All right, so that thinga-ma-bob was indeed a tachometer sending unit. When I removed it the brittle sealed wires immediately broke off, so there wasn’t much work to be done in trying to fix it. I’ve seen this thing all along and always just assumed it was an oil pressure gauge or something along those lines, so never gave it much thought. Always figured a tach would have to come off the alternator. Anyway, I’ll order up a new one and hey, who knows, by next season I may actually know what RPMs I’m running at. For now I’m just going to throttle it back a bit.
We’ve been social butterflies lately, meeting up with lots of Bum friends. And yesterday I was walking down the street with Ouest when a couple riding by on bikes stopped and asked, “Pat?” Turns out we had gone out to dinner with them in Brisbane, Australia some eight years ago. A few months ago they finally did it themselves—got the boat and sailed off. The more we travel the smaller the world becomes.
There’s an Aussie family next to us here at the marina that bought a boat just a few weeks ago, spent a couple weeks on the hard working on it, then a couple more in the marina, and are now about to head off across the Pacific. The guy has been working non-stop on his engine, fixing one thing after another in an effort to get it in top shape. He hasn’t had much luck though. Every time he starts it up a cloud of white smoke envelops us all. This morning when he fired her up there was more of the same.
“Reckon I might have a blown head gasket,” he said.
“Bummer man, what are you going to do?” I asked.
“We’re gonna go, mate.”
I love it. Too many people need everything just right before taking off to do anything. This guy is like, the hell with it, we’ll get where we’re going with a smoky motor, and if we don’t then we’ll use the sails like the boat is meant to do.
8 Comments on “Small World”
Yeah right. Like “I’ll just enter (engineless) the narrowish (upwind) entrance to Papeete harbor and make it over under sail in my crabcusher to the quay, or perhaps continue down past the airport to mavea beach”.
Oh and it’s not like I depend on an alternator (powdered by the motor) for charging the batteries that run darn near everything.
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That’s one reason I don’t monitor VHF16. Why put oneself at risk to help out those who assume “she’ll be right mate”.
The guy has abundant and reasonably priced resources available to him in LaPaz yet seems intent on eschewing that for immediate gratification. Kool …. yeah, go for it Dude.
Pretty much proves my point. There are those that do, and are willing to accept some amount of risk, and there are those that don’t, who will not accept any risk.
This guy and his wife are circumnavigators already fifteen years ago. Now they’ve got a new boat, a 43 Morgan with a huge solar array, negating any need for an alternator to charge his batteries. He’s also got a home built “tow charger” made out of a length of pipe, an old outboard prop, and who knows what else. He was quite proud of it as it had been their sole means of alternative battery charging on their first trip around.
He’s not so stupid that he’d attempt to sail into Tahiti without a motor, unless conditions were right. Remember, there are other islands in the South Pacific. Moorea rings a bell, just a few miles from Tahiti.
Not to mention a smokey engine is not the end of the world. After doing a bunch of different things to the engine he thinks maybe it’s a blown head gasket. Something he didn’t want to get into right now. I’m sure it’ll handle getting into and out of a few anchorages just fine.
Anyway, I liked the guy and I liked his attitude. He was far more a sailor than I’ll ever be, and I’m certain that he won’t be calling out on Ch. 16, “Help me, help me, I can’t charge my iPad because my engine won’t start.”
Not there’s anything WRONG with ipads……lol
Magic
As an ex-truck driver, I can remember the days when you took the truck to the shop if it DIDN’T blow a little white smoke. As the older diesels were built to burn a little oil to protect the pistons. This is why drivers ‘pre-tripped’ their tractors, they always needed oil. As long as he keeps checking oil level…all should be okay. Heck, my current boat motor smokes at start up, it is a good sign that oil is covering the pistons and not sitting in the pan at start up.
Kudos on finding your tach problem!
Sometimes white smoke can be a stuck ring/low compression.And sometimes running the snot out of it under a load can clear up a lot of ills. Good Luck Mate !!
PS get a file in your spare time, worry the rivets off your KEY driven tach generator and solder in new wires…may solve your problem too. Perhaps alocal gizmo fixer can fix you up. Good Luck Mate !!
It’s very common for older diesels to smoke heavily when started and then run cleanly when warmed up. Perkins, Lehman and Detroit diesels have that tendency.
If it is a blown head gasket running the engine will likely overheat and destroy it completely at some point, the white smoke in these cases comes from coolant leaking into the cylinders.
I am a ‘lets go NOW fly by the seat of my pants and it always works out’ kinda gal married to a ‘everything must be perfect and orderly and did I mention perfect’ Captain Perfecto. Frustrating at times, but I’ve learned a lot about patience. Mixed marriages can be awesome. 🙂