Boating in Norfolk - Part 2

Over the following few weeks we concentrated on getting the boat ready - checking all the equipment, familiarising ourselves with the controls, and preparing for our first fishing trip. The North Sea off Great Yarmouth can be quite rough, and morning thick sea mists quite common, and in those pre-internet days, and also before cellphones were widely used, it was not easy to determine if conditions were suitable or safe. Great Yarmouth and Gorleston are cities on opposite sides of the mouth of the River Yare (after which Yarmouth got its name!) and the road to the marina was not that far from Gorleston Pier, where the river mouth was, so we started calling in there to check on sea conditions, rather than risk the hour-plus boat trip through Yarmouth harbour just to find we could not put to sea. Clearly this didn't really work if we checked Saturday evening and then headed out the following morning, but for the first sea trip we only headed to the boat early on Saturday, and as sea conditions looked reasonable we decided to try our first sea voyage!
My nephew was with us, and he had been worrying about being seasick ever since we got the boat, not that he had ever been seasick before as far as we all knew, so he took some Dramamine before we headed out. The trip across Breydon water was uneventful, and then we slowly cruised through Great Yarmouth Harbour, the depth sounder showing we had plenty of clearance, but suddenly pinging loudly showing only about a foot of water below our hull! We immediately stopped the engine to avoid catching the prop, but the sounder had gone back to over 15 feet, and there was no sign that we should have been in shallow water as we were in the main harbour navigation channel. We decided it may have been a submerged log or other obstruction, and continued towards the harbour entrance.

Map showing where the marina is in respect of the open sea

As we turned to port close to the harbour entrance, and got the first effects of the North Sea, my nephew pipes up that he is feeling fine, but then as we passed between the piers at either side and started hitting some small waves, he began to look a little green, and soon was being sick over the side! We asked him if he wanted us to go back, but he said he thought he would be OK, so we gunned the motor and proceeded - and the engine died! The swell in the harbour entrance was moderate, and it is important to keep your nose pointed into the waves, but without power we were helpless, though the engine immediately started again, and was fine idling and at extremely low speed, but as soon as we increased the throttle it died again. By now we had cleared the entrance and managed to get out of the navigation channel, but were not far offshore, and drifting slowly Southwards, so we dropped anchor. Once anchored we checked over the engine - well, neither of us were mechanics, but we checked the obvious things. The fuel tank was full, spark plugs clean, electrics dry, and so on. 
The motor fired up with no problem, and ran at idle, and very low revs, but that was not enough to get us back to harbour - every time we increased the revs the engine died, so we would start the engine, pull up the anchor, start moving forwards, then the engine died again so we had to drop anchor again! There was a charter fishing boat not that far away from us, and in the end we hailed it, so he came close to see what the problem was, and agreed to tow us back into the harbour. There were 6 fishermen on board who had paid for a day's fishing, and were not too pleased, but the tow only took about 20 minutes, so they didn't lose too much, though we were left just inside the harbour in private moorings, so could not remain there. The fishing captain was also the owner of a marina in Great Yarmouth, and said that if we were still there when he returned he would come and see us to offer further assistance.
In the quieter waters of the harbour we had another look at the engine, and discovered that the fuel filter (newly fitted) was quite dirty, so cleaned that as best we could, and started the engine up again. Again she fired up first time, and ran fine at idle, but as soon as we gave it some throttle it died again! We decided that we had to try and move from where we were, and with what little power we had we did manage to move further from the harbour entrance, helped by the incoming tide, and found a public mooring near the Haven Bridge. We did not have enough headway to manoeuvre under the bridge, either with the tide, or with the current once the tide changed, so decided to secure the boat and leave it for the night.
I took a taxi back to the marina to collect our Transit van, so we could go home, and Dad and Paulo secured the boat. While I was gone the fishing captain came by - on his way home as he had dropped off his customers and boat, but seen us moored on the opposite side - and offered help. Dad had a long chat with him, explaining how we had recently bought the boat, and had work done by an engineer from Belaugh, who he actually knew and recommended. He said we should contact the engineer and have him look at it, since he knew the engine, having originally fitted it too, and told us he would keep an eye on the boat, though it should be safe there anyway.
Tuesday afternoon we collected the engineer, and Dad and I headed back to Yarmouth in the car this time. The plan was that once the boat was fixed we would take it across Breydon Water to the Marina and Dad would drive to Burgh Castle to collect us. The engineer started off by trying the engine, which of course started first time, so he asked that we cast off the mooring lines and headed into the river - so far so good. He steered towards the bridge, then had to increase the throttle as the current caught us, and ... the engine died! Start up again, throttle - died! On my advice he kept the revs low and managed to get us back on the mooring. So he starts by stripping the carb, and decides it is dirt in there causing the problem, so cleans it out, checks the fuel filter, which had a bit more dirt in it, and tries the engine again. This time he revs up while still moored, and ... it dies again! The engine is getting enough fuel to start and idle, but as soon as you give it throttle there isn't enough fuel getting through - and then he checks the fuel lines, and finds that when the filter was installed the line through it is of narrower diameter than the incoming line, and the reduction in size is causing a bottleneck which has clogged up with debris from the tank! Enough fuel passes to start and idle the engine, but when power is needed the blockage is preventing sufficient fuel to pass! The filter was installed by his company! He cleans out the blockage, and tests the throttle fully, before deciding that the problem is resolved, so we head back under the bridge and towards Breydon water! The rough sea had shaken the tank up causing the debris at the bottom of the tank to pass into the fuel line.
Dad had headed back in the car to meet us and I took the controls across Breydon Water, and soon we were cruising on the plane at around 20 knots, but, while we still had a mechanic on board, I decided to open her up to see what she could do - and got her up to 32 knots! I looked across at the mechanic and he was white-knuckled holding on, but with a grin from ear to ear! When I slowed down again he said he had never been across Breydon Water before, and never travelled that fast in a powered boat, and it was awesome!!

Petite Promesse up on the plane

He did, however, advise us to replace the filter with one the same fuel line size as the rest of the system, and offered to source one for us, and would loan us the tools required to fit it ourselves (pipe flaring tool, especially), so that was our next project the following weekend!