DIW

Well, some problems are not as simple as you might hope. When I tested the engine last night, I discovered a much more serious coolant leak. This one is in the coolant tank on top of the engine. Some of the metal has corroded away so the tank will have to be replaced. Drat! It may take a few weeks before I can get my mechanic out to help, so no sailing for me this weekend.

Coolant Leak

I went over tonight and looked in the riser to find... no coolant! Searching for a leak I noticed that the area around the expansion tank, near the hot water heater was damp. So, I refilled the riser with perhaps a quart or so of coolant to top it off, and started the engine. When the temperature got to about 150, the cap on the expansion tank began to leak. The cap was old and rusty, so it looks like the fix for our problem is just a new radiator cap.

Tow

After 20 years of sailing, I experienced my first tow today. We had a beautiful sail in 10 knots of breeze, and then we started the motor to head home. We noticed the engine temperature running very high after a few minutes, so we slowed down to see if the engine temperature would drop. No luck, so we shut the engine down and called Tow Boat US. They arrived in about 20 minutes, and hauled us in, through the draw bridge and to our dock. We restarted the engine briefly to put the boat in the slip, and shut everything down, with the engine starting to overheat again. We think that this might be a bad thermostat, or maybe a fresh water coolant leak. I will spend some time in the engine room this week figuring out the problem.