Yesterday, we had a very nice viewing with J-Pod in the Strait of Georgia. Today, they were in the same area as we started our trip north. As we got close, they took off to the west - good for us, because it put them closer for us. As I set us up for viewing, they changed course, coming on either side of us...
Mugged...
Moving past us, after the mugging...
Can you tell which is the male and which is the female?
Some great surface activity...
After being with the whales for over an hour, we started heading south, showing the guests other wildlife in the area.
About 4 miles out of Friday Harbor, I noticed a drop in RPM... hmmm, that isn't good. The ride with the whales had been very calm; coming back in San Juan Channel, the wind and chop built up... my first thought was sludge on the bottom of the fuel tanks had been stirred up. The engine started sounding rough; RPM continued a slow decline. Coming into the harbor, I was concerned about pulled power back much... I let the first mate know that we "might have an issue" and she should be ready with fenders, if I tell her.
I made the decision to go for our dock, instead of pulling up on Spring Street Landing (on the outside)... because this was an early trip, I knew there wouldn't be any other boats around our dock. I pulled power back at the last minute, and the engine didn't stall (my big concern). By "pumping" the throttle, I was able to rotate, do a 270º turn, and put it at our dock. Joan was standing by on the dock to grab lines (I let them know in the office that they may need to move my next trip to one of our other boats, so Joan was there for us).
I came down from the helm, thanked the guests, and opened the engine compartment... diesel fuel everywhere. A high pressure fuel line had broken. I let the boss know, let the office know to have crew ready on the other boat, and it all went pretty seamless. Brian (our boss) managed to find the right part (very specific to this engine) at a place in Bellingham, and have them put it on a plane to be delivered to the Friday Harbor Airport.
I hopped on my scoot and went to the airport to wait for the flight to come in. Brian and I installed the fuel line, replaced the soaked air filter, and cleaned up the engine compartment. I fired the engine up and ran it up to cruise RPM... all good.
Amazing that we were able to get the part, get it flown in, replaced and tested, so we don't lose any trips for tomorrow. Good teamwork: the first mate drove to the other side of the island to work that boat; one of our other captains (the one on the Roche boat) stayed on to handle that trip, one of the office staff went to the fuel dock to get me a bundle of fuel absorbent pads, Joan handed me those pads while I crawled around the engine to clean up fuel, the boss tracked down the part and got it on its way. It really could not have gone any smoother.
My ol' bones are a little achy tonight, but we'll get up tomorrow and do it all again... hopefully without the fuel line issue.
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