Time to make the 1200 mile trip home to the Bay from South FL. The boat had other ideas. First it was a failing battery charger. I caught that early and had it replaced before the trip was to start.
On departure day the bow thruster offered little actual thrust. We left anyway and planned a diver at the first stop to clean the thruster prop, the suspected issue. Along the way the engine was running about 14 degrees hotter than normal.
We talked to our boat mechanic and determined he had likely installed a defective thermostat. We turned around and headed back to the home slip, a full day 130 mile round-trip getting nowhere.
The mechanic came on Monday and sure enough, it was a bad thermostat. Once replaced the engine temp was actually about three degrees cooler than before. Bonus!
Late in the day the diver came, cleared a lot of hard growth from the backside of the bow thruster blades and bang, it was working as intended again.
On Tuesday we made a 163 miles run to Daytona. It was about eight and a half hours, all good. The next morning we departed early with a plan to get to Jekyll Island for the evening. The boat had other ideas.
Upon first acceleration to planing speed the automatic trim tabs (ZipWake) did not operate as usual. The control screen indicated Interceptor failure. So for the second time this trip we turned around and headed back to the departure slip.
A morning of trouble shooting and an afternoon looking for a haul-out and repair marina followed. We left the boat and flew home the next day. The replacement parts have been ordered. Hopefully the trip can restart Memorial Day.
