Kevin with Cummins came over Wednesday to do the final check out of the raw water supply and air supply specifications. We left the dock at 8:15 and returned at 10:00 with a high-five of compliance with specifications for installation. YEAH!

Trip to the Savannah Snapper banks today. We hoped for better weather, but it blew 10 to 15 out of the NE and it was sloppy with most of the boat having a day in the salt. We didn't make it out to R-8 where we planned but we did travel 8 miles or so past R-7 which is 54 miles or so from the dock. Andrew wasn't feeling too well, so it was a fine place to stop. We hooked into a couple of peanut dolphin and 1 nice dolphin, we had plenty of cutoffs and some cudas, a king, nice "little tuny" and some sharks and black sea bass while bottom fishing. The king was fun on light tackle and a tasty dolphin will end up on everyone's dinner table. One king was noticed skyrocketing beyond the baits. All in all a decent shake down trip and the boat sounds seem to raise fish and bring porposes to the boat to curisoly watch us and easily snack on conservation dolphin fish releases by the crew.

Total distance from dock 54 miles. Total trip with trolling 133 miles or so and fuel usage was 134 gallons. Left dock around 6:45 and arrived back at the dock around 5:30 I think. It was really a good shake down trip as we certainly disloged some mud dobber nests and had a few minor issues that were noticed. A full inspection after the trip is not complete. There are 3 primary bildge pumps and 2 high water backup pumps. The primary engine room pump quit working and was due to the fuse holder shaking loose which I figured out last evening after an adult beverage. The aft primary pump should have the float switch looked at as it appeared to work on manual only from the helm; an exhaust surge tube strap broke loose and clearly will not stay put after further inspection.

Sea trial on Friday as scheduled (including a non-schedule sunny morning) with 2 reps from Cummins, 2 laptops, a web of wires and hoses, and several hours later, a report after running at various RPMs in a 15 knot wind in Calibogue Sound.

It is as we suspected prior to the sea trial. Two Cummins issues:

• Too much restriction on the raw water supply to meet the pump manufacturer's specifications and,
• Not enough air flow across the air intake for the starboard engine.

Both issues are probably easily solved by first, changing the hand crafted fiberglass water supply pipes to flexible hose and reversing the blowers to blow air into the engine room in lieu of out while also directing flow towards the inboard side of the starboard engine. These items shouldn't take too long to repair, however I haven't heard from the boat yard yet to schedule the fixes. The non-Cummins list, however, is a longer one and I'm anxious to complete the project and be on my own list which should include fishing! Also, don't forget all hose connections below the waterline must have 2 hose clamps, especially those hoses in hard to inspect areas like under the ENGINE! The photo above was added to the site on 10/18/07 after removal of the fiberglass water supply pipes were replaced and the minimal hose clamps were discovered

p.s. Note: No engine wiring installed by the Captain were issues!