I'm actually writing this from Disney World where we've taken a few days off from the boat to meet up with family for Thanksgiving...and we do have a lot to be thankful for.

Once the gale in St. Augustine blew itself out, we set off for Daytona, Titusville and Indian River Harbor where we had made arrangements to leave our boat while we took off for Disney.

Frankly, there is little to tell of the trip as the waterway in this section is fairly nondescript and we didn't spend time on land except for food/ supplies.

The trip did keep ME interested as we had a couple of problems on board that kept the adrenalin going all three days.

The first thing that happened was about 4 hours north of Daytona when all of a sudden ALL my instruments went out...radar, speed, gps, depth...the works! They would come back on intermittently but I spent the rest of the way to Daytona Marina very carefully navigating the channel markers and checking the charts. Once in port I decided that the problem had to be with the instrument power supply or with the Raytheon brain module since everything was affected. I started tracing down the power leads from the instruments and after pulling a hidden section free, noticed a badly corroded splice with a broken wire. This was a splice of 6 wires that had simply been crimped and left to hang in the bilge by some mechanic along the way...unbelievable! Anyway...about an hour later I had redone all the splices and voila...everything worked again. On to Titusville!

The next day everything started out fine but again about mid-day I noticed the engine running slower...about 2700 RPM's vs. 2900 normally....and it wouldn't run faster non matter how much diesel I tried to feed it. Fearing another clogged fuel filter we nursed the boat into Titusville Municipal Marina (a nice place to stay!) ...and I changed the fuel filter. Idling at the dock this seemed to cure the problem but I was concerned still since normally a fuel filter problem results in drastic RPM reductions and stalling which had not been the symptom this time.

Sure enough ...the next day the symptoms reappeared shortly after we got underway. The RPM's wound down to 2400 and black smoke would issue from the exhaust if we pushed it any harder. I had visions off a major engine repair as we pulled into Telemar Bay Marina. Fortunately they have a great diesel guy on staff and he came aboard right away and listened to my engines symptoms and took a quick look. Okay... any diesel experts out there? What's your guess??

Well...it turned out to be a badly clogged air intake that was not allowing the engine to get the oxygen it needed to burn the fuel. Any diesel owners out there...take a look at your air intake filter and clean the sucker out to avoid this problem!! The diesel guy (Tom Stevenson), cleaned the intakes and filters, changed both primary and secondary fuel filters and changed the oil the next day and we're all set for our final slog south to Palm Beach / Lake Worth which we'll begin on 11/26. We hope to be in position to cross to the Bahamas anytime after Dec. 1 that the weather permits. //GB