Rockport Indiana to Henderson Island
Looking back upstream, as we were waking up and getting our bearings, we were surprised to see the looming cooling towers of the Rockport coal-fired generating plant. I guess we were too busy last night to notice them, and with the boat pointing upstream in the current….. there they were… Read More
Date: August 13, 2017
Time: Departed Mike’s Marina at 09:20. Arrived Henderson Island at 18:00.
Engine Hours: 8.1 hrs (2344.1 – 2352.2)
Distance: 61.3 miles
Weather: Partly cloudy with light winds. Temperature 80 degrees. Seas calm.
Rockport Indiana to Henderson Island (cont.)
We left Mike’s Marina (Rockport’s free dock) and only travelled a few miles before the engine overheated. Tool a quick look over the starboard side to check water flow and….. there was none in spite of having done all the usual engine checks before leaving the dock, With the engine now shut down, and with us drifting 100 feet off the right-decending-bank, we went to work figuring out the problem.
First up was to take a dive over the side and swim to the thru-hull to be sure nothing was plugging the inlet (like a notorious ice bag from the ships store). Nothing there, so then we checked the impeller to see if it was sound. On our Westerbeke 100 this was not easy to do since it required totally removing the water pump because the cover was mounted behind major water hoses. Once the impeller was out we discovered almost all the vanes had sheared off, a sign that it ran dry way too long. While Joe disassembled the heat exchanger and plucked out the loose vanes caught by the intake screen, Janet matched up the vanes to the core of the impeller to be sure they were all accounted for. Fortunately we carry spares of critical components, like impellers, so it was a simple matter of replacing the bad for good.
We were on our way again, but behind schedule, so we carried on for more hours than our typical day….. 8.1 to be exact. Deadman’s Island seemed like a possible stopping point but empty barges were moored all around. We backtrackes to Henderson Island where we anchored in 12′ with 65′ of chain and our Bruce claw.
