We left River Dunes behind, but not the engine troubles

Dan was up early and captured River Dunes at sunrise, the Club House  and Brunelle in her slip - ready to go.

Hopes were high as we set out at 6:30 this morning that we (or Dan) had solved the engine problem.  All the work he had done was to keep the engine from overheating- - - new antifreeze, clean heat exchanger, raw water system checked, thermostat removed, expansion tank expanded and moved on deck.  After a frustrating day having to run the engine at low RPMs and cutting the engine every half hour or so to let the coolant flow back into the heat exchanger, Dan has concluded the problem isn't overheating, but gases escaping from the cylinder causing the coolant to bubble out and into the expansion tank, most likely caused by a bad head gasket.

Here is Dan's expansion system sitting on the bridge deck.  The top picture shows the hose system that allows the gases and liquid to bubble up into the tank. The bottom picture shows the tape showing the level when the engine is off and the liquid has drained back into the system.  We added a top piece of tape later to indicate when we should shut down and let the coolant drop back down.
Luckily the wind helped us a good bit of the time and we only anchored once to perform the "reset".  The rest of the time we were sailing.  Sometimes really moving along, but often just drifting as the wind was light to non exixtent and all over the place all day!

All our new friends from River Dunes passed us and offered advice and offers of help.  We ended up anchoring with most of them in the creek at the head of the Pungo River just before the entrance to the Alligator Pungo Canal.  The day was cool with occasional sun and the last hour of our sail it started to rain, but by the time we were anchored and beginning to make supper, the sun came our for a spectacular sunset.

The creek where we anchored made us homesick for the Chesapeake, the setting was very like so many of the wonderful anchorages we enjoy.  

Dan's contact at Westerbeke had a suggestion to streamline his expansion tank system, so he tweaked it after we anchored and we hope it works well tomorrow....

~~_/)~~(not quite as much water moving under the keel as we'd like) M&D