We continued cruising on New Jersey’s intracoastal because wind and wave heights on the Atlantic were not appealing.
We had only cruised about 90 minutes when the raw water exhaust alarm went off (it is really loud)!! As Jonny examined the situation he noticed that white smoke was emerging from the exhaust - not a good sign. He pulled over to a safe spot to see what he could do. The safe spot was actually an intersection in the intracoastal - not great, but certainly adequate in these narrow passages.
A SeaTow boat was towing another boat and we hailed him thinking that we might need a tow. He said he’d return after he finished his tow. In the meantime, Jonny kept checking whatever he could and shortly Captain Wayne returned. He tied up next to us and was very generous in reviewing with Jonny anything that could be done to diagnose the problem.
After checking the strainers, the fluids levels and the impeller, he finally thought to try to blow air through the through holes thinking they might be clogged with debris. That seemed to work and the water was flowing again.
We took off after this two hour sojourn with Captain Wayne following us through Point Pleasant Canal, a narrow channel lined with homes that we had to go through.
Things seemed OK so he took off and we proceeded.
But it wasn’t long before the alarm went off and smoke started coming out of the exhaust again. We were lucky to find a safe anchorage in nearby Silver Bay, just north of Tom’s River. Jonny slowly eased us in there and we anchored for the night. Now we definitely would need professional help to solve our problem. After consulting with friends familiar with the area, Jonny learned of a nearby marina with a very good reputation. Of course, it was too late to reach anyone so we had to wait for the next day to call. So we tried to relax for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Fortunately, we don’t have a tight schedule to keep and we’re just hoping that the problem is relatively minor. We had an easy dinner of angel hair pasta with pesto and a salad and went to bed fairly early. Jonny was exhausted having not slept well the night before and the stress of not knowing how to fix this latest problem.
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