Tiffany Rose out of action, waiting for a diagnoses
Very keen to check into this loss of coolant problem, we got up before 7am thinking that, as with many marinas we have been at, they would be up and running around then. Not a soul around. 8am still quiet. 9am hmm - where is everybody? I asked some guy who was on another boat and he said "They usually open around 9 or 9:30...guess it depends how they feel." In the meantime, I have some things apart trying to figure it out. No hose seems to be leaking so that narrows it down - may very well be a leaking heat exchanger, but I've never taken one apart. Around 9:30 I found someone milling around the back work area. He came to have a look and said he'd have to send the other guy over, it is more his area of expertise. This was now starting to look like a long drawn out process. Around 10:30 the other guy arrives and not long after two of them show up to check it out. They discover the same thing that the leak is from the heat exchanger, but didn't know if they could fix it. Ooo, maybe an even longer process. As it turned out it was a small hole and they were able to repair and test it. YES! We are in business and will be able to move over to another sailing club where some other folks we met were going to be. Shirley and Christopher have been exploring around Wilson gathering the requisite pictures of the area and return to the good news.
In goes the repaired heat exchanger and off go the mechanics. I happily poor in a bunch of antifreeze eager to run and test. But I need not start it up to test it. Alas my keen visual analysis of the situation reveals all the antifreeze coming out from the back where the heat exchanger is. Arrrgh! Now to find those guys again. Moving on soon is not looking good now. In they come again and discover that the hardest to reach hose was not attached well. Fixed again. But now I am out of fresh antifreeze to test it out, and there is none in the marina. Luckily one of the guys was going to town and he picked some up.
Test again. Success! Start up the engine to test it under pressure. So far so good. Yikes - overheating!! Now it is afternoon and they are busy doing other things. My guess it is an airlock in the system, which is hard to get out because of the long run from the engine to the hot water heater. I work on it myself the rest of the day...and into the evening. At 4pm I go to the office to pay the bill and guess what - everybody is gone and the place is dark and locked. By 8:30 it finally gets worked out and the final, final test has the engine running just fine!
Looks like we can depart in the morning now, better check the forecast again.
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