Four houseboats attended the
November 2013 St Johns River Cruise.
Meander – Jim and Carol
(Raisin)
Avitoon – Bud and Michaelle
(Penny)
The Ugly Duckling – Jerry
and Terry
Big Duck – Jeff & Suz
(Merlin)
Jim and Carol live in FL
just a short distance from the river.
Bud and Michaelle have a
boating business in Georgia.
Jerry and Terry are from
Pennsylvania.
Jeff & Suz are from
South Carolina.
Previous to the gathering on
the St Johns, only Jerry/Terry and Jeff/Suz had met face to face. Otherwise we
had only known each other via an Internet group.
As mentioned, the St Johns
River is Jim and Carol’s back yard. They know the river like the back of their
hand and not only led the great adventure but also narrated on the VHF as they
identified sights and wildlife along the way. You’ll find Carols daily blog
entries below, giving me a reason not to detail one of my own, but I will fill
in some technical info.
You may have read in a
previous blog that I had replaced the troublesome ST (Special Trailer) tires on
Big Duck’s trailer with LT (Light Truck) tires.
The new LT tires provided a
comfort level I never had even with brand new ST tires. This was brought home
by the fact that there were failures of ST tires on both the GA and PA trailers
on the way down.
You’ll read in the account
below, that Big Duck had trouble at the ramp; couldn’t get the engine running
once in the water. I just barely had the engine hatch open when Jim and Bud
dashed over and were climbing around in the bilge sorting things out. Jim used
to race top fuel dragsters and Bud does every aspect of boating work
(maintenance/repair/restoration/canvas). I decided I’d just let them have at
it.
The first thought was fuel -
maybe too much, as we could see raw fuel through the carb on the intake
manifold. We tried waiting and ether without results – even pulled and dried
the plugs. I didn’t tell the guys that I had just ‘rebuilt’ the carb for the
same starting problem.
There was spark, but
seemingly weak. Eventually they decided to put the points back in the
distributor. A year ago I had installed an aftermarket pointless system by
Pertronics, which eliminated timing and dwell adjustments. It had been working
very well as far as I could tell and I couldn’t see how removing it would help,
but I let them do their thing.
With the points back in, she
lit up as soon as I turned the key – and we were on our way. We might have put
the old coil back in, but it required a resistor and I didn’t find one in the
spare parts locker so we left the Pertronics “Flamethrower” coil in. Boy was it
nice to have Big Duck running again.
We ran all day, at about
1,600 RPM, but late in the day I noticed an occasional stumble. We couldn’t reset
the timing when we put the points back in – didn’t have a light, so I thought
that might be part of the problem and maybe I’d need to tweak the slow speed
needle adjustments. Maybe I’d static time her tomorrow morning and then adjust
the slow speed mixture.
The next morning she light
right up and purred. What a relief. But after half a day of running (again at
about 1,600) she started stumbling real bad. When it started to stumble it
seemed like I could find an rpm that was good, but now she was loping like
crazy. I notified the others that I was dropping the hook to investigate. This
time The Ugly Duckling was close, so he rafted for support.
When I got into the engine
compartment I noticed the “Flamethrower” coil was way too hot. I would have put
the old coil back in, but the old one required a ballast resistor and there
were no nuts on the terminals not to mention that one of the terminals on the
old coil was stripped. I dug around for nuts that would fit but couldn’t find
any – but I did find the ballast resistor.
Jerry, on The Ugly Duckling
said, “Hand me that coil.”
He took the coil below and
soon came up with a nut to fit the good threads and another nylock nut to fit
the stripped side. He even handed me a set of nutdrivers for the installation.
My troubles were over for
the rest of the cruise, although I did notice a drop in my mpg, probably due to
timing – but at this point with a smooth running mill, I wasn’t about to mess
with timing.
It turned out that our schedule for the cruise almost coincided
with a Memorial Service for my Son-In-Law’s grandparents which was being held
in FL, about 100 miles from the ramp. We decided that we’d overnight a couple
days so we could be in the area for the service. There was a Walmart nearby
where we could Wallydock -- the
families were ‘motelling’ nearby.
Wishing to ‘freshen’ up
before the service, and knowing we might run out of water in Big Ducks fresh
water tank, I scouted out possibilities for a fill up. Low and behold, there
was a faucet only yards from where we were parked in the Walmart lot. There was
a fellow with a Walmart vest on nearby, so I told him I planned to ‘steal’ some
water from the faucet near the auto service entrance. He said, “No problem.
Help yourself.”
I pulled up next to the faucet
and got the hose ready, but before I could get the water going into Big Duck’s
tank I got ‘Barney Fifed’ by a security guard who drove up in his cruiser.
“I wouldn’t bother with that
hose. You can’t do that!” he exclaimed in a most Barney Fife tone.
I explained I’d just talked
to a fellow who said it was OK.
“He’s just a janitor!”
Barney exclaimed with a puffed out chest.
Merlin and I chuckled all
the way down the street where we found a faucet at a gas station. While we were
filling the water tank, a fellow said he made a “U” turn to come back and see
Big Duck. We were delighted and welcomed him aboard.
The 500 miles home was
uneventful except for a gas stop. When I got out of the van a man approached
and said he needed $6 for gas to get home. I had a 20 and a 5 so I gave him the
five. No thanks or anything, he stood there looking at me.
I asked, “Yes?”
He said, “I need another dollar.”
I said, “Pardon me?”
He said, “Well, I don’t want
to have to ask someone else.”
I
almost took the 5 out of his hand.
Here is Carol’s account.
(Thank you Carol)
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