Well, it ran until about 1:45 am. I’m not sure I ever actually slept; if I did it was a light sleep as I listened for any changes in the rumble of the heater and the click of the fuel pump. I’m pretty sure I woke up immediately when it shut down. I turned off the system, lay there for a while, remembered that I had seen another fuel line valve for the furnace (I think it was just off because we happened to be pulling fuel from the port tank; this was the one for the starboard tank). I figured it couldn’t hurt to go try turning them both on, so I did that and the heater ran until about 4:00 am. I decided to bag it for the night and wait until morning.

It fired right up again this morning and we’re up to 55 degrees. But why does it keep shutting down after a few hours? T, I may give you a holler this evening if you’ll be around. I’m kinda out of ideas, although I will go look for another filter, per Rob’s suggestion and I will revisit all of your notes about possible alternate causes.

Is this starting to seem like the “Hurricane Heater blog” to anyone else? God knows my life is feeling like it revolves around the presence or absence of heat. I escape to work every day where the world is warm and normal. Then back to the challenges of boat living at night. Still, I do love being on the water.

So I got home after a 14 hour work day, expecting to be an exhausted woman. Then as I was coming down the docks in the dark and the wind, I started to feel that “fierce-warrior-goddessness” beginning to flow…I am NOT going to be beaten by a stupid heater. No way, no how.

Took off my work clothes, donned my grubbies, and headed into the engine room. Found the fuel filter immediately (and then the light bulb came on “Oh, that fuel filter…yeah, I changed that one last year. I remember now”). Ah-ha! I was in the laz last week checking out random boxes labeled “Paint,” some of which contained paint, some of which contained all manner of other things. One of which was filters. Racor R12T filters, no less.

Only took about 10 minutes start to finish. There was definitely some sludge in the bottom of the filter assembly, so clearly this needed to happen, whether or not it’s the primary issue. Primed the new filter and fired up the system. Heater is currently running smoothly and I am optimistically heading off to bed, fully expecting to find it operating in the morning. (Imagine my crushing disappointment if it isn’t…better yet, let’s not imagine that…)

Tana, Rob, I love you guys! Thanks for all the moral support and technical advice during the process. Cross your fingers and I shall report in again tomorrow!

Got no heat again. Woke up yesterday morning and knew it was out (my boat sixth sense is apparently developing). A whopping 52 degrees and you all know how much I love that game. So I checked the systems. Antifreeze seemed low and I had opened up another radiator in the last week so I figured the fluid in the system may be too low. Added some, fired it up, and it was great for a couple of hours. Got all the way up to 64 before dying again.

I have Tana’s comment haunting me (“check your fuel filter”) and I know that’s the next thing I need to investigate, but I don’t know where the frickin’ thing is. I think it’s just an inline little thing, so basically I need to go back and follow the line from the heater to the tank to track it down.

But I’ve been so busy with work and kids that I’ve just taken the socks/hat/fleece road for the past couple of days instead. Right now it’s a lovely 55 in the salon.

And yes, I actually talked to the broker yesterday about putting my lovely KJ on the market. She’s just too much for me to handle by myself, certainly while pregnant. Since Greg abandoned ship so abruptly, it’s draining all of my financial resources too quickly for my comfort. I’m quite angry with him for the crappy, irresponsible way he left and think it’s probably best for my mental health to move on in life to the next adventure. I know she may take a while to sell and who knows, I may change my mind again. But for now this seems like the practical road to take. She’s quite a steal ~ let me know if you know anyone who might be interested.