Yacht Haven, Drummond Island, MI to St. Ignace, MI    46.7 nautical miles

45°51’58.8″N 84°43’06.8″W
45.866341, -84.718551
Elevation: 581 feet

We officially started the Loop today leaving Drummond Island!  Day 1 on the loop!

Boat Therapy

Yacht Haven has two master marine mechanics I talked to two of them yesterday. I wanted to talk to these guys about diesel motors. I had always heard that you don’t want to run a diesel engine at one rpm all day and it’s a good idea to run them hard at least once a day. Also, I had a voltmeter on the starboard engine that was always measuring what seemed to be battery voltage when I had the engine off; when I had it running the meter shows a bit more voltage.

So, the answer to the first question is that I can run these engines all day at the same rpm and I don’t have to run them hard. What I should not do, is run the engines just below the rpms that the turbos kick in because this could cause the engines to go in and out of the turbo kicking in. That would be bad for the turbos. This would mean that I would not want to run engines at 2600 rpms to 2700 rpms because the turbos kick in at 2800. You got that!

The next question was answered by the other master mechanic Brent. He told me that the control panel that is on our boat is exactly the same panel that Bayliner put on their smaller boats. On our boat we can check the batteries at a main electrical panel, but the smaller boats don’t have this panel. So, on the starboard engine which its alternator that charges our house batteries the volt meter is always on, so you can read the battery power at any time. So, the starboard volt meter is always on and there are no problems.

How much did this cost me? When I paid the bill it was $57.00 as Boat Therapy.

So why did I need Boat Therapy?

Earlier on the trip traveling from Houlton to Marquette we brought the boat up to 2800 rpms to kick the turbos in. All went well till the port side engine dropped ten grand rpm in about one second. I shut the engines down and everything seemed fine, so we bought the engines up to 2800 again the turbos kicked in and ran fine for about 3 minutes than the same thing happened. The port side engine rpms dropped like a rock. This was very disturbing to me and I could not think of what was making this rpm drop when the turbos kicked in. Well, Tom had been texting his kids and his daughter Emily suggested changing the fuel filters, we changed the filters and the there is no problem with the turbos “thanks Emily”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Therapies

 

Departing Washington Island

The channel leaving Washington Island is quite narrow.  As we neared the exit fishermen in small boats deliberately moved into the the channel making it almost impossible to progress forward. Mary kept the boat slowly, cautiously nudging forward.  She should have run them over.

Summoned

Happy Ending. Dale will not be on the next America’s most wanted. However, he needs to plan on being summoned again in October 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across Huron – more big water (not a lot to see)

 

Mackinac Island

 

 

Grocery Shopping

 

Dock Tales

Our first Dock Tales on the Loop were hosted by two very gracious people from North Carolina,  Pat and Edit Mason on the Esther Girl.  Next time on our boat!

 

Poet Laurate (Tom)

Heading out from Drummond Isle
West across Huron for forty mile
Tonight we dock in another place
If you’re looking at maps it’s St Ignace
Officially on the “loop” today
On that route they plan to stay
Drummond’s Yacht Haven we were happy to find
Had mechanics with answers, helped ease our mind

If you’re in that part of the lakes I’d say
It’s worth your while to spend a day