Took TB2 out for some testing between storms. Left from San Diego's Shelter Island launch ramp around 8:30am. Weather was actually great - high overcast, light 5 knot SW breeze, air temp in the 60s. Water conditions were not bad - clean & blue, 62 -63 degrees, only small wind chop, and even though the swells were an honest 6 -7 feet, the long 13-15 second period made the ride very managable.

The E-TEC ran great, just as before. We zoomed out to the Lower 9 Mile Bank (which is about 11 miles offshore), and did some field testing on deep water rockfish with the Shimano Butterfly jigs. While the deep water rockfish season is closed in CA, it is open in Mexico, which is where the Lower 9 Mile Bank is located.

We did a few drops on meter marks in 355 feet of water with a 160 gram (5.5 oz.) Butterfly Jig on 50lb PowerPro on our Shimano Thunnus reel and Tcurve deep jigging rod, and came up with a 24" Lingcod and a 4 lb Salmon Grouper (Bocaccio). We also lost another, possibly larger, fish.

The performance of the jig with the PowerPro was amazing. There was a moderate drift, yet we were able to fish basically up-and-down even with the relatively light jig.

Fun as that was, we wanted to put a lot of miles on the boat, so we decided to check out the Coronado Islands, which are about 8 miles to the south. We ran down there, looped around the islands, then came back to San Diego. Total trip was around 61 miles.

Was the E-TEC perfect? Almost. . .the motor ran perfectly until we hit a large wake at a bad angle coming in to San Diego Bay at the end of the day. The boat slammed into the wake, slowing suddenly, then. . .you guessed it, the "Low Oil" alarm went off again. This happened once more, same situation, then nothing else for the rest of the day.

Called Sunset Marine about the problem, and we agreed that it was nothing major to worry about. We'll take the boat in sometime later to see if it's an overly-sensitive pressure sensor or a software fix is required.

Oh, almost forgot. . . The Simrad AP12R went into some kind of fault mode on the way out to the Lower 9, and refused to go into auto mode. A continuous alarm tone would come on wherever we put power to the unit. On Tuesday, Simrad Tech Support said "Send in the drive unit", so we have to pull the steering wheel again. . .

A painful way to end 2005. . .but in a good way. Picked up TB2 from Sunset Marine, and brought her home.

The fuel was polished, the tank scrubbed, a clamshell vent cover put in place, and the fuel/water seperator filter moved to the transom. A new fuel pump was installed under warranty (thank you BRP) and everything was buttoned up. Doug reported that the engine was running great in the test tank. Total cost: $983 (that's the painful part).

The bulk of the cost was the fuel polishing / tank cleaning: $575, plus a hazardous waste disposal fee.

Cleaning the tank yielded over a gallon of water and sediment. Doug predicts no further problems with the fuel system, as long as we can keep the water under control.

Now all we need to do is get the boat on the water...

Doug called back. The good news: BRP will cover the entire fuel pump replacement. The bad news: Fuel polishing will cost around $500, and can't be done until 12/26 or 12/27; and the cost to add the clamshell vent cover and move the fuel/water separator: $250.

Got the call from Doug Mallas, head mechanic at Sunset Marine. The good news is that they found the problem, and it's not the E-TEC's fault. The bad news is that they found the problem, and it's not the E-TEC's fault.

Apparently the boat has quite a bit of water and sediment (salt, other debris) in the tank. Doug suspects that the design of the Edgewater's tank vent (which has the openings pointed down) allows spray to enter

Bow fuel
tank vent

. Enough water goes through the system to get past the water separator filter (which had corrosion on the top, and was partially filled with water), and into the fuel pump. When the pump sits for a while, the gears rust and stick. When Doug put power to the pump outside the motor, the pump squealed and had a very hard time spinning up.

This might also explain the low voltage situation which triggered the "Check Engine" alarm. If the gears were stuck, the pump would be draining a lot of current trying to spin up, and the voltage should drop significantly. Obviously, a malfunctioning pump would prevent the motor from running as well.

So there are a few obvious questions:

• Will BRP cover the replacement pump under warranty? We're hoping they will.
• What will it cost to remove the water and sediment from the tank?
• What can be done to prevent this from happening in the future?

The answers are:

• We have to wait to hear back from BRP about the pump.
• A fuel specialist will have to come down to polish the fuel (this is pretty pricey - $200 - $600)
• Doug is mounting a large clamshell cover horizontally over the vent to shield the openings, and moving our water separator filter to the transom, where we will be able to monitor it more easily (note that the current location of the filter, which is under the deck in the bilge, poses a potential fire hazard.)

We'll keep our fingers crossed on the cost.

>%^$^&! Was going to go fishing, launching out of Dana Landing in Mission Bay. The trailer worked fine, but the "Check Engine" alarm came on again! And this time, the motor died and would not restart. Back to Sunset Marine.

New brake assemblies arrived 30-Nov-2005. Replaced the adjusters with Nexmar SS adjusters. The Nexmar flush spray heads did not work - they were too large to fit in the stock openings, and we didn't want to drill out the holes.

Other than that, everything went together pretty easily.The left wheel came off much more easily than the right one. Afterwards, we examined the right inside bearing and discovered that the extreme heat earlier had actually melted part of the grease seal and it was wedged into the bearing, preventing it from spinning!

Took the trailer out around the block and everything worked as expected. Now the question is...how long can we make them last?