First Mechanical Problem! Today when I went to check the oil, I found soot deposits on the exhaust manifold next to the exhaust riser heatshield on the port engine. I took the turbo and heatshield off of that side and discovered small holes in the riser pipe (which carries hot exhaust from the manifold to the turbine). You can see one or two in the picture where I cleaned the soot from the pipe.

I was able to get the bolts unscrewed (lucky I didn't break one due to major heat cycling of those joints in the exhaust system) and took the pipe off. I found the Detroit Diesel part number and called Detroit Diesel (engine manufacturer) in St. Louis. They told me it wasn't a DD part, which is dumb because I have the DD part number in my DD books. I didn't even bother to explain to them, I just called DD in Carlo Stream, IL where they know what they're talking about. Unfortunately, the part is unavailable for a month at least, due to a parts production foulup at DD :-( :-(

I took the part to a welding shop in hopes that they could weld it enough for a temporary fix. They said "maybe", so I left it there to for them to try. I had been asking people on the Hatteras Owner's Forum their opinion and explaining my predicament and some kind Hatteras oowner offered to let me have a spare pipe he has :-) So, if it fits and I can get it here from Florida, maybe we'll be back to cruising. Or maybe the welding shop can work some magic on the holed old pipe.

Meanwhile, Kathy has places she wants to see in lower Illinois and maybe Paducah, so we'll spend a couple more days in St. Louis.