The "Bay"

We were up at 6am so we could get an early start for Mobile Bay.  The forecast was for light winds all day, but I have learned to take those forecasts with a grain of salt. All I knew for sure was the wind was light at the moment, and we were going for it.

We had an hour ride before getting to the the bay, and it was uneventful. As we passed under the Dauphin Island bridge we were thrilled to see the bay was as calm as forecast. I was looking forward to a less than exciting ride across. Exciting on a boat is not something you want. We made it two thirds of the way across before things started going wrong.

All of a sudden, the port engine abruptly shut down. I went down to the engine room to check it out, and found the suction gauge on the Racor fuel filter was reading very high. I assumed that the filter element had gotten clogged, so grabbed a spare and changed it out. The filter element I took out did not appear to be very dirty. Strange. After bleeding the injection pump I was able to get the engine running again. But, the suction reading was still very high, right at the limit of what the engine could handle. We were able to get the rest of the way across the bay, and into the ICW, before it shut down again. This time I just bled the injector and turned on the electric fuel pump to help push the fuel through the filter until I could have more time to work on it.

We finally made it to Ingram Bayou around 2pm.  There were no other boats there, so we were able to drop anchor in our favorite spot. We love it here, and it is tempting to spend several days here.  But the game plan is to relax here this afternoon, then do some troubleshooting on the fuel issue tomorrow morning before heading east again.

Did I mention the definition of cruising?  Working on your boat in exotic locations!