1 January 2021 Midway Marina
near Fulton, MS
At 0800 this fine New Year’s Day
I found the fuel dock man at work. We
two quickly slid the boat aft about sixty feet along the transient dock with
the brisk wind from ahead assisting us to the point that I had to whip a quick hitch
on a cleat to prevent the boat from getting away from us at the end of the
pier. After a quick 90-gallon fueling
and waste tank pump out, we were on our way at 0915 to run the 59 miles to this
marina.
As we ran out of the Yellow Creek
area exiting south of Goat Island, we ended up in trail of a Marlowe yacht,
probably of 60-ish feet in length. We
were running at 2400 RPM to try to make up a little time because of our late
start. The Marlowe, named Liberty, was
running a bit faster than we were, but we managed to keep it in sight most of
the way to the first lock of the day, 36 miles from Aqua Harbor.
At some point in the morning, I
called the Liberty on the radio to ask him if he knew that the locks operated
only on the even hour on national holidays.
He allowed as how he did not know that but would call ahead to check
once he got clear of the long canal we were in at the time. Later, he called to say that the Jamie
Whitten lock master said we could just come on ahead to lock down at any
time. Apparently our “lock luck” was
going to be operative a second day, SCORE!
Liberty informed the lock master that there were two of us and that he would
tie up in the lock to wait for us to catch up the couple of miles we lagged them.
We and the Liberty quickly fell
into a routine as we passed through the three locks we needed to transit in
order to reach Midway. He proceeded a
about 10 MPH, a pace we were comfortable with and took charge of communicating with
the locks as we approached telling them there were two of us and that he would enter
first and secure. All I had to do was
answer, “Miss Patricia copies all.” This
let Liberty and the lock master know we knew what the plan was. The lock masters at these closely spaced dams
had also communicated our presence to the lock next downstream so that precious
time was not wasted in preparing the lock chambers for us. We needed all the time we could get to make
Midway before dark.
In the first two locks, the wind
was howling through them buffeting us about after we were tied to the single
floating bollard at the amidship cleat.
The bow would get pushed out putting a tremendous strain on the single ½-inch
twisted nylon line used in the lasso rig we have. This wind also blew water squirting out of a
fissure in a steel plate in one lock back along the side of the boat thoroughly
wetting the person tending the line to the bollard. My station was at the helm to handle
emergencies as we locked which means you-know-who got wet, and SHE was not
amused.
We entered the channel at Midway
first because we needed fuel and because the fuel dock was farthest in along the
guest pier. We were quickly moored and
fueled, and then it was dark – good timing.
There had been some conversation
between the previous owner of the boat and me regarding the lube oil usage of
the two big gas engines. He believed
that we would need little make-up lube oil as we went along and left us only
two quarts of oil, but he was not counting on the fact that this is a delivery
and not the 1600-RPM running he claimed he did.
We are running 2200-2500 RPM, which is not really stressing the engines,
but decidedly more than he was used to running.
I had told him that the engines had apparently used a quart of oil each
the first day, based on my check of their oil when they were stone cold at
Wheeler Marina. This precipitated a
discussion about when to check the oil, he saying that the engine annual says
within minutes after shut down, and me saying that should result in a lower
level than waiting longer. As it turns
out, the book says to wait at least five minutes after shut down which is a lot
different meaning than his assumption. My
initial estimate of a quart apiece may not have been totally accurate as I was
checking the oil while the engines were still a little warm after the first day’s
run. By this morning, with more hours for
the oil to seep down to the sump from other areas in the engines, it looked
like maybe a half quart additional oil would suffice. The check today several hours after the engines
were shut down shows both engines used no oil.
I believe the high-speed experiments of day one probably contributed to
the oil usage, while day two with its moderate speeds throughout the day showed
almost no usage.
All this seemingly trivial
chitchat about a half a quart of oil is actually exceedingly important when
considering that this boat’s engines are actually pretty new in hours, with less
than 1,000 and that excessive oil usage could mean many thousands of dollars in
repairs to the new owner. At this point,
he and I agree that all is well with the engines and that my careful monitoring
of oil usage on this long trip will provide him valuable information during his
future trips in it. We will doubtless
run into a need in the near future to push the engines, and it will be good to
know what to expect in the way of oil use.
To that end, we went to the local auto supply store and bought two
gallons of engine oil. Now we can quit
worrying about whether or not we will run out of oil in some lonely stretch of
river.
Mary and I treated ourselves to a
fine dinner at Guy’s Place up on the hill above the Marina tonight. We stuff ourselves to no end and have decided
we will need no food tomorrow!
