Thanksgiving cruise - Wake up something's wrong

We went for a two night cruise in icy weather just before Thanksgiving, and had a great time, well except for,

        "Wake up, wake up, somethings wrong."

I don't remember much, but I do remember, my eyes were burning, and  the cabin was full of nauseating diesel fumes and a light haze, which apparently woke her, so she could wake me.

The emergency was that the oil stove (Dickinson Bristol) was huffing and puffing, sending soot but mostly fumes with every huff/puff out every crack in the stove.   She said, is that supposed to do that?  Then she pointed and asked if flames were supposed to be shooting out there, down under the oven door by the sheet metal.

I don't know, I said, I just need to go back to sleep.

So, in a blurry daze, I shut the oil valve off and sneaked a peek under the cast iron lid. It still had a flame, the stove was scorching hot,  the insides were cherry red, and soot was built up and hanging in three inch long strings everywhere inside.  I know, I shouldn't have looked because it may have gone up in a ball right then, but I wasn't thinking clearly

I wonder why it was hard to wake me up, was it fumes, low oxygen, or the wine at dinner?

I lifted the lid and looked in the stove the other day, and yep its still a mess.

Later, when I figure out what went wrong and what to do about it, I'll add to this post.

Update 1/3/14
I think the problem was caused by too much fuel and no fan resulting in a too rich burn that sooted up the chimney, ultimately blocking the flue. The solution after cleaning up a huge soot mess all over the decks and cabin and cleaning out the stove passages was to reduce the fuel flow. (this required pulling the stove to get at the valve and was when I discovered a loose set screw) I reset the valve for less flow on low and now monitor the flame plus use the fan  to keep it burning clean.  Over New Years it burned 30 hrs non stop with perfect results.  The loose set screw caused too much fuel, but the real problem was me not turning on the fan to keep a clean burn.  I like oil and pulling from my main tank, but gee whiz what a mess.

Some Foggy Pictures of Rosario Strait and Thatcher Pass in the San Juan Islands

These pictures were from late July, so they are in the middle of a normal season. Don't let them scare you away, just be aware, plan ahead, and enjoy your outing.

This is looking southward at Rosario Strait, taken from the top of Eagle Cliff on Cypress Island, Thatcher Pass is the first inlet on the right, Lopez Pass is further down a ways past James Island. Notice the fog is in the middle of the strait, This is a light fog, probably only a mile or so wide, but if you were in your boat on either side of Rosario it would look like a solid wall of white, this fog formed in about thirty minutes. In another few minutes it could be almost gone or much much, well you know.

This is Rosario Strait from James Island (basically Thatcher Pass) looking across towards Cypress,  and up Guemes Channel. We cast off and entered this fog thirty minutes after the picture was taken. Two miles out we could no longer see James Island behind us but we could see Anacortes in front of us. The ferry was really laying on the horn which is a little unnerving. See the boat at far left just entering the bank. This is the other side of the same fog bank as the previous picture but from a sea level view.

This picture is looking towards Deception Pass and we are in the middle of Rosario Strait, up around Bird Rocks. I think the pass is behind what looks like a low white mountain to the right of the railing stanchion. I wanted to go through the pass and on to La Conner but changed my mind after crossing over and finding the fog tight against the shore from Skyline Marina south. We were finishing up a relaxing five day cruise and I saw no reason to add a foggy finish. Notice how nice the water is on Rosario. Just two weeks earlier at this exact same place we were slammed on the beam for forty five minutes while crossing in warm sunny weather. We eventually took refuge by ducking behind Allan Island.  You can have fog, you can have sunshine, flat water or big seas, and as a bonus you could have it all together or any combination in a one hour crossing.

The purpose of this posting was to suggest that you be prepared for whatever comes your way.  On this trip we simply went a different way home. For others perhaps a good gps and lots of Dramamine is the answer.