In a Daytona Loop

Reving the Engine

Like the cars in last weekend’s 24-hour race at Daytona International Raceway(1), we were stuck in Daytona on a continuous loop. 

It all started when we eagerly left the slip around 10 am last Saturday. We had grand plans to continue our descent down the coast. Our son, AJ, and his friend, Macy, were coming to visit in about two weeks.

You may recall we were laid up for almost two weeks (with one pleasant week with our friends in Naples) while getting bottom paint and some other recommended work. After returning from Naples, we stayed at a good enough AirBnB overlooking Daytona Beach. We took a couple of beach walks, had a drink at the Hard Rock bar, skeptically tried the local Mexican taco place(2), and picked up some last-minute parts and groceries before returning our rental car. 

Our good-enough Airbnb room at Datona Beach. Nice view. But not like the view we have from Sacagawea.

Famous Datona Beach, where cars used to race in the early 1900s. Cars are still allowed—with restrictions. E.g. Not during turtle breeding season. 

Daytona Boatworks splashed Sakagewea around 4 pm on Friday. After paying the hefty bill, we eagerly took back control of Sakagewea and scooted it over to a pre-arranged slip at the marina next door for one night. The barely 5-foot depths along the well-marked channel put us on high alert, but we pulled in without issues. We looked forward to this moment when we could relax, sleeping in our bed again and anticipating a return South to see new sites! 

Into the Pit

On Saturday we got up leisurely and hoped for a quiet anchorage after a 3-4 hour run. 

We repeated our same routine; Mike did his engine checks, he started the engines from the flybridge, I threw off the lines at his ready signal, and climbed onboard. Mike moved the throttle into reverse, but this time, it all came to a crushing halt. 

“I have no Starboard throttle!” Mike exclaimed into our 2-person radios. “Tie us back up.” 

Back on the dock, you may wonder, like I did, if it was the throttle setting issue we experienced on our first journey. Unfortunately, that would be too easy a solution. This time, only the starboard engine refused to go into gear--neither forward nor reverse.

 We've never had a throttle problem on previous boats. This was a new raceway for Mike, so to speak. This longish, hefty boat has electric hydraulic throttles. There is no cable. However, there is a lot that can go wrong. One of the clues was that this was a sudden failure. We never had a smidgeon of an issue with the throttles going into gear before. 

Mike called a mechanic he met at the dock back in Palm Beach. He suggested a few things to test as well as another specialist mechanic to call.

Being this was a Saturday, most mechanics were taking their well-deserved weekend. Our marina neighbors noticed we didn't head out and warmly offered advice and contact info for trusted mechanics too. I estimate that a quarter of the boats on our dock were full-time transients, like us, liveaboards, or came to fix/hang out at their boat every day. It's nice to be a part of this marine community and have instant rapport. 

Bringing in the Expert

One challenge we had to overcome was to ask for a last-minute extension at the marina. At that point, we hadn't scheduled a mechanic and didn't know how many days we would need. 

"We've got boats coming in with a claim on your slip," the marina scheduler tersely said via phone. "...you can stay until Monday. Just keep us abreast of your progress and we'll have to talk to the Office Manager on Monday," she warned. She knew that bringing in a mechanic on a weekend was impossible.

Mike spent the next five hours in the engine room working through the suggestions and talking via phone to various mechanics. One of the tests bypassed all the electronics, and that did not give us any forward gear as it should have; this pointed to an issue in the gear. 

On Monday morning, Mike narrowed down his choices to a highly qualified mechanic who could come five days later on Thursday. Five more days in Daytona. Hmph. 

Having a plan made us feel better, even though we had so many unknowns. 

We had planned to meet AJ and Macy in Ft. Lauderdale to maximize their fun and minimize their trip from Ft. Lauderdale airport. You could say their whole trip was in jeopardy. It was a sad call to AJ to inform him of this bump in the road. We would all have to wait for the mechanic's diagnosis to know if there would be little damage to the planned visit (and our savings) or a whole lotta damage. 

We also didn't know if the mechanic could fix Sacagawea in our slip or we would have to have the boat towed back next door to Daytona Boatworks for a longer stay. We would not be able to live aboard Sacagawea if that was the case.

On Monday morning we walked over to the marina office(3) for a face-to-face with the Office Manager. You can picture our pleading faces, asking for a stay past Thursday. 

"Let me look at the schedule," she said. We crossed our fingers behind our backs. "Yes, you can stay through Friday. Just keep us informed," she said, sending us great relief. 

So we had four more days to wait patiently in Daytona. We returned our rental car the previous Thursday and decided not to get another. Instead, we made lemonade out of lemons, as they say, and focused on Sacagawea. I cleaned more of the bilge under the engines. Mike diagnosed a fresh water leak. He also began to disconnect some electronics that the previous owner(s) installed, but we wouldn't be using. We scraped off stickers from the exterior that were meaningful to the previous owner. 

Yup, that’s me cleaning the bilge in the engine room. Still better than sitting in front of a computer all day! I found two missing belt cover nuts in the process. 

On Thursday, Mack the Mechanic(4) arrived on time with tools at the ready. Mike shadowed Mack's every move. Luckily, Mack was extroverted, so he explained as he went what he was checking and thinking. At one point, he popped out of the engine room hatch with what looked to me like a large nut.   "This is your shaft, Mike," said Mack.

"Oh, let me see that!" said Mike. Mach went on to explain how the shafts work. Mike received a Master Class about our gears in real-time. 

Mack confirmed it was not an electrical issue based on the tests with the solenoid and wires. He found that there was no oil pressure in the marine gear.(5) 

"Sometimes there is debris internally that makes the shifter sticky," explained Mack. "There may be damage in the gearbox too." We were surprised to hear this since we had no worsening problems with the throttle--our problem was sudden. We had the transmission oil tested during the inspection in December. The metal numbers(6) for both engines were high, but not high enough to alarm the inspector. It did, however, alarm Mack. Even though the biggest problem was with the starboard gearbox, he was concerned the port gear could have issues too.

Plan to Get Back Into the Race

So the plan was to remove the gearboxes, open them up, and replace broken parts or get new gears (TBD after analysis). Concurrently, Mack found new gearboxes in case a gearbox was beyond repair.(7) We were relieved to hear that he could do all the work in our current slip.

View of Sacagawea from the Marina Office. It’s third from the left. A short pelican fly, but a 15-minute walk.

I walked back to the Marina office and asked, for a fourth time, with as much charm and tolerance as I could bear, for at least another week. I had to convince her we couldn't move and were doing everything to speed along a fix. I think they were concerned that the Daytona 500(8) tourists are coming soon and they reserve slips months ahead. I would guess they charge much more for slips. She allowed us to stay until February 9 and agreed to charge us the cheaper weekly rate. "But if you leave before the ninth, I won't give you a refund for the days you don't use," she explained, somewhat helpfully. 

“I have to ask,” I said with a smile, “We've already been here six days. Can you charge me a weekly rate for that?" 

“No," she said with a fake smile and then she turned and picked up the ringing desk phone. As I turned and walked out the door she yelled, "Good luck." I waved and left to share the news with Mike. 

Mack returned on Friday, again on time, with a trainee--but not the muscle man we were expecting. He was more of a yoga teacher type who could maneuver in tight engine rooms. As they embarked on the disassembly, they discovered the pump that helps us get the oil out of the gears was not working!(9) That implied a reason for the poor condition of the transmission oil.(10)

Gearbox freed of the engine, on the dock. Ugly, perhaps. But a lot of power is transferred inside.

The Pit Crew

As we are stuck here in a mini-loop in Daytona, we hope to make the most of this time. We have found the warmth of folks at our dock helpful. We plan to take a tour of Daytona Raceway over the weekend. We finally went through extra parts and made a log of where we are storing them for future reference. I'm now a user of Instacart for grocery delivery. 

We appreciate all your emotional support, family, and friends! We're sure to have more interesting adventures in store soon.

Footnotes for Fun Fact Fans

(1) 2024 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship at Daytona Raceway

(2) Here in Florida, the Mexican-style restaurants are different than those in California. The ones we tried were just okay. Based on the Latino section in the grocery stores, I think we need to try Equadorean here. We see that more than Cuban at this point. 

(3) At our slip in Halifax Marina we are a 15-minute walk to the Harbor Office. It's the opposite side of a very large, C-shaped marina. The Harbor Master and his helper offered to motor me back and forth from our boat to the office in their skiff from now on. So fun!

(4) Not the mechanic's real name. He told Mike he had a workshop with special tools to open up and fix transmissions, if necessary. He used to work for Yanmar--our engine brand. 

(5) On the Nordic Tug Mike installed a gauge for the transmission oil pressure. We wish we had one on Sacagawea!

(6) A high metal count implies internal metal scrapings in the transmission oil. Would we have bought Sacagawea with this knowledge? We probably would have. Perhaps we would have negotiated the price down for that. 

(7) The gearbox weighs about 105 lbs. It took about 2 hours of labor for two mechanics to undo all hoses and bolts from the starboard gearbox. Then it took another hour to insert temporary wood supports for the engine. The gearbox assembly is part of the stern engine mounts.  They did the port in 1-hour.

(8) The Daytona 500 is Daytona's largest annual tourist attraction. Tickets for a 4-day pass start at $550 each. 

(9) One oil pump changes oil from all oil-using systems. This broken pump would not have been found during the inspection. 

(10) We’ll be changing all of the oils after the gearboxes and new oil pumpout part are complete.