Saturday, October 18th

Today I thought I’d take the boat out for a quick sail, since the weather was so nice and I haven’t been out since the hurricanes in late August.

First I had to re-secure the headsail onto the roller furling.  A friend and I tried to take it down in preparation for Hurricane Gustav, then realized it would be more bother than it was worth, so we just wrapped it tightly with the jib sheets.

I got out to the lake, and was about to raise the headsail when the engine temperature shot up very quickly to about 200 degrees.  Jumping down into the cabin, I quickly released the petcock to release any trapped air – the temperature dropped 30 degrees almost instantly,  but started to creep back up.  By now it was obvious that there was not enough coolant in the system, so after releasing some more pressure I popped off the cap and sure enough, the coolant level was too low.  A pint or so did the trick and the temp dropped to 160.

I’ve been having erratic coolant control issues since I took the hot water heater loop off line last year.  It looks like I really need to get the system back online.  

With all of the drama and some commitments later in the day I decided to forego the sail and head back in… maybe next time!

~ by phallock on October 18, 2008.