So instead of leaving for Fort Myers on Saturday we had to postpone our start date until Monday morning at 6:30 AM.
We departed the dock as scheduled and headed north on the St Johns River toward downtown Jacksonville Florida.
We arrived in Jacksonville around 9:00am, the train bridge (here in the background) has been being repaired for quiet sometime (they were working on it back in June 2013 when we did our first charter on the N37). We are hopeful to be able to get it raised so we can pass by 9 to 9:30am in the morning. As these things normally go, when we arrived at the bridge we were told that it would open open monetarily as soon as workers the workers "get off the bridge", but an hour and a half later it was still closed.
Then suddenly the equipment was moved off the bridge and it opened. We started towards the bridge but an engine alarms sounded. Brooke Williams, (our co-pilot who has been full-time cruising 10+ years on a GH47 similar to ours) stuck his head out the door and noticed no cooling water coming from the port engine. We thought the port engine we was overheating so we shut it down. But unknown to us, the engine was already off (hard to hear if its running with the high pitch alarm blaring away). The motor had not been overheating (like we thought) but we had simply experienced the first of several more port engine shutdowns to come.
So we aborted moving beyond the railroad bridge and returned to an area where we could anchor and assess what was going on with the engine. Thinking that the engine overheated we waited a few minutes for it to cool down then attempted to restart. The motor started instantly.
With the bridge still open (you can zoom in and see it is up) we hurried to raise our anchor so we would not miss the opening and as our luck would have it the chain became jammed between the windlass gypsy and the chain tube. We worked as fast as we could to unjam the chain, but it took approximately 30 minutes. By that time we unjamed the chain, the bridge was already back down and we had to wait for the next opening and another 45 minutes passed but we finally got passed the bridge.
We were continuing to receive random alerts (and two more port engine shutdowns).
Since we had passed through bridge we were concerned whether or not we should continue on towards the ocean given that if we wanted to turn around and go back to the dock, the next bridge opening was likely to be after 6 PM. So we knew if we didn't go back now, we would be stuck there. We had to make the decision whether to continue on.... or to return to Green Cove Springs where we could properly diagnose what was going on with engine and make repairs. With the clock ticking and the last available bridge opening for six hours in jeopardy of closing, I made the decision turn around and return to Green Cove Springs.
We made our way back up stream to Green Cove Springs and docked at about 6:30pm (with one last port engine shutdown as we got ready to turn into the dock). We were literally spent, and ready to call it a day.
We had been in close communication with Ken Fickett, the owner of Mirage Manufacturing (the builder of Great Harbour Yachts) and he indicated that he and son Travis would be at the dock on Tuesday morning. Great! Now we will solve the mystery of the engine/alarm/windlass misbehaviors.
We worked throughout the day Tuesday trying to troubleshoot the issue with the windlass as well as the port engine shutdown (Brooke Williams left, Ken Fickett in the center) at the same time we work still configuring the Maretron monitoring system with its interface to the Nobeltec Times Zero navigation software and radar.
Well long story short, the port engine shutdown issue which we thought was fuel related turned out to be electrical. The manufacturer of the engine start/stop switch had inadvertently had a lapse in quality control and the switch unit that we installed with our electronics upgrade, had a small amount of plastic on one of the male spade terminals (the wire went to the shutdown solenoid on the Yanmar diesel engines). Travis, a talented diagnostician, found the electrical issue (a poor connection) and scraped off the plastic, reinstall the spayed clip, and switch. So at 6:15PM the port engine shutdown problem is now eliminated.
We quickly leave the dock for a quick sea trial and at 8:30pm in the dark we return with having experience no hiccups at all!
We all agreed that it was a good decision Monday to return to the dock given the complexity of the diagnostics needed to find the port engine shutdown problem. I likely would have had to spend thousands of dollars at other marinas with untested mechanics to diagnose and finally find this connection issue. We were disappointed we had made no headway towards home, but glad we had Ken and Travis on board so we could find the problem and it is now fixed.
So on Wednesday, Viv and I left the dock at 7:30am and ran the boat all day. We cruised up the St Johns for 5 hours then turned around and headed back to the dock. QC ran fine and the day gave us the opportunity to again get to know the boat and gain confidence in our ability to operate all the boats many systems.
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The flybridge offers many great views
Retired pelicans just taking it easy in the sun.......
The water is just slick a glass!
As you can see our GH47 has very little wake...the sign of an efficient hull design.
There is a military base on the St Johns at Jacksonville with a never-ending array of planes training and doing touch and go landings.
The Pelicans are right at home...
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One of Viv's favorite spots is up front
There are a number of great homes with great views on this part on the river.
All in all a good day!
So now its Thurday and the weather is great. Nice change from Indiana.
This is Brooke and Dee Williams boat; like ours but without the flybridge
. They have been willing to help mentor us and have bent over backwards to help us and make us feel at home. They are great people (and world-class cruisers)!!
In the years to come it is unlikely that we will see the boat from this perspective. Once we leave Green Cove Springs, the docks will be most often "Floating, and you will board the boat from the stern swim platform in to the cockpit of the boat.
Ken's crew have been cleaning and waxing on the boat including the removal of John Henry from the stern or the boat. The green Quiet Company lettering will get removed when we get home and will be replaced with polished Stainless Steel letters, which will better reflect the high quality construction of the boat.
New flybridge cushions
We love the flybridge!
The protective cover for the helm equipment is not yet finished so large plastic wrap will keep the weather off the controls.
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Plenty of room to more around on the deck from back to front
View back into the marina...
So as we were cruising on Thursday with the electronics playing well together, and the weather bringing another great day, we decided that we should close out our attempt to leave Green Cove Springs for now, and fly back to Indiana on Friday.
We were disappointed we are not yet headed home, but glad we are another step closer with the boat needed upgrades now solidly under control. Reliability is a our everyday goal.
So we are up early on Friday to finish packing while winding down the systems of the boat while getting ready to catch our airport transfer which will take us up to Jacksonville's airport and six hours later we will be home......
