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#1
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Cruising the Boondocks With Google Earth and Fixing Things In Exotic Places
After spending a week in Key West helping to officiate a major
sailing regatta, we decided to head out into the boondocks for some real cruising. Last year that meant a trip to the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson, passing a place called the Marquesas Keys on the return trip, 20 miles west of Key West. The Marquesas look interesting on the charts, almost like a Pacific atoll with small islands surrounding a lagoon in the middle called Mooney Harbor. Unfortunately the charts aren't very encouraging for entering the harbor with lots of skinny water much in evidence, some as shallow as 3 feet which would leave our trawler high and dry. Google Earth looked more interesting. Where the charts showed 3 feet, GE pictured what appeared to be a deep water cut into Mooney Harbor with some shoaling in evidence at the entrance. Talking to locals at our final party in Key West, we met someone who claimed that our 5 1/2 feet of draft should be doable at mid-tide if we were careful. Since the charts were of no help, and there are no aids to navigation, I decided to try and derive some way points from Google Earth similar to the following: http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3...pproachbu7.jpg My original position for "Marquesa 2" was about 300 feet to the east from where it ended up. Arriving there we immediately started running out of water, almost running aground. We decided to back off, anchor, and survey the entrance with the dinghy. While anchoring we observed several good sized crab boats attempt the entrance, some successfully, some not. After carefully watching the boats that made it in on the first try, it looked like the best water was further left, later confirmed by the dinghy's depth sounder. We adjusted way points and followed that track with our Grand Banks 49, making it in on the first attempt without bumping the keel. We proceeded north in deep water and anchored for the night uneventfully, miles from the nearest civilization and with a dark star filled sky. Sunday we set out in the dinghy to explore the sand flats surrounding Mooney harbor and do a little beach combing on the outer keys. The flats abounded with small minnows being chased by good sized bone fish. No fishing tackle with us unfortunately. Heading back from the beaches that afternoon the dinghy engine sputtered and died about 2 miles from the mother ship. Switching fuel tanks and the usual incantations to the god of dead engines all failed resulting in a 3 hour row against wind and current - good exercise but not much fun. Several attempts to walk the dinghy along the shallows resulted in the discovery of something resembling quick sand. It looked like a normal sand bottom but within seconds I'd be up to my knees in soft mud that didn't want to let go. Rowing looked good after a couple of experiences with that. Monday, back at Key West, I tackled the dinghy engine. Unfortunately Honda in their infinite wisdom makes it necessary to disassemble the starboard side engine cowling in order to access the fuel filter and carburetor, requiring about 15 minutes of extra work before you can start trouble shooting. It quickly became clear that the engine had sucked in some dirty fuel and water. I cleared the filter, disconnected the fuel intake at the carburetor and pumped the primer bulb until nothing but clean fuel was visible. I also removed the drain screw from the bottom of the carburetor bowl but nothing came out which was a puzzlement. Re-assembling everything and popping the dinghy back in the water revealed that nothing had changed - the Honda was still no go. I pulled it out again, repeated the entire procedure, found a bit more water, re-assembled and relaunched one more time. It was still no go and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that I would have to tackle the carburetor and find out why the bowl was not draining. Not having a shop manual, and not being experienced with Honda outboards, I proceeded slowly and carefully, removing what had to be removed to free up the carb. I finally got it off and carefully removed the bowl. The float seemed to be operating freely so I hooked up the fuel intake and pressurized the primer bulb. Working the float by hand, everything seemed normal with fuel flowing when the float was down, and stopping with the float up. Looking at the drain in the bottom of the bowl it looked like crud had formed so I cleaned that out and re-assembled everything one more time and relaunched the dinghy. Something had worked and it started right up and ran fine. It's still not entirely clear to me what did the trick but alls well that ends well. Tomorrow I'm going to buy and install a good sized external fuel filter and mount it on the inside of the transom next to the engine. |
#2
posted to rec.boats.cruising,rec.boats
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Cruising the Boondocks With Google Earth and Fixing Things InExotic Places
Wayne.B wrote:
....(snip forbrevity).... *The Marquesas look interesting.... lots of skinny water ....* Google Earth pictured what appeared to be a deep water cut into Mooney Harbor with some shoaling in evidence at the entrance. *Talking to locals at our final party in Key West, we met someone who claimed that our 5 1/2 feet of draft should be doable at mid-tide if we were careful. * heh heh heh I don't take "local knowledge" all that seriously, unless backed by personal observation of what the locals do (as you did yourself, later in the story). It's fully possible that some locals (especially in Key West) will tell you that not only is there an 8-foot channel, and draw you a chart of it, but also state authoritatively there's a family of Yeti living on the island. Sounds like a great adventure, hope we get a chance to visit the same spot via what we will now call Wayne's Channel! Fresh Breezes- Doug King |
#3
posted to rec.boats.cruising,rec.boats
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Cruising the Boondocks With Google Earth and Fixing Things In Exotic Places
"Wayne.B" wrote in message ... After spending a week in Key West helping to officiate a major sailing regatta, we decided to head out into the boondocks for some real cruising. Last year that meant a trip to the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson, passing a place called the Marquesas Keys on the return trip, 20 miles west of Key West. The Marquesas look interesting on the charts, almost like a Pacific atoll with small islands surrounding a lagoon in the middle called Mooney Harbor. Unfortunately the charts aren't very encouraging for entering the harbor with lots of skinny water much in evidence, some as shallow as 3 feet which would leave our trawler high and dry. Google Earth looked more interesting. Where the charts showed 3 feet, GE pictured what appeared to be a deep water cut into Mooney Harbor with some shoaling in evidence at the entrance. Talking to locals at our final party in Key West, we met someone who claimed that our 5 1/2 feet of draft should be doable at mid-tide if we were careful. Since the charts were of no help, and there are no aids to navigation, I decided to try and derive some way points from Google Earth similar to the following: http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3...pproachbu7.jpg My original position for "Marquesa 2" was about 300 feet to the east from where it ended up. Arriving there we immediately started running out of water, almost running aground. We decided to back off, anchor, and survey the entrance with the dinghy. While anchoring we observed several good sized crab boats attempt the entrance, some successfully, some not. After carefully watching the boats that made it in on the first try, it looked like the best water was further left, later confirmed by the dinghy's depth sounder. We adjusted way points and followed that track with our Grand Banks 49, making it in on the first attempt without bumping the keel. We proceeded north in deep water and anchored for the night uneventfully, miles from the nearest civilization and with a dark star filled sky. Sunday we set out in the dinghy to explore the sand flats surrounding Mooney harbor and do a little beach combing on the outer keys. The flats abounded with small minnows being chased by good sized bone fish. No fishing tackle with us unfortunately. Heading back from the beaches that afternoon the dinghy engine sputtered and died about 2 miles from the mother ship. Switching fuel tanks and the usual incantations to the god of dead engines all failed resulting in a 3 hour row against wind and current - good exercise but not much fun. Several attempts to walk the dinghy along the shallows resulted in the discovery of something resembling quick sand. It looked like a normal sand bottom but within seconds I'd be up to my knees in soft mud that didn't want to let go. Rowing looked good after a couple of experiences with that. Monday, back at Key West, I tackled the dinghy engine. Unfortunately Honda in their infinite wisdom makes it necessary to disassemble the starboard side engine cowling in order to access the fuel filter and carburetor, requiring about 15 minutes of extra work before you can start trouble shooting. It quickly became clear that the engine had sucked in some dirty fuel and water. I cleared the filter, disconnected the fuel intake at the carburetor and pumped the primer bulb until nothing but clean fuel was visible. I also removed the drain screw from the bottom of the carburetor bowl but nothing came out which was a puzzlement. Re-assembling everything and popping the dinghy back in the water revealed that nothing had changed - the Honda was still no go. I pulled it out again, repeated the entire procedure, found a bit more water, re-assembled and relaunched one more time. It was still no go and I came to the unfortunate conclusion that I would have to tackle the carburetor and find out why the bowl was not draining. Not having a shop manual, and not being experienced with Honda outboards, I proceeded slowly and carefully, removing what had to be removed to free up the carb. I finally got it off and carefully removed the bowl. The float seemed to be operating freely so I hooked up the fuel intake and pressurized the primer bulb. Working the float by hand, everything seemed normal with fuel flowing when the float was down, and stopping with the float up. Looking at the drain in the bottom of the bowl it looked like crud had formed so I cleaned that out and re-assembled everything one more time and relaunched the dinghy. Something had worked and it started right up and ran fine. It's still not entirely clear to me what did the trick but alls well that ends well. Tomorrow I'm going to buy and install a good sized external fuel filter and mount it on the inside of the transom next to the engine. Sounds like a great trip. I spent a couple days in Dry Tortugas in '95 or '96 working a shrimp boat that had busted her garboards coming in wrong and had to be run up on Bush Key to keep it from sinking. Park Rangers didn't trust the boats and thier own pumps to keep it from sinking. Boat crew had left before we got there. I went with CSA diving and onboard one of Mobey Marines work boats out of the Miami River. We pumped the tanks, burped the oil out of the engines and removed all the floating debris to keep the env impact down. Parks Service and USCG were fighting over who had to pay to have removed when we left. Fun, if too short, job. |
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