Today's word is glowplug. We may have solved the current engine mystery.
A glowplug is a rod that extends toward each cylinder of the engine to heat the fuel, enabling faster starting of a cold engine. It is, after all, the combined heat and pressure of compression, not a spark as with a gas engine, that enables a diesel to run. The glow plug supplies the initial heat.
In any case, thinking and thinking and thinking about how the engine was behaving, if it wasn't the fuel (this time), the glowplugs seemed to be a possible problem. The electric current needed to run them seemed a little low, after all.
After a late dinner last night, I dove into the engine and found the connections between the plugs to be a little loose and a little dirty. I say found literally, because I never knew where these little things actually were! Seeing them, let alone cleaning them requires you to be either 4 inches tall, or have an arm with three elbows and two wrists. Once clean, the engine starts with only its normal difficulty. I think we may be ok to go.
The destination for the day is Port Jefferson. Dull, of course, but still our favorite anchorage on the way. Even without comment from the weather voice, we expect that there might be rain, since it almost always rains when we're in Port Jeff. It doesn't matter, though, it's still a nice place to be.
We certainly feel we're now on the down side of the trip. It now feels like we're home, and the last few days of vacation are between us and that goal, rather than a few small pearls to be enjoyed. This is a problem I've fought for years. One of the best sailing trips I ever had was after a company I worked for went out of business. It was the beginning of the summer and I decided to go sailing until I felt like coming back, whether that was a few weeks, or a few months.
The lack of an end date made all the difference in the world. I wasn't away that long, but every day was a beginning of the rest of the trip rather than passing a halfway mark, that every day was a day closer to the end. It's a state of mind; I know that, but it is a hard one change. At least, we go every year, blocking out a chunk of time, making that time, rather than the things that conspire to take it from us, our first priority. It would have been nice to just stay in Coecles Harbor, get the engine worked over, and feel that the extra time there was a gift instead of a burden. In any case, we have the gift of puzzling out a new fact about engine maintenance ourselves. The engine has started, we're on our way.
As we
leave Clinton, it is low tide. You can see bathers and fisherman who have walked
out to the edge of the channel from the shore and can practically shake hands
with boaters as they pass by. On the north side, the channel is practically
a ditch cut in a mud flat.
Last night, we saw the moon, the stars, and a bright blue twilight sky. Today, it's back to hazy and gray. The day starts quiet and cloudy, but as the day wears on, it gets much darker, and a breeze comes up from the southwest. Not the perfect direction, but we put up the sails and make good time. The wind holds at about 15 knots which would be fine, but it is dark and cool. It doesn't feel like the first week of August.
Along our way, we see the same 7 Yard Patrol boats heading east that we saw heading in the same direction three Sundays ago. We've seen these boats other places in other years, including in the Cape Cod Canal. We know that these boats live in Annapolis, and figure that perhaps they are doing summer cruises in shifts between there and Boston.
As we approach
the entrance to Port Jefferson, we need to take in the sails for the last bit,
or tack to get in. The breeze dips down a bit, so we motor towards the entrance
while numerous power boats exit through the channel at high speed. Marion asks,
"Do they have a gun in there that launches these things?" Despite
having a speed limit in the harbor, and there being rules of both safety and
etiquette, these boats roar past leaving us, and several other boats, to wallow
in their giant wakes.
Through the channel, we set ourselves up for the night at anchor behind the beach. Although we are in Port Jefferson, we are in a smaller anchorage to the west of the entrance, behind Old Field Beach. This is a well protected spot with views of both the beach, and of the homes and lawns on Strongs Neck. Although the sky is a bit brighter now, with the overcast higher, and with bits of blue peaking out, I don't think we'll see the sunset tonight. The wind is blowing at 10 to 15 knots, but is showing some signs of calming down.
As we sit down to listen to the weather forecast, they're back to their old tricks of promising poor weather.