miles to the airport.

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Thanks bob. We have a month in bradington. We plan to come to ft Myers in mid January. I hope to get a slip at the legacy marina.

You might want to consider fuel polishing at this point as well unless it has already been done or at least sucking the junk and water from the bottom of the tanks.

Are you staying at Twin Dolphin Marina in Bradenton?
We'll be back down there from Cold Crossville, TN after Christmas.
Hope to run into you there.


Wm Mayberry
OPTIMYSTIQUE
Mariner 40


Boat is nice and warm in Marathon
We are Freezing in Tennessee

If and when you get to the keys look at staying at harbour Cay club.org . We are in active capt and looper net. Many have stay as they go thru the keys .

We're leaving about 1/15 to head further south. A stop in ft myers for sure.

Merry Christmas. Hope all is well. We miss you back here at TM.

Capt. Bob

We made it to ft Myers and had a great month.
Sorry I haven't kept up with the blog. lll try to put more on. We made a crossing straight to key west. This is what dreams are made of. More later

I wish I could post videos. I've taken some great ones with my drone

A drone photo at the miserable mile in Ft Myers

We had dolphins playing in our wake between burnt store marina and Ft Myers beach. My granddaughter had a great day.

View attachment 1

That's weird someone else's picture came onto my blog

These are from a video I took on the Stearn.

The dolphin photos reminded me of something. Every time you take someone new or different with you, as they get to see things the first time, you get to experience thaqt seeing for the first time feeling again. Dolphins will never become old, but I'm sure sharing them with your granddaughter took the pleasure of seeing them much higher.