Full day with the fellas

I've been needing to get more time on the water and behind the wheel. Last Sunday, I took my wife's uncle, our nephew, his dad, and a buddy of mine out into the SF Bay for around 5 1/2 hours. A nice day for it and only modest gusts even in "the slot" North of the Bay Bridge. It takes nearly 45 minutes to motor out of the estuary, and underway we had some white steam coming out of the aft exhaust. The two more senior sailors said it was possible it was just atmospheric conditions causing a bit of moisture condensation from the exhaust. But I was more concerned it signaled something more real. About 15 minutes underway, we had an alarm sound off, so I shut down the diesel and my nephew and I headed to put up sails so we'd have control over the boat, while uncle and nephew's dad went below to check out the yanmar for any noticeable issues. The alert had been low pressure. Temp on the engine itself was low. They wiggled a couple connectors and didn't see any blatant leakage issues. After sitting while, the engine behaved again we sailed in the Bay for a few hours. She fired back up again no problem after we returned under sail into the estuary. No weird noise and no alarms, but still with the white "smoke" which most online forums agree is steam. 

So when we get back from vacation, I need to run through the systems. First up is the cooling system and exhaust. I'll check the impeller which I've already replaced once so I really hope that's not it (although it's a pretty easy fix). Then I'll look at the strainer for any clogs. And then the mixing elbow which is something I've not attempted yet. Then I'll change the oil and replace the coolant which the local chandlery spec'ed the right fluids for me. Then I may get courageous and remove the injector to check it, as well as as the head gasket. I'm on sabbatical for 6 weeks, so no rush other than I'd rather be sailing than fixing stuff--although fixing and learning systems when I have time off is much easier than stressing about getting things done in a few free hours each weekend.

Well, at least for now I can share the good photos of the guys day sail last Sunday.