(You can also use it cool beer down real quick) But be careful - if you are in the engine room and the CO2 is discharged - not only will your engine stop running - so will you, you will only have a few minutes to get out before you pass out and die from lack of oxygen!

I'm guessing it's fuel related but I would have thought it would die if fuel starved or ingesting air not surge ahead. Once started it also surges at lower crusing speeds (ie 1800 RMP) but not at the lower manuvering speeds.

I fear that many folks concern themselves so much with maintaining their engines properly, that the transmissions suffer from neglect--and sometimes die from it. Gear boxes are extremely reliable. We have several hundred of them that we maintain at work, and it is very rare that one of them goes south.

Don, As a die hard liveaboard I would say that a clothes washer/dryer has been the best appliance I have purchased for my vessel and one I could not do without now. You mentioned sinks, I have had both stainless steel and porcelian and would go for stainless steel everytime, they are strong, easy to clean and will not crack or chip like porcelian.

It took at least ten seconds, by my wrist chronometer, for the sound of a single bang to die away. While not as pretentious as the Macy's fireworks extravaganza in New York harbor, it was far more exciting. We anchored for the night and by morning the fleet had shrunk from 100+ to 3.

(perhaps, if one were to die, an autopsy might shed light on this???, come to think of it, why wait!). ( as usual I will post this to www.curingseasickness.com, pretty soon). Capt. Mike Maurice Near Portland Oregon.

-- __________________ Keith Health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

ALthough I have heard a rumor that old delivery skippers don't die they just retire and write. for a LIVING and that kills them. Regards, Mike Capt. Mike Maurice Near Portland Oregon.

Practically I have had boats die on a half dozen different occasions when shut down or throttled back. Many of these were "rent a boats" which are often much less reliable then better maintained personal boats. While I do not consider it a huge risk I would avoid shutting down and changing oil at sea.

The muck is a sudden die-off of algae so how much is too much seems a little moot. Do you want the half-muck or the full-muck deal? Sometime in 2000, I think there was a post which knowledgeably and definitely described the biochem involved. The conclusion was, as with all the real experts, don't use a biocide. Richard