Sea Trials: Engine Loss off the Coast of Oahu & Sailing For Waikiki

Hello friends! We are departing La Mariana and bound for a new anchorage. We're either going to go to Waikiki tonight or there's another anchorage over by Coco Head I can't remember the name. It's a little bay, kind of an open roadstead, but it would put us in a good point for Molokai. So we're going to sail to Waikiki right now, see how late it is, and go from there. We've had a wonderful stay here at La Mariana Sailing Club. A little expensive, but it was quiet, nice, and kind of the perfect spot after the boatyard all out. So now it's time to get out and stretch Trite's legs a little bit and see how she feels in the open sea. So shallow, it's crazy. And we are sailing. Oh, that feels good. Listen to that quiet. We've got 14 knots on the beam. We can pad a little more headsail. I don't know, let's see what speed we're doing. We're doing five knots. Five and a half knots. Yeah, we're fine. And this will set us up for any gusts and stuff. Oh, sailing. Very short-lived little sail. The wind clocked around and like we're taking it right on the nose with the seas. We got somewhere to be, so we're just going to beat into it and get to our spot. But it was funny. It was like, oh, okay, awesome. I thought the wind was going to be like happy and stoked, but we're pushing into like just over a meter seas, so that was slowing our progress too much. Right now we're only doing like two and a half knots motor sailing. So yeah, we'll push on, push on. We just passed Diamond Head Point mark. There's a big beautiful sailboat under full canvas. We are smashing into everything doing like two knots. We're heading to Mauna Loa Bay, I think is what it's called. It's just in the lee of Cocoa Head. And that's where we're trying to sail for Molokai tomorrow morning. But we're just beating into it. It's like, it's only blowing 16 right now, but it's right on the nose. We have like just over one meter seas. So just slow, slow crawl. Just motoring into it. So that's where we're at. I'll show you Diamond Head. You can see the lighthouse, really pretty. And yeah, just chipping away. Lots of turns hanging out today. The engine just died. Been beating into 20 knots. Trying to get to Cocoa Head. Just not happening. And with the engine, I don't know why the engine died, like it was bogging down. But I'm going to sail back to Waikiki and anchor at the bite, because I know that's safe. We're like five miles from the anchorage, but it just like couldn't get there. Probably like a two knot current. Such a bummer. I could tack up the channel, but with the current and the winds right on the nose, I don't know if I would make it to that anchorage before dark. So I'm just going to be smart about it and pop back around the corner here to Waikiki and anchor. It's only like a mile or so, two miles maybe away. Yeah, the engine started bogging down. I don't know what that's all about. It may just be like pushing too hard. I don't know. Check the fuel filter when we get anchored and see what's happening. Okay, the anchor's all ready to go. We already came past Diamond Head. We're flying this way. And get up here to the spot. There's a bunch of boats anchored there. And yeah, see if the engine starts enough to get us anchored. But if not, then we'll have to anchor under sail, which is always exciting. Been taking a lot of passes, trying to find my spot. Anchoring under sail is a slow process, especially in a busy anchorage. There's a lot of traffic. I had a good spot and then this fishing boat, or like sport fisher boat, just zipped up and took my spot. But it's okay. I'm moving slow. Maybe it doesn't look obvious what I'm doing. But I'm just taking my time, creeping in. Got anchored under sail. Luckily, the winds were kind of mellow. Normally, they're howling right here because of the land, the venturi effect with the saddle of Diamond Head. But everyone's like 14 right now. It was pretty easy. I just crept in. I'm not in as tight as I would like to be, but there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. There's like 12 to 15 boats in the anchorage, which all these people will probably peace out. This is not a fun anchorage to be in at night. So they're all just having fun on a Sunday. But because of that, I didn't get in quite as tight as I normally would have. But still, we dropped the hook in 19 feet of water. I put out 5 scope and just let the trade winds set the hook. And I set the hook with 50 feet out. And once I saw that it was set, then I paid out another 50 feet so that we'd be 5 scope. I am sorting out the engine problem. It was a fuel situation. I don't know that the filter was clogged necessarily. But there's a bunch of gunk that came out of the fuel line that may be clogged inside. So I'll show you what just came out of the fuel line. Gunk. And you see that lower one? Normally I can turn that and fuel will flow down. I usually do that into a mason jar so that I can prime the filters. And nothing came out. So I think that inside the tank right there is clogged with old biocide junk. So now I'm going to get the end of that hose off, open that valve, and if no fuel comes out, I'm going to run balen wire up inside there and try to break up the gunk until I get it flowing. That's what I'm doing. Put our little Tupperware down here. Sorry if I'm blocking the view, but we definitely got some syrup coming out there. See a little bit of all kinds of gunk in there. Try a little bit more just for giggles. See what it does. A little bit more funk came out. That's how it happens. If something happens, you can't run your engine, she sets, like Tritea set the rudder. After I pulled the rudder in the water, she set since, what, November. So this is what happens. I always find this happens on deliveries as well. So just part of the game. So we know that this is cleared. So we'll go ahead and put this back on and we'll prime. Actually, I'll get some fuel now to prime our fuel filter. See what I'm doing here. I guess I'll show you since you can kind of see it's hard to do in this rolly boat, but I'm just pouring this diesel I just got inside the filter and that's going to prime it. Makes it easier to get started. Now with that new fuel filter, it had new O-ring and a new gasket and you never want to use your wrench to crank it down real tight. That'll come back to haunt you. So you just get it hand tight and let those gaskets do their job and don't worry about it. You can keep it on if you feel like, you know, if you're nervous about it, but just, yeah, that's hand tight. That's plenty tight. So now I get my fuel line back on here and see if we can bleed the engine, get her going. Now I'll do my best to film this without blocking the view, but I ain't making any promises. These Yanmars, this is a 2GM20F, which means it's freshwater, has like antifreeze in the heat exchanger instead of seawater. And easiest way to bleed these is you crack your injectors open, you turn the engine over, when diesel shoots out, you tighten down the injectors. Now that's all like fine and dandy if you have somebody in the cockpit that can turn over your engine. If you're solo sailor, you have to figure something else out. And when I was on my passage, I couldn't, I had the same problem with the fuel filters getting fouled because of junk in the diesel. So I installed a button like underneath my chart table right here that turns over the engine just by the push of the button. And you don't have to turn the key, nothing. You just hit this button and that way I can crack these injectors, turn it over, and prime it by myself. So that's something you might want to install if you're a solo sailor. So let's see if we can get her started. Crack these. Oh, I heard air. Okay, those are both cracked. I don't have a little seepage there. Okay, here we go. Flatten them down. There you have it. That's all it was. Give her some gas if she runs a little bit. Okay, it's time to turn in. I've got to get it early to bed. I'm going to get up kind of early and try to motor out around towards Cocoahead. Kind of what I tried to do today. Hopefully I got all the gunk cleared out of the fuel line and try to motor up to Cocoahead before I start sailing from Molokai. I'll have a much better wind angle and early in the morning the wind should be pretty mellow. So that's the plan. Time to go to sleep and it's been a good day. If you enjoy the content on this channel and would like to contribute, you can consider joining the Patreon crew. Thanks for watching. Fair winds until next time.