We went to the sunrise joint worship service at Stingray point. After the devastation of last weekend's tornado, it was a service of joy and hope. Minister Pearl Gresham Blake of Calvary Baptist Church spoke of Easter and hope: including comfort, counsel and choice. Three key elements for rebuilding Deltaville. She also pointed out that you don't have a message unless you've had a mess in your life. And you can't testify in the name of the Lord unless you've been tested.

We took an afternoon sail. The Commodore got us to about 7.1 kn of boat speed. We felt compelled to take pictures of the instruments to document it. Sadly, we only got pictures of 6.8 kn. The puff hits, you pick up speed, counter-steer and then remember to grab the camera. Too late: puff passed. (And yes, your bicycle easily does well over 8 kn.)

We were, also, testing our Big Improvements from last year. The twin Racor 500 filters with the vacuum gauge and handy selector switch.

Our fuel system, it appears, has some kind of clog or blockage. Both filter vacuum gauges leapt off the chart into "gasping for fuel" zone. Think of a small straw and a thick chocolate milk shake (yum). If the shake is too thick, nothing comes up the straw.

That's where we are. Engine died. I thought I got her restarted, but she wouldn't stay running. So we had to drop anchor and get Boat US Towing involved. Once back at the fuel dock, I switched the secondary fuel filters. Mr. Lehman started and ran long enough to get us until a slip (with help from Fawkes) and died again with astronomical vacuum gauge readings (-20" Hg; -.66 atmospheres, about -10 psi).

Great sail. Pernicious fuel system issues.

A dead engine is a mess; this is our test. We find hope in a lot of places. We have some comfort. We're looking for counsel from diesel mechanics and then we can make some choices.