No Flames

Yesterday, we rode our bikes over to the Drop Anchor Inn to find Rich and Jill sitting out by the ocean soaking up rays.

We all went out to dinner at the Pilot House last night.  Jill drove home topless in the Cordoba.  Nice night.


Then this morning we met for a great breakfast at the Green Turtle Inn.  We really enjoyed having R & J around for a few days, but they had to fly back to the land of long pants and socks today.

Later in the day, I was sitting in the cockpit eating popcorn, when I smelled the unmistakable smell of electronics burning.  I checked the batteries and most stuff on my boat and found no problems.  Then I checked which way the wind was blowing, and decided the smell was coming from Mike and Kay Anne's boat next to us.  They were not home, so I stuck my head in their cabin--no smell.  I was able to track it to the exhaust vent of their engine compartment.  I shut off their shorepower, and sniffed around some more.  Definitely the engine compartment.  I went up to the marina office, and asked them to call Mike on his cell phone.  No answer.  I usually will not board someone's boat if they are not there, but this might have been an emergency.  (and my boat was right next to theirs)  So I got Phil from Buddy to join me, and we got onboard.  We raised the engine compartment, and confirmed the smell was coming from there.  But could not find the source.  Mike has a halon fire extinguisher in the engine compartment, so if there had been a flame, it would have been extinguished immediately.  Without finding an obvious source of the problem, we closed it back up, and waited for Mike and Kay Anne to return.

When they arrived, we explained what we had done, and helped Mike try to find the problem.  Turns out that his boat has two bilge pumps, and one of them had burned up.  (Phil and I only found the good pump when we looked for the problem earlier.)  So we disconnected the bad pump and assured Kay Anne that her boat would not burn up over night.  Sink maybe, but no fire.

Later, everyone gathered on our back porch.
Mike, Phil, Kay Anne, Dalai (the dog), Cathie, and Pam.