We awoke to sun filled blue skies and temperatures already in the low 70s. This was going to be an awesome day…little did we know. With a minus tide of just over 2 feet, and our bottom almost touching the marina floor, we decided to do some work on the boat and figured that by 2pm, the tide would be in enough for us to make our way over to the Friday Harbor Marina for our next stop.
I worked down below going though our various storage areas to re-organize some things in order to stow some stuff that was cluttering up the place and wasn’t being used all that often. Lysa worked above cleaning the vinyl seats with this great conditioner that made them look almost new.
Just before 2:00 we had finished our work and the tide was in well enough for us to be on our way. With Lysa ready to untie us from the dock, I went to fire up the starboard (right) engine, and that’s when the fun began. As I turned the key, the engine cranked, but would not start. I then tried the port (left) engine, which started right up. So, I turned off the port engine and then tried the starboard engine once again with the same results.
We called our mechanic in Seattle, who could only recommend that we check a few things that may be the cause of the problem such as the coil, distributor and electrical harness that are all tied into the process of starting and running the engine. After checking a few things with our limited knowledge on engines, we decided to try and find some local help in getting the engine started. While I went to the marina office to inquire about contact information for a local mechanic, Lysa canvassed the docks to see if any boaters could help us figure this out.
Sally, the marina manager told me there were no marine mechanics on the island that she knew of, but she recalled allowing “a guy” who works on boats, to leave his business card in the laundry room. As I went to retrieve the card from the laundry room, Lysa found someone on the dock who was willing to at least take a look. Hillary (I’ll never make fun of guys with girl’s names ever again), was up in the San Juans with a group of friends from Gig Harbor and has experience working on his 34’ Silverton Flybridge boat.
As “we” worked (I sat and watched, while handing the occasional tool to Hillary) to figure out why our engine would not start, he determined that we were not getting any spark from our coil to the distributor. By then an older gentleman who Hillary referred to only as the “professor” arrived to take a look. To test the possible theory of the coil being bad, Hillary switched the coil from the other engine. With that done, we again tried to start the engine, but for some reason it still would not start.
So, with the coil being ruled out as the cause, a few other things were switched over (something called the ignition amplifier and coil wires) in the process of elimination that is usually part of the electrical diagnosis process, all without success. By now, two more of Hillary’s friends had joined us to offer input on things we had already tried. After nearly 3 hours, everyone was out of possible reasons for the problem given the parts we had switched from the “working” engine did not work on the non-working engine, but the parts we moved from the non-working engine, performed just fine on the port engine, which started right up with the “suspect” parts from the little engine that couldn’t.
Now it was time to call the mechanic, whose card I removed from the laundry room. It was nearly 5:30 when we reached Bill, who was in the process of towing a boat to Anacortes for repairs and said he could “swing” by on his way back to Roche Harbor. He arrived just before 8:00 that night and proceeded checking some wires while we recanted the efforts of Hillary and company earlier in the day.
Within 10-15 minutes of tinkering with some wires, Bill instructed Lysa to try and start the engine by giving it very little throttle and being prepared to shut it down immediately. With that, Lysa turned the key and behold, the engine fired right up! Within a second of this triumphant turn of events, there was a loud explosion as a fireball erupted from a large cylindrical object just below where Bill was perched while Lysa started the engine.
Once everyone recovered from the unexpected 4th of July display coming from the engine compartment of our boat, Bill explained that two little wires at the base of the distributors had come loose and all he did was to tighten them using his fingers to fix the problem. Just two stinkin’ little wires that were missed while looking for something “bigger” being the problem.
As for the resulting explosion, Bill said that because we had attempted to start the engine so many times without it working, there was a build up of gas in the exhaust system that caused our muffler to blow up. Good to know. Now the boat is really out of commission, as we need to replace or possibly repair the muffler before we can run the engine. The term “out of the frying pan and into the fire” instantly came to mind when given this latest bit of news.
So, between the cost of getting the Reaper back up and running, and the time it will take (1-2 days) to make the repair, we’re looking to make some major revisions to our trip plans and the bulk of our visit to Canada will have to be cancelled. As I write this update, Bill has informed us that he’s been unable to locate a replacement muffler for our boat and will have to perform a repair to the Fiberglas of the exploded muffler. This will involve him towing us over to Roche Harbor, where he has the equipment to make such a repair and where we’ll be for the next 2-3 days.
I’m a firm believer that all things happen for a reason and now that I can reflect back on yesterday’s events, I can see the positives that came from two stinkin’ little wires coming loose from our distributor. First, had we not decided to stay put with the change in the weather, we would have been stuck in Blind Bay or some other cove in which we decided to anchor for the night.
The decision to stay in Blakely Island not only allowed us to be “somewhere” when our engine failed to start, but also gave us the opportunity to once again validate the kindness of our fellow boaters given the help we were able to obtain by just asking. It also showed us that there are people who like Bill, who came to look at our boat after what must have been a very long day and who was able to get right to the problem, even if that did lead to a much bigger issue in terms of cost and delay in assuming our “plans”. The main thing is that no one was hurt and we met some great people who just wanted to help. So, I guess it did turn out to be an awesome day after all…and I finally got my ice cream.
I worked down below going though our various storage areas to re-organize some things in order to stow some stuff that was cluttering up the place and wasn’t being used all that often. Lysa worked above cleaning the vinyl seats with this great conditioner that made them look almost new.
Just before 2:00 we had finished our work and the tide was in well enough for us to be on our way. With Lysa ready to untie us from the dock, I went to fire up the starboard (right) engine, and that’s when the fun began. As I turned the key, the engine cranked, but would not start. I then tried the port (left) engine, which started right up. So, I turned off the port engine and then tried the starboard engine once again with the same results.
We called our mechanic in Seattle, who could only recommend that we check a few things that may be the cause of the problem such as the coil, distributor and electrical harness that are all tied into the process of starting and running the engine. After checking a few things with our limited knowledge on engines, we decided to try and find some local help in getting the engine started. While I went to the marina office to inquire about contact information for a local mechanic, Lysa canvassed the docks to see if any boaters could help us figure this out.
Sally, the marina manager told me there were no marine mechanics on the island that she knew of, but she recalled allowing “a guy” who works on boats, to leave his business card in the laundry room. As I went to retrieve the card from the laundry room, Lysa found someone on the dock who was willing to at least take a look. Hillary (I’ll never make fun of guys with girl’s names ever again), was up in the San Juans with a group of friends from Gig Harbor and has experience working on his 34’ Silverton Flybridge boat.
As “we” worked (I sat and watched, while handing the occasional tool to Hillary) to figure out why our engine would not start, he determined that we were not getting any spark from our coil to the distributor. By then an older gentleman who Hillary referred to only as the “professor” arrived to take a look. To test the possible theory of the coil being bad, Hillary switched the coil from the other engine. With that done, we again tried to start the engine, but for some reason it still would not start.
So, with the coil being ruled out as the cause, a few other things were switched over (something called the ignition amplifier and coil wires) in the process of elimination that is usually part of the electrical diagnosis process, all without success. By now, two more of Hillary’s friends had joined us to offer input on things we had already tried. After nearly 3 hours, everyone was out of possible reasons for the problem given the parts we had switched from the “working” engine did not work on the non-working engine, but the parts we moved from the non-working engine, performed just fine on the port engine, which started right up with the “suspect” parts from the little engine that couldn’t.
Now it was time to call the mechanic, whose card I removed from the laundry room. It was nearly 5:30 when we reached Bill, who was in the process of towing a boat to Anacortes for repairs and said he could “swing” by on his way back to Roche Harbor. He arrived just before 8:00 that night and proceeded checking some wires while we recanted the efforts of Hillary and company earlier in the day.
Within 10-15 minutes of tinkering with some wires, Bill instructed Lysa to try and start the engine by giving it very little throttle and being prepared to shut it down immediately. With that, Lysa turned the key and behold, the engine fired right up! Within a second of this triumphant turn of events, there was a loud explosion as a fireball erupted from a large cylindrical object just below where Bill was perched while Lysa started the engine.
Once everyone recovered from the unexpected 4th of July display coming from the engine compartment of our boat, Bill explained that two little wires at the base of the distributors had come loose and all he did was to tighten them using his fingers to fix the problem. Just two stinkin’ little wires that were missed while looking for something “bigger” being the problem.
As for the resulting explosion, Bill said that because we had attempted to start the engine so many times without it working, there was a build up of gas in the exhaust system that caused our muffler to blow up. Good to know. Now the boat is really out of commission, as we need to replace or possibly repair the muffler before we can run the engine. The term “out of the frying pan and into the fire” instantly came to mind when given this latest bit of news.
So, between the cost of getting the Reaper back up and running, and the time it will take (1-2 days) to make the repair, we’re looking to make some major revisions to our trip plans and the bulk of our visit to Canada will have to be cancelled. As I write this update, Bill has informed us that he’s been unable to locate a replacement muffler for our boat and will have to perform a repair to the Fiberglas of the exploded muffler. This will involve him towing us over to Roche Harbor, where he has the equipment to make such a repair and where we’ll be for the next 2-3 days.
I’m a firm believer that all things happen for a reason and now that I can reflect back on yesterday’s events, I can see the positives that came from two stinkin’ little wires coming loose from our distributor. First, had we not decided to stay put with the change in the weather, we would have been stuck in Blind Bay or some other cove in which we decided to anchor for the night.
The decision to stay in Blakely Island not only allowed us to be “somewhere” when our engine failed to start, but also gave us the opportunity to once again validate the kindness of our fellow boaters given the help we were able to obtain by just asking. It also showed us that there are people who like Bill, who came to look at our boat after what must have been a very long day and who was able to get right to the problem, even if that did lead to a much bigger issue in terms of cost and delay in assuming our “plans”. The main thing is that no one was hurt and we met some great people who just wanted to help. So, I guess it did turn out to be an awesome day after all…and I finally got my ice cream.
Mark came up with the name for our boat. It's quite fitting since smiles abound from everyone on board and they all ask "when do we get to do this again?" before we even arrive back to the dock.
