No Turning Back Now Ep. 66

The long awaited day has finally come. After many months of hard work, and a short drive from the boat shed to the launch ramp, Thalia is now back in her watery home where she belongs.

She launched today, thanks to the able hands at Great Bay Marine. It’s been 12 months since she saw water, and back then it was for just a short few days as we moved her from her previous winter home to Great Bay. I have been doing work steadily on the boat over the last year, especially since leaving my job last October. There were many weeks in the dead of winter that I’d pull into the yard and trudge through the snow and ice with my various projects lists, tools and boat parts to climb the ladder to a cold Thalia.

She’s been a great boat to us, but as any boat or home owner will relate, it takes a lot of work to keep these objects of our affection alive and well. Not unlike house construction, when you start on a project on a boat, you inevitably find other issues and complications that double and triple the time estimates, making you wonder if you will ever get done. But there was light at the end of the tunnel, and it came today, watching her drop into the water and float again.

Our plan is to stay on the dock here for a few days to run through checks in all of the systems. It’s a whole lot easier to fix things here than out in the wild blue yonder. I expect we’ll have issues. There always are, especially when a boat has been out of the water for awhile. The first issue came quick. I started up the engine, which ran like a champ. But when it came time to shut it down, it would not stop. For a gasoline engine, turning it off is pretty simply – you just turn off the spark. But for a diesel engine, it doesn’t need electricity to run. It will keep running as long it is getting a steady supply of fuel. I was finally able to shut it down by pulling with lots of force on the throttle lever to starve it of fuel. Normally this is accomplished with a simply push of the stop button. John, one of the expert engine mechanics at the yard, and the guy that had done other work on the engine over the winter, jumped on the issue and determined it was a faulty stop solenoid on the injection pump. A day later and an overnight delivery of the part, John made the installation and we are back in business.

We’ll stay at Great Bay until the current foul weather passes, and then get on our way, hopefully by Saturday at the latest. We’ll continue to post blog updates as our internet connection allows. In addition to finding the postings here on our website, you can also subscribe to get new postings sent to you via email. Follow the link on the right hand side of our site. And you can also comment on our posts. We love the feedback, so bring it on! Finally, we are using a site called Farkwar that allows us to post our current geographic position. Go to ‘Track Thalia’ on our site to find it.

Take care and thank you to all of our friends and family that have supported us as we embark on this new adventure. We love you!