Well, this is unfortunate...

I had some more engine work done on Friday. The mechanics was happy that he had solved all my problems. We went out today to take advantage of the nice weather.

The engine started just fine, the old pressure came up and we motored out of our harbor. We are deep in the harbor and it is a no wake zoom so it takes a good 15-20 minutes to get out. Things were fine and I throttled up to about 1800 rpm and we were cruising along nicely for about 10 minutes. Then the oil pressure alarm went off.

I throttled back and got pointed away from the shore (was hugging the shore to get a back eddy) and then **** it down. Everything looked fine in the ER but a check of the dipstick showed what looks to me like a lot of fuel in the oil.

Tried to start it up again and the oil pressure only came to 10psi. I for a few minutes at idle in gear to get me into some deeper water and then **** it down again.

Called BoatUS for a tow but they are busy on this hot and sunny day. They should be here in about 1.5 hours. I am drifting South currently in a back eddy in 70 ( make that 50 and shallowing quickly) feet of water. If the current doesn't kick me back towards the main channel I will have to drop the anchor.

At least my wife made me a sandwich.

Wow,
the fact that you can maintain your composure, post a topic here and eat a sandwich is a testament to your experience. I used to live in Gig harbor and know what kind of currents you have in the Narrows.
I would be pumping out my sanitary tank and the wife would be testing out the flare gun.

Hang in there Dave and hope for the best! I would have already put out the anchor then filled the aft head.

Lunasea said:

Wow,
the fact that you can maintain your composure, post a topic here and eat a sandwich is a testament to your experience. I used to live in Gig harbor and know what kind of currents you have in the Narrows.
I would be pumping out my sanitary tank and the wife would be testing out the flare gun.

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Well, you know where we are. There is a large ebb right now, about 5 knots. The is a back eddy South of the harbor between the Gig Harbor entrance and Pt Evans. We are caught in that back eddy. Normally it would simply spit us into the main channel at Pt Evans.my only concern is that a North wind has kicked up and is pushing us towards the shallower water at Pt Evans.

Other than that, drifting around going where the current takes me is something I am used to from sailing these water in smallish sailboats with flaky outboards.

Is the oil level high? Is that how you are determining there is fuel in it? Does it smell too?

Assuming it is fuel in the oil, the likely causes would be a failed seal in the injection pump system. Has any of the recent work involved those parts? Oh, you had the injectors replaced, right? In some configurations, leaks there can run into the oil, but I don' know if that's the case with the QSB.

The good news is that the engine alarmed and you shut down before any damage was likely done.

Well... I had to drop the anchor. The shore here is very steep and I started to let the anchor out on about 26' of water. I put 100' of chain out but didn't want too much swing because I am close the shore.

The anchor caught and held. Then about 15 minutes later the current shifted as the eddy changed. We swung towards the shore with about 10' under our stern and are now being pulled to the North. Fortunately, the anchor reset very quickly.

Have I mentioned I like my Excel anchor? I would not have been doing as well with the CQR that was on here.

The current is switching back and forth. Each time the anchor has to reset. Getting more and more interesting.

Yikes. I'm sure you thought of this, but can you deploy a stern anchor?

Wow Dave,
This just sucks!
You are a calmer man than I...
Bruce

can you use the dink to carry the anchor out to deeper water...then winch yourself out there ?

Low slack about now but flood beginning and a 16 foot tidal swing over the next several hours. In the channel you will be going the equivalent of 8 knots in place. I sure hope your tow comes soon and admire your calmness in light of that situation. I would be nuts.

Good luck to you. I wish I was in the area to drag you away from that bank.

Good luck Dave . Hope it all works out .

Well, Tow BoatUS made it. There were mere inches under the stern. H= got us towed back and into my slip. He did a great job, particularly considering it was a new boat and wasn't completely setup yet.

I've decided that having a boat that can't actually go anywhere isn't too bad.


And in case you didn't spot it, a nice Rum & Coke to relax with.

Wifey B: Impressed with how you handle stress. It's like, I can't do anything about it so I'll just relax. Thank goodness for tow boats.

BandB said:

Wifey B: Impressed with how you handle stress. It's like, I can't do anything about it so I'll just relax. Thank goodness for tow boats.

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Yes, thank goodness for them. I am sure that if I had called a Pan Pan, one of the many boaters that were going up and down the sound would have given me a tow away from the rocks. I also was prepared to start up the engine to move us if needed.

I did noticed that a lot of boaters seemed curious about us so they would make a close pass. Of course, they wouldn't slow down at all so all I could see were these huge wakes coming when my stern was already sitting very close to the bottom. I swear that some boaters just can't seem to remember that their throttle can actually be adjusted, even if they aren't within a line toss of a dock.

I think the Tow Boat driver was ex USCG. Youngish guy, but he mentioned to my wife as were trying to get through a gaggle of paddle boarders (who thought that the center of the main harbor channel was a good place to hang out in the sun) that in his prior job he would be writing citations for not having a PFD on board.

Didn't strike me as a former LEO so my guess was USGC.

Rum fixes many issues. Another story to tell...

But seriously, you handled that with amazing aplomb.

Benthic2 said:

can you use the dink to carry the anchor out to deeper water...then winch yourself out there ?

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I missed this suggestion at the time, along with Cardude's, but I can't figure out how to multi-quote on the iPad.

Cardude, if I had another anchor, that would be an option. Unfortunately, I don't. However, on my list is getting a folding anchor and rode to use as a Sapir. Currently, I have those but they are on my sailboat.

In this situation it could have been useful, however, I would have to know that was going to happen ahead of time. The reversing current caught me by surprise. I didn't realize that I was at the frontier between the main current and ebb. It kept moving back and forth and the wind was blowing toward shore. If I'd had a stern anchor, I could have let out 300' of rode on the initial set as I was being carried parallel to shore. I then could have dropped a stern anchor and taken up half that rode to ride between the two. Even if I had a stern anchor, I'm not sure I would have trusted putting out all that rode when I was so close to shore.

Benthic, I could have done that, but only if I had another anchor as I was hanging on that one anchor to keep me from drifting. Plus, this is an open channel 1.25 nm accross with a 5kt current in the main channel and lots of large wakes. In those conditions it is not something I would want to undertake unless desperate, and I never was desperate.

Both very good ideas however and I appreciate them.

Surprisingly, I just helped handle dock lines for a sailboat that was being towed in by the same Tow Boat driver as brought us in. He had never been to our marina before but now has been here twice in one day. This time it was a sailboat with water in the fuel.

Great story. Glad it turned out so well. Kudos for staying calm and rational.

If you'd only had twin engines or anchors! .......... ...but at least you had BoatUS towing. I wouldn't boat without it.

Is your dinghy motor strong enough to be used as a tug to push against the hull to shift the boat away from shore? I've moved a 48 footer with my dink (15 hp) in benign conditions to get him out of a tight cove with one engine inop. At the time, there were 5 other boats to avoid in our tiny secret cove...not that secret, I now that I think about it.

I'm sure your conditions were far from benign on the sound.

PS. Why did the sailboat need to be towed? Were his sails broken, too?

We didn't have the RIB with us, just the hard dinghy. The only dinghy motor we have at the boat right now is the Torqeedo. It has approximately 4 hp. It could move our boat in now wind and current, but no way to budge it again the wind and current we had.

The conditions were pretty benign all things considered. Not too much wind and so not much in the way of wind waves. With the 5 knots of current in the Narrrows where we were, there are always some pretty impressive chop from the swirling currents.

The sailboat was coming into Gig Harbor entrance when their motor quiet. It was a very low tide today (-3.5') and the entrance has a pretty strong current and is very narrow and extremely shallow. The current spit them out of the entrance and they were able to drop anchor. While it is possible to sail into the harbor, it isn't possible against the current at low tide with the wind coming out of the North.

Capt. Well done.

Last Tango said:

Capt. Well done.

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Thanks, but not really. I just managed to not completely screw up and was fortunate.

In retrospect, I think I should have dropped the anchor sooner. I should have dropped the anchor at 50-60'. I knew the shore was very steep. I waited until I had about 26' of water which put me too close to shore.

Instead of a rum & coke I would have filled my glass with engine oil to see if I could get any fuel to separate out. My first instinct would have been a failed oil pump. But smelling fuel would indicate injectors either out of time or orifices too large and washing fuel past the rings. Curious about the cause of unplanned afternoon of leisure.

I anchored north of the Panama Canal, Pacific side. Single handling and tired. Dropped the hook in 21 fsw

Slept and woke up with Mai Tai in breaking waters. I was Blessed to get my ground tackle back.

That sounds like a not too fun day Dave, sorry that happened, it sucks. But as you say, could have been worse. You done allright, got the boat home, no injury or damage. Now to have a chat with the mechanic fella!

Yes, Dave, kudos for your calmness. And yes, it might have paid to drop anchor a bit sooner, but hindsight is great. Now we are all agog as to what the issue turns out to be. The thing against your diagnosis re the low oil pressure is such a low pressure. Even if contaminated with diesel oil, one would still not expect such a huge drop - ie, enough to set off the low pressure alarm. What was the dipstick level..?

Diluted oil absolutely can cause low oil pressure. It also can wreck crankshaft and rod bearings. If injectors were replaced, could have been an error in the supply or return lines under rocker cover.

Ski in NC said:

Diluted oil absolutely can cause low oil pressure. It also can wreck crankshaft and rod bearings. If injectors were replaced, could have been an error in the supply or return lines under rocker cover.

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+1

Who was the last guy who worked on injectors and/or fuel system?

Well handled Dave.

..though IIRC that boat seems very comfortable on the rocks. You missed another photo-op.

SoWhat said:

Instead of a rum & coke I would have filled my glass with engine oil to see if I could get any fuel to separate out. My first instinct would have been a failed oil pump. But smelling fuel would indicate injectors either out of time or orifices too large and washing fuel past the rings. Curious about the cause of unplanned afternoon of leisure.

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I am curious as well. I have had a 6 months of engine trouble, all starting with a problem of my own making. A short recap;

In January I changed the charger on my engine battery and then forgot about that. A couple weeks later when we next ran the boat the engine was running very rough.

Got a mechanic out to check it out. Three visits, a new lift pump, and 6+ weeks later I gave up on that shop (their Cummins Tech was out on an L&I claim).

Called Cummins Northwest, they replaced the fuel pump actuator, all six injectors, and still the problem persisted (the engine simply ran poorly better than it had before). When the mechanic disconnected the alternator and the problem got a bit better, I finally remembered the charger. When it was disconnected the problem disappeared.

Next time we used the boat it ran better than it has ever run, but after a while it would smoke. Still ran well (not as efficient) and no issues with oil pressure or temps.

Mechanic came back Friday and we took it out for a sea trial and he found that one injector was returning a lot more fuel than it should. He corrected that (he thought the tube that feed the fuel into the side of the injector hadn't seated fully) and being as it was late at this point, we called it good. BTW, he along with every other mechanic on the boat checked the oil each time they were on the boat.

Sunday, no smoke, no problems, until the oil pressure dropped.