FIRE DOWN BELOW!

APRIL 18, 2013

After leaving Tea Cup at 7:15AM on Wednesday April 18, life was good.  We were headed toward Sabine Pass in the ICW.  At about 11am everything was calm, the sun was shining & Linda was taking a nap.

Then Rod thought he smelled smoke!  OMG.......... THERE IS SMOKE coming out of the engine room exhaust vent.  Talk about a wake up call.  Rod headed down the stairs & stuff came flying out of the bosons locker.  Bicycles, tools, parts & finally the engine room doors.  He found the fire.  Apparently the case on the fuel cut off cracked & was leaking fuel.  Then two electrical connectors attached were arching & ignited the fuel, causing flames & smoke.  Rod quickly shut off the fuel source & pulled off the connectors.  The fire went out.  Quite a shock but no major damage, that was the end of a beautiful calm day on the water.

The fuel valve was still leaking, so Rod rigged a hose to drain the excess fuel into a bucket while we were underway.  We then turned around & headed back to the Galveston Yacht Basin.

We arrived at the fuel dock about 5PM & took a deep breath.  On Thursday am we called the Perkins diesel supply in Houston.  They were very helpful & shipped the part we needed UPS.  It will arrive Friday & the repair will be made.

While waiting for the part to arrive progress has been made.  The wind generator installation has been finished & is now charging the batteries.  Then we took a great bike ride down to The Strand in Galveston.  After a hamburger & margarita " Life is Good."  We are now back on the boat. 

Rod's ingenious fix to catch leaking fuel.

Defective valve & connectors.

Repairs will be made tomorrow & Saturday am we will leave again for Sabine Pass.  This time we will complete the trip.  Someone said "That's the Cruising Life."