So in the afternoon things cleared up and we where motoring sailing more north in anticipation of the winds clocking around to the north east. everything was going great don decided we where officially in the bahamas and declared an early happy hour. we got a not great sunset but enjoyed the happy hour.
around sunset i started to make dinner and all hell broke loose. i had the mac and cheese on stove when from out of no where the wind came up straight on the nose we went from doing 4.5 kts to doint 3 kts. no problem i thought ill just fire up the port motor while i wait for the pasta to finish.
suprise suprise i start but immediately i get the over temp warning. no problem i thought this often happens and you just hav to rev the engine a bit. of course not this time. don and i are both in denial as i keep hoping the engine will go. eventually i leave don to debug the engine and rescue the mac & cheese.
by the time dinner is on the table it is pitch black we are now rocking and rolling all over the place. don has diagnosed the problem to the water pump which he just replaced with a brand new one. we wisely decide to not try to fix this at night and with no close by divert options decide to press on over night. at this point we only have 150nm to go to abaco and figure how bad can it be.
i manage to stay awake most of my watch feeling more and more like a ping pong. i send out a few iridium texts as the event turns into a complete suck fest. we get slower and slower and are thrown around more and more as the night progressed. who would guess cats feel much worse than monos in seas.
i get back on watch at 0430 and we are doing a whopping 1.7 kts. we continue to press on hoping we can get the engine fixed and back on track. i think we made 12nm progress over the night.
several times in the morning i discover the autopilot off course as we run out of ruder authority to hold the boat on course with one engine and almost no headway. i milk the boat back on course several times until the last time i discover the stearing is locked up. yes the wheel is frozen. its hydralic steering, i try a few things with no luck thinking this is just what we need. i engine, no stearing building seas with wind on the nose.
fortunatly don comes up at this point and is not pased by the steering problem, “we just need to add some fluid” i add a 1/4 cup the fluid overflows and amazingly the stearing works. autopilot is now a non player and we can only keep a straight course heading straight into the wind. i leave this job to don and go to work on the engine.
its a simple impeller change so how hard can it be. i get the crank shaft pully off (yes you need to remove this to swap the pump). of course the impeller looks perfect. i remember sometimes the impeller busshing spins on off the rubber on these poc impellers so i have don crank the engin. of course the engine starts and will not shut off because there is no alternator (i think). this results in much yelling and screaming and eventually shut the engine off by pulling the shutdown solinoid with my hand.
the good news is the blades never moved so i pull the brand new impeller out of the brand new $300 pump and replace with a new brand new $20 impeller. i then realize the key is no longer in the shaft and i determine it must be in the oil pan under the engine.
of course there are at least 2 quarts of black sludge in there allong with an oil napkin. i bring this to dons attention and he is also unfased by this “i have a small oil leak he says”, interesting definition of “small” i say. eventually i find the key and am now completely covered in oil, of course the boat is bucking back and forth so i keep touching things. i give don the go ahead and we are back in business with both engine running at full we are making 4.2 kts its 9am and we have 144nm to go to abaco. we are both feeling like crap we cant go out side because waves keep braking over the boat.
just for icing on the cake we take a wave over the bow that comes right in the two main hatches in the salon of course hitting my bgan and laptop. hopefully no damage, but no more weather reports.
and i fogt to mention the latest dingy patch failed as well.
stay tuned for more fun…
cheers,
Roger
OMG…when does the fun end???