Snuggled up off Big Creek at anchor in about 4 feet of water. It’s blowing fairly hard – about 25 knots – from the West and this is the quietest place I could find.
Yesterday was not uneventful. I left Port Bruce about 0830. As I mentioned this was really my first proper outing with the new motor, and I wasn’t surprised to have a few issues.
First off I had an oil leak from the valve cover. Couldn’t really tell which one. The motor also started starving for fuel when I went above about 1800 rpm. Most disturbingly I had a leak from the gear cover that was sending smoke and oil out under higher speeds.
Wind was Southwest about 15 knots so I had a quartering sea. Quite pleasant underway.
I stopped in Port Burwell to fix the valve cover leak. I had the covers off earlier so no surprises, but the gaskets are sort of a silicone and seem too big when warm. After one unsuccessful attempt I put them in the freezer for 1/2 hour, cleaned everything carefully and that solved that issue.
I wasn’t keen to run hard with the gear cover leak, so continued on east. Forecast was for strong west winds today so ducked around Long Point and anchored last night inside the point. Had a good sleep. Beautiful morning, anchored in about 5 feet of water on a sand bottom.
I changed the fuel filter this morning – pretty sure that the air was getting in around the gasket, so wanted to replace it. The gear cover leak puzzles me. There must have been crankcase pressure to cause the leak… But I reinstalled the CCV system last week, and my working theory is that it was somehow plugged and allowed pressure to build that blew out the gasket. I really hope that’s it. Have disconnected the closed loop and have unrestricted ventilation now
Fortunately I have a spare gasket aboard, so the main project for the rest of the day is to see if I can fix that. Might be tricky. I also still need to patch the inflatable.
Have I mentioned how much I hate waves? I’m quite happy to hang out here until the wind dies a bit to avoid the waves out on the lake today, so will putter away at the repairs.
GPS stats from yesterday
Boating Adventures 