Happy Labor Day from Lake Powell!

[tuxonpup]

I’m typing this on my iPhone, laying on the starboard cockpit cushion, head propped up by a throwable pfd against the cabin. There’s a half moon starboard aft, stars straight up, just finished a boil-in-bag pasta dish with an Excelsior Imperial apple cider. Haven’t been out on the boat since the first week of June, it’s good to be back.

I left work 45 minutes early Friday and we hit the road out of Tucson by 4:30pm. We made it up to Flagstaff by 8:30pm, had a room booked for the night, and went out to the Cornish Hen for some vegan English pasties while the DJ spun an eighties mix with some Bad Brains and Metallica. Woke up this morning and checked out by 9:30am, but stopped for a vegan french toast and lattes breakfast before hitting the highway.

We got to Page around 1:30pm, but stopped off at Walmart for some provisions and project supplies. Made it to the boat by 2:30pm, pulled the gas tanks and headed up to Circle K for 25 gallons of ethanol free gas. When we got back, a Catalina 25 had suddenly appeared in the space next to us. First sail boat I’ve seen here since the day we arrived last October, They are apparently stored in the space next to ours judging by our storage tags.

We loaded up the gas tanks and remaining provisions, hooked up and headed over to State Line boat ramp, which was an absolute mad house. Trucks with trailers wall-to-wall, we got in-line for the ramp which thankfully moved quickly. When our number was up, I had two trucks pull out right before me so thankfully had a nice wide spot to jack knife the Guppy into. Put her in fairly deep so she was already floating when I unhooked and scampered up the bow ladder. Took a bit to get the old 2-stroke Nissan to catch, as it has when sitting for months, but she did and I quickly tied on two port fenders and dock lines, waved Vicky to go park the Sandcrawler and backed her though the mayhem of boats waiting for trailers. I got her tied off on the outside of the loading dock and still managed to have a power boat come in behind me within inches of my prop and rudders. Ah, Labor Day!

When Vicky made it down the dock following parking lot combat, I pushed off her bow and jumped on the stern so we could motor away from the chaos. We headed across Wahweap Bay to the first cove we ever anchored in but it was full up with houseboats at either end. So we headed West from there to check out a deep canyon we discovered last trip, the water level had dropped so much since June there were new islands everywhere and the beaching spots were different. There was only one houseboat back there and we asked him if it was too shallow for the usual crowd, he said yes and while there was plenty of draft for us, we got the feeling he wasn’t looking for company, so we motored back out to the cove we had stayed in the first night last trip, the one we rode out a haboob in. It was a completely different shoreline now with one big houseboat pulled up on the outside of the cove, but we crept into the inside where there was now a steep sand beach shielded from the waves of the bay, and we immediately grounded her on it.

It was about 90 degrees and as soon as we stopped moving we were both dripping. Vicky got her suit on and went down the swim ladder while I set about making the cabin habitable. Got the house 12V hooked up to a brand new battery, solar can wait for tomorrow as it was already dusk, and then plugged the new 12V fridge in that had been running in the car the whole trip up. Connected the propane tank in the cockpit to the stove top and Vicky came in from her swim to work on a meal. Once the sun was down, it was immediately cool and comfortable, so I went down the swim ladder next to rinse off the sweat of the day, then relaxed on the deck with a cider until dinner was ready, our red and green running lights illuminating the dune we grounded on.

Thought about pushing the Starlink out the bow hatch tonight for a movie, but suspect we’ll both crash now that it’s after 10pm. Tomorrow we head up lake, wondering if we can make it to Last Chance Bay for the first time on just a four day trip!

[Russ]

Wow, you type well on your iphone. I now find dictating voice to text works best for my fat fingers.

You are a brave soul to attemp a ramp on Labor Day Weekend. We don't go anywhere near the lake this weekend. Or Fourth of July either. But I understand peeps gotta recreate when they are able.

" our blue and green running lights illuminating the dune we grounded on."

I'm not sure what you mean. Are your running lights not Red and Green? And shouldn't you be using an anchor light, not a running lights? All LEDs, hopefully.

Enjoy your time out. Nothing beats being on the water and our favorite time is the evening.

[tuxonpup]

Yeah, phone typing.. red and green bow lights. We leave the running lights on when swimming off the transom at night as the transom light lets you see the swimmer back there.

We discovered a deep scratch on the port side when we arrived, didn’t recall it being there before. Began to suspect it was the lot crew when they backed in our new Catalina neighbor. We were mulling it over until we went to dock for lunch today and absolutely crushed our port side chine, gel coat absolutely spider webbed. Upside is we’re not worried about that scratch anymore!

[OverEasy]

Hi TuxonPup!

Great you got out on your boat!
Congratulations on surviving the launch ramp mayhem too!
Like Russ I try hard to avoid the ramps on busy days… I can skip the angst

Sorry about the scratch.. stuff happens… as you found out it can also be a fribble when self inflicted.
It happens to all of us at one point or another (and often it happens multiple times

The variable lake levels must be a thing to behold!
Here in SC we have our 6 ft tides but it sounds kinda wierd to have those kind of level fluctuations (albeit much more slowly) on a fresh water lake! I for one would be constantly wondering if the route previously take was still viable!

Really glad to hear your enjoying your boat this weekend!

Best Regards,
Over Easy

[tuxonpup]

Just woke up to a coyote a few hundred yards away howling good morning to a neighbor a few miles out, recorded a minute or so of their conversation, don’t think he realized we were so close and eavesdropping.

Most likely staying put on Warm Creek Bay today, yesterday’s voyage here through the washing machine channel will take some recovery time. Vicky slept in per usual and I was up to watch sunrise. The new battery ran the new 12V fridge and anchor light the whole first night with no issue, so my first order of business yesterday was connecting some solar to get it recharged.

First I unpacked the new panel we were adding and installed it on the hatch where the old one usually went, connected it and confirmed it was generating. Then I got out the old panel and aligned it on top of the bimini so two would fit with a boom width between them.

I had packed a bag of white velcro cable ties somewhere… 30 minutes later I finally found the secret backpack pocket I so cleverly stowed them in. We had picked up some thick wide eye needles and waxed string thread at Walmart, so I set about sewing them under the four corner eyelets on the solar panel. Then I moved the 16 ft 12 gauge wires from the controller over from the hatch and confirmed the old panel was generating.

Then I moved the new panel off the hatch and repeated my sewing job on that side, wired the positive and negative from each panel in series and reconnected the MPPT controller’s wires to the respective panel’s positive and negative connections.

Checked the controller and watched the voltage swing from 19V to 38V coming from the panel and the battery supply swing from 13V at 5 amps to 13V at 10 amps. Voila, now we had some juice to keep this LiFePO4 topped off before nightfall.

I just checked it and the battery was at 13.1V after running the fridge all night and we had powered up the Starlink mini to watch HIP on Hulu for a few hours before lights out and unplugging it. HIP is the French original of that Katlyn Olson show High Potential and the first episode was shot for shot the same, but anyway…

After Vicky was up yesterday, we had bagels and coffee then wound up the Nissan and headed for the washing machine channel. The first time we came a decade ago you could cross directly from Wahweap Bay to Warm Creek Bay through ‘the cut’ - a shallow passage that formed Antelope Island which separated the two bays. With lower water levels, ‘the cut’ is dry land and the only way between the two bays is the deep canyon that runs to the dam at one end and up lake the other way. This is the washing machine channel, with sheer canyon walls on both sides and all the lakes traffic running through, the wake waves ricocheting from canyon wall to canyon wall created by power boats running both directions full speed.

It’s in these confused seas we spent the second day motoring up lake, stopping half way at the largest floating restaurant in the world - Antelope Point Marina on Navajo land. This is where we had our unfortunate docking incident and spent a couple hours recovering out of the mid-day sun in the restaurant.

We cast off again and got about a mile North of the marina when the Nissan died. This had happened to us on our first trip when we learned the importance of carrying a spare gas can, but that lesson was learned and we had two full tanks still. I reached down and squeezed the fuel bulb and saw a stream of gas spray out the side of the fuel line - uh-oh!

I went to grab a gorilla tape roll from the cabin just as a big wake wave pitched us up about 30 degrees, caught myself and made it back to the transom. We were getting a decent amount of wash in the transom but it was staying below the step down, so I waited between surges and then swung down with a torn piece of tape and as soon as I wrapped it on half the hose, the whole line sheared off at the connector - uh-oh!

At this point we were drifting decidedly toward one of the sheer canyon walls so I decided it was VHF time, as we could still see the marina a mile behind us and they have tow service. A couple hails went unanswered on 16 so I did a radio check and another boater confirmed I was transmitting. Well it looked like the service times were gonna be similar to the restaurant we just left on a Labor Day weekend, and they weren’t gonna keep us off that wall so it was time to either put up sails in a narrow canyon or take another look at that fuel line.

We had a bit of a lull in the wave action so I was able to swing down and work the fuel line connector off the engine. A-ha! If I can get the old bit out from under the pressure clamp, I should be able to connect the broken line again. Back down to the cabin for a flat head, needle nose and wire snips. It took some plyer squeezing and flat head prying but I got the metal hose clamp off then used wire snips to whittle away the remaining fuel line. Getting the broken line back on took no small amount of twisting, then I used the bulb to spray some gas out as it had hit the water briefly before I pulled it up. I got the connector back on the engine and cranked the Nissan up when our bow was about 20 yards from the West canyon wall.

The engine died two more times on the way up the canyon, I chalked it up to stalling out on larger waves as it ran pretty consistently once we got onto the flat water of Warm Creek Bay. It’s wide open and and boats are far more sparse here, we ended up in our own big cove after a few more adventures last night, but it’s time to put the coffee on and have a bit of a relaxation day!

[Be Free]

The first scratch and the first time you cut a hole for a mod are the worst. Fifteen years later I still remember both of mine.

Keep an eye on the heat build-up on the back of those panels. I've heard (but not recently) of panels that got hot enough to char the canvas.

If your fuel line was that brittle you may have bits of rubber floating about in the engine. Check your filter for obvious problems. While you are in there take a peek at the fuel/water separator (if you have one). My Honda has both in a single unit; yours may be similar.

I have no experience with your brand engine but if it is old enough to have a carburetor your stalling may be related to a float valve set too low. The engine could be starved of fuel when you are pitched up or down sufficiently.

If you are fuel injected (and I expect you are) then I'd suspect "crud" getting stirred up in the fuel system caused your stalls. Either debris from the old fuel line or just water may be the culprit.

Another possibility is that you have another crack in the fuel line that flexes enough to suck air when you are in rough conditions. It will be expensive at a marina, but if you can find another section of fuel line while you are on your trip it would be a good idea to change it sooner rather than later.

Whatever the cause, be careful in rough conditions until you identify and correct it. If you have to go back through the "washing machine" maybe go early, late, or mid-week when there won't be as much traffic stirring up the passage. Have fenders ready and whatever you do don't put any body parts between the boat and the canyon wall. Anything you break on the boat is almost certainly easier to fix that anything you break on a body.

Stay safe.

[Be Free]

Sorry, but I totally forgot the most important part: I'm thoroughly enjoying your description of the trip. I feel like I'm there!

[Russ]

I second enjoying your descriptions. Feels like I'm there.

I bought a new fuel line for a spare and finally decided to replace the original with the new one. After a few weeks it literally crumbled apart.

Since, I've replaced it with a high quality fuel hose and I have a spare line ready by the tanks just in case. That's the weakest part of our motors.

Your fuel line is compromised and should be replaced. Could be sucking air in a crack causing your motor to stall starving for fuel. When I run out of fuel, it makes a distinct sound like it's starving for fuel.

[tuxonpup]

The first scratch and the first time you cut a hole for a mod are the worst. Fifteen years later I still remember both of mine.

Keep an eye on the heat build-up on the back of those panels. I've heard (but not recently) of panels that got hot enough to char the canvas.

If your fuel line was that brittle you may have bits of rubber floating about in the engine. Check your filter for obvious problems. While you are in there take a peek at the fuel/water separator (if you have one). My Honda has both in a single unit; yours may be similar.

I have no experience with your brand engine but if it is old enough to have a carburetor your stalling may be related to a float valve set too low. The engine could be starved of fuel when you are pitched up or down sufficiently.

If you are fuel injected (and I expect you are) then I'd suspect "crud" getting stirred up in the fuel system caused your stalls. Either debris from the old fuel line or just water may be the culprit.

Another possibility is that you have another crack in the fuel line that flexes enough to suck air when you are in rough conditions. It will be expensive at a marina, but if you can find another section of fuel line while you are on your trip it would be a good idea to change it sooner rather than later.

Whatever the cause, be careful in rough conditions until you identify and correct it. If you have to go back through the "washing machine" maybe go early, late, or mid-week when there won't be as much traffic stirring up the passage. Have fenders ready and whatever you do don't put any body parts between the boat and the canyon wall. Anything you break on the boat is almost certainly easier to fix that anything you break on a body.

Stay safe.

This Nissan/Tohatsu 2-stroke has a carburetor not fuel injection I believe, and I think the stalls were just that, the motor temporarily starving on big incline waves. When I was bobbing there watching gas spray out the side of the fuel line I was thinking “be nice if my spares included a new fuel line…” Will be replacing and adding a spare!

[tuxonpup]

We spent the morning sailing with the original main to the end of Warm Creek Canyon, then sailed right up on a beach (after pulling the center board up) and dove in off the back to beat the hottest part of the afternoon. As we got into late afternoon, I got the new mainsail out of it’s bag and stuck the old tired Doyle back in it. We motored back off the beach and I had Vicky hold us in irons while I rigged and raised the new main. Now I’m not sure what we were doing all morning, but it certainly wasn’t sailing, because this new main and genoa combo was somethimg else entirely. Oh my, we could run so close to the wind immediately, and the main went up in perfect form and never fluttered, it just held it’s shape. We’d just watch the leading edge of the Genoa and know when to back off if it fluttered. We crossed the entirety of the bay on just a few tacks and beached her for the night on the far side. Vicky has a whole new take on sailing after today!

[OverEasy]

Hi TuxonPup!

Wow!
Quite the adrenaline rush!
Hard canyon walls, erratic wakes! Broken fuel lines! Stalled engines! Emergency repairs as one drifts ever closer to …..
Whew! Even I needed to take a break and take a breath!
Sounds like you had a day of it!

Glad things worked out!!!
Those are the times to keep your cool and do the next right thing which you did in spades!
Congratulations!

While you’ll have to work with what you can get while on the lake….Might I suggest, if you can, skip the grey “marine” gas line stuff as a permanent fix and get some regular automotive heavy duty fuel line and over sleeve it with that split cable protector tubing.

Our original fuel line was serviceable but was definitely showing its age. The first coil of the grey tubing we got from the boat supply wasn’t very durable so when we upgraded with our twin 12 gallon tanks/selector/filter arrangement we got a new coil of tubing from West Marine. That was better but now after a couple of years I’m starting to wonder about how many more seasons it will last… never a good feeling when it comes to fuel systems. The grey outer jacket is starting to show signs of chalking and wear. I suspect it’s not long before the outer jacket starts to exhibit cracking. I really don’t want to wait for that to occur.

Meanwhile I’ve been looking at what others have done and the heavy duty automotive lines I’ve seen that have been in use for more than 6 years has convinced me that it is what we will be changing to. To avoid any black scuffing off the fuel line is where the split over sleeve wire protector comes in. They make a UV resistant version so it should deal the scuffing for quite a while. I’ve used the same sleeping on my travel trailer and utility trailer which held up great while they have been out for over a decade in the weather and sun.

The solar panels seem to be up to your power demands for the fridge requirements!
Another congrats!
That should help a lot with making sure the beer stays cold!
One must have one’s priorities!

Best Regards
Over Easy

[Russ]

I'm going to second the problem with the "gray marine" fuel line. That was my "new" hose to replace the original fuel line (which was still fine). I thought it was too old and I should replace it.

THIS is what happened after 2 weeks of use. It literally crumbled and who knows what that junk inside did. I replaced the fuel filter after that.







THIS is what I replace the "cheap" prefab fuel line with. Bought primer bulb and connectors and made my own fuel line. I have another as a spare.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6TTNN7H?re ... tails&th=1

[Russ]

That main sail is so cool. Where did you get it?

[NiceAft]

Russ,

I believe that is the lite skin sail sold by BWY. To find it, you have to look under the list of sails.

[tuxonpup]

That main sail is so cool. Where did you get it?

Yup, it’s a Rolly Tasker Lite Skin main from BWY:
https://reeua-fzzpa.volusion.store/pro ... 18-1v0.htm

A little pricier then the Doyle 5.0 Dacron, but I’ve got no doubts about the performance claims after using it. I’ve got some good video of us sailing the old then the new, pretty funny to compare the sail “shape” of the two, rather the shape of one vs the deflated glad bag that is the other.