Safely back home at Clear Lake

We arrived back home on Thursday, February 9 after an overnight stop at Galveston Yacht Harbor, including a wonderful dinner at Fisherman's Wharf. On the way home we ran the (bad) port engine at just above idle speed, which improved the handling. Once again, the new autopilot proved its merit by doing most of the piloting. With one engine at normal cruising of 1700 rpm and the other at about 800 rpm, the rudders were consistently 15 degrees off center to maintain course.



The engine work began on Monday, and as soon as the head was off, the extent of the problem was obvious.
The #6 piston (out of 6) just rattled around in the cylinder. This means "extreme wear" of the cylinder wall. THUS, the engine will have to be removed so that all of the cylinders can be bored out to a slightly larger diameter and fitted with new oversize pistons and rings. The picture shows the engine with everything removed (e.g. starter, alternator, transmission, etc.) in preparation for lifting it out.



This is a "worst case" scenario. If the wear had been minor, then the cylinder could have been polished in place without removing the engine resulting in a much simpler repair. The next stage involves bracing the deck and placing a large pipe A-frame over the hatch to lift the engine up. Stay tuned...