Shady Harbor to Waterford, town wall

While I have no ill will for Shady Harbor it was time to go. There's a nice restaurant there, but nothing else -- sad since most every marina up and down the Hudson is in or near a cute town. 

That said I was nervous about leaving. Russ spent the last 10 days fixing the turbo (which meant removing the thing from our engine and reattaching it, something he's never done before) AND installed a new throttle system. Again, something he'd never done before.

So we tested. While tied to the dock we do engine checks: Engines start (yay), no leaks (yay!). Disengage throttles from the props and test idle forward on starboard (check) and backward (check). Repeat for the port side -- everything checks out! Now engage props, check starboard forward (yep) and backward (yep). Now port, NOPE. Boat should move one way, but moves the other, and the small panel fills with angry, blinking lights.

Russ working on the starboard engine.
That's the unmounted turbo in his hands.

Engines off, Russ assessed the switches. (At this point I really don't know WHAT is going on but....)

Retest port side, and yep, all working correctly. Yay for Russ!

Lines off, and we started out. I manipulated inQuest away from the dock and started to back into the Hudson. Given the current and wind were against us I put some oomf into it...

Shiny new throttles... oooOOOoooo

And lost all control of the throttle. Error codes went off, blinking madly on the display, and she wouldn't respond to anything. Looking out the back we were drifting into a small pocket cruiser. I had seen the owner earlier playing with his engines. While I called out to tell him to fend off (I mean we weren't coming in fast or anything, but fast enough) Russ was trying to restart the throttle. 

There's a tiny turtle on this log.
In fact, while here we saw herons, bald eagles,
and a seal. Quite the nature respite.

Thankfully our boat got twisted by the current, bringing the stern away from the small cruiser and towards the dock. We bumped it, but that got us close enough to get the pocket-cruiser guy a line. He helped walk her stern back while Russ got other lines ready, and I managed to bring the nose over just enough to get it on the dock (the right engine came back online enough to use at slow speeds).

Tied up we turned the engines off and Russ started sleuthing through the documents. He had done it before, but must have missed something. The idle ("slow bell") speeds worked just fine. The problem was when we put pushed harder. (Again, I have no clue WHAT is going on but...)

Editors note: He flipped 4 dip switches, 2 in the port control unit and 2 in the starboard.... go figure).

In addition to the turbo and throttles, Russ
installed a new horn and search light.
And repaired his bike. He's never bored.

After a few minutes (and a visit by David, just to have 2-heads working on the issue) we tested again. This time, while attached to the dock we not only try the slow speeds forward/backwards but we put a little heat into it. And everything was fine.

We cast off. This time we made it to the Albany Yacht Club (where we pumped out and fueled up), to the Troy Lock (where we locked through after waiting 15 minutes standing station), then sidled onto the wall at Waterford. All fiddly things that require throttles you can rely on. 

And they worked just fine.

(Yay Russ!)