Honey, What's This Red Stuff? (Words From The Captain)

Many of the boaters we have traveled with do not regularly check the oil in their engines or transmissions.  I guess they think that nothing bad will happen and, if it does, they will catch the problem before anything catastrophic occurs.  After all, that's what "idiot lights" are for.

Perhaps I am a bit anal (you think!) but I always check the engine oil, and most often check the transmission oil, every day before I start the engine.  The log book I use pretty much forces you to do these checks.  Otherwise there will be "to do" items in the daily checklist that are not done.  I am glad I have the discipline to visit the engine room every evening after the engine has cooled down or in the morning before we leave.

We arrived in Kingston NY on Thursday July 6, 2017.   Kingston is about 57 miles north of Half Moon Bay Marina on the Hudson River.  We planned to stay two nights, in part to allow Tom and Vicki Blaser on Grand Baron to catch up with us.  After we arrived, we smelled something funny; we thought that perhaps a bottle of cleaning solvent had tipped over.  No big deal, or so we thought.  That evening I went down into the engine room and discovered that the oil-absorbent pads under the engine were filled with a red substance.  It wasn't oil, that's brown.  It wasn't antifreeze, that's green.  What's red?  Diesel fuel.   (Diesel fuel meant for off-road use such as in boats and farm tractors has no road tax in the price.  So they dye it red to allow the authorities to see if off-road diesel is used in road vehicles.)

                                               Honey, What's This Red Stuff?

That night we cleaned up the mess and washed the floor of the engine room to eliminate the smell.  I then put clean absorbent pads down.  Later in the evening I started the engine to try to catch the first drip as a way of identifying the source of the leak.  Sure enough, there it was.  One of the low-pressure fuel hoses that runs between the fuel filter on the starboard side of the engine and the fuel injection pump on the port side of the engine had chafed through.  Not good.  In addition to the leak itself and the mess it causes, there is the concern that air can get into fuel system and stop the engine.  Tug LeeLoo was not going anywhere!

The next day (Friday) we called a local diesel mechanic (the authorized Cummins service centers were too far away).  We fully expected him to say "See you Monday".  But to our amazement, he said, "No worries, I'll send someone out by noon today."  The technician actually arrived at 10:30 in the morning and almost immediately confirmed my diagnosis.  He located the damaged fuel hose, removed both fuel hoses (a second hose in the system was undamaged but it seemed wise to replace both of them) and took them back to his shop to make up the replacement hoses.  He returned at 12:30 and everything was done and working by 1:30 in the afternoon.  In the world of boat repairs, this was amazing.  Same day service.  No special parts to order.  Qualified technician.

The repair was not inexpensive but of course it was needed.  And we were so fortunate to find a mechanic on short notice that could and did make the repair in short order.  And I still visit the engine room every day we travel.