Great Loop Cruise Video

Certainly looks peaceful. We use to enjoy getting out on the lake during the winter months when we had it pretty much to ourselves. Looks like you have the waterway to yourself.

Hmm, that's kind of odd. You spend the winter down here and we have the worst one in decades then as soon as you leave town the sun comes out?

Fair winds and following seas, Ed! Hope to see you you've gone full circle!

Just curious, how many bags of marshmallows have been fed to the gators?

It's pretty easy to ID the Hynautic ones, anything else on her is likely cable. If they look like the ones in this pic they're Hynautic's and likely have an air problem. They use anti-freeze for fluid and are not that difficult to troubleshoot and/or bleed.

Some reading material.

http://www.yachtforums.com/forums/technical-discussion/21483-hydraulic-steering-87-silverton.html

Yes, antifreeze. Also Hatteras likes to use 2 resevoirs, one in each Engine room usually mounted on the outbound wall, they look similar to a Hynautic steering resevoir but the hose going to the resevoir is much smaller 3/8" usually black hard plastic tubing. You should have about 2/3 antifreeze in them, and also they should have around 75 psi of air in them. If it's super low on air then that's your problem. If not, check the level (has a sight glass) then pump up to 75psi..... The one in the port engine room is obviously for the port gear/throttle, and the one in the stbd engine room is for stbd gear/throttle.

Now to Bleed them, on the side of the actual Binnacle on each side there should be a Larger Allen head bolt, Open it and let some fluid out until you get solid antifreeze, may take about a cup, may only take bleeding a few ounces. Then work the shifter back and forth 10 more times and bleed a little more. Check Hynautic tank level and pressure again and you should be good. USUALLY, only the highest or Flybridge station in your case needs to be bled. Make sure you don't run low on fluid or air pressure when you bleed them......

Capt J described the bleed procedure for the binnacles themselves but the slave cylinders (and the lines to them) also have a bleed sequence, that's the two bleed screws you show in the pics. It's a little more in depth but I have a PDF of the entire manual I just emailed you, it's 1.88mb so too big to upload here.

If the fluid level and pressure was ok it may also be a manual linkage issue between the slaves and the engine bellcranks. I've also rebuilt several binnacles that had worn O-rings that can cause your symptoms.

I've found that bleeding the binnacles at the upper helm usually does the trick. Typically the air works it's way to the top. If the system hasn't been opened or depressurized......

You're lucky the marina's are still open. LOL...... Hynautic makes their own fluid. But you can use green antifreeze.....about 25% antifreeze, 75% water. It's no big deal, just pour it in there......if you need it, pump it up to pressure and back off on the bleed screws till some fluid comes out up top on the FB and see if it fixes it...., it's easy peasy.....and takes about 15 mins or less to do all of them.

How long do you think that might be?

Did you decide to stay in Coinjock for another day? Wanted more steak?

Rush hour? It's Saturday. Boy you must have really wanted that sub. Probably wouldn't have been able to make it during daylight though.