Frustration in Paradise

Frustrating Times

With the rib recovered, we set about checking how much water the engine had swallowed. The plugs were removed, and everything looked OK. The engine started first time with some choke, but was not running well. We decided to get her the short distance to KP Marine, who are Yamaha dealers, later on in the day.

In daylight, the hull on the side that the rib had impacted had only suffered minor scratches, which we later polished out. The brunt of the impact had been taken by the outboard engine cowling, but the sunbrella cover had protected that to some extent. 

The anchor was a different story. We had chosen a Spade anchor for two reasons:- the excellent reviews, and the fact that it would fit on our bow roller without the roller needing modification. Spade also offer a warranty. Time to see if they would honour it. 

We also contacted our insurance company to put them on notice. Without doubt the service from YYacht is first class. 

At this juncture the story could get a little convoluted however, Spade agreed to a replacement anchor free of charge, and the outboard engine was brought back to life by KP Marine. In fact it runs better than ever. The replacement masthead transducer solved the wind instrument issue, and the new passive GPS for the AIS was fitted inside, as we did not want this one to get waterlogged like the old one which was fitted on the pushpit. 

Repairs underway

 

In the meantime, we noticed saltwater under the engine bilge. We had noticed water collecting here before but had always put it down to other issues we had at the time - the leaking water-maker, the leaking water pump on the generator, and the leaking dripless seal on the prop shaft. However, now all these issues had been fixed, we should have had a dry boat. Just where was the water coming from? In the end there was only one place it could come from, and this was probably one of the least accessible. A compartment that runs for about 2 metres on the port side of the engine, housing a stainless steel muffler box. We could not see an easy way to remove the box to check for leaks, so contacted MarinTek. The engineers came up with the same issue we did, how on earth would it come out? In the end we tracked down a metal fabricator. It was clear that one part of the box would have to be destroyed to remove the entire unit. The fabricator did this, took it away, re-welded it, and rebuilt the part he destroyed for easy removal next time. He said he had found 5 pinholes he had welded, and the unit had been effectively 'leaking like a sieve'. Problem solved? No! Although the box showed no signs of a leak on the evening it was reinstalled, the next morning when we ran the engine up again, water was spurting out from it. The fabricator came back, removed it again, fixed the leak and reinstalled it. Now it is not as simple as that. Various clamps and hoses have to be removed first, all of which take time. The morning we were due to leave we started the engine up, and had water once again in the same place. This time however, it was a hose and not the muffler box. We purchased new hoses, mopped up the water, and with much relief have not seen any water in the bilge since.

The leaking muffler box in situ

 

The muffler box finally removed

 

Mopping up the water

 

Now all we had to do was re-anchor in the Bay, and wait for the anchor to arrive before we could move on. If only it was that simple! It was windy when we anchored, not windy as in OMG, but a good stiff breeze. Ideal in fact to keep the batteries charged up via our Duogen wind generator, or so we thought. By late afternoon a cursory glance at the battery monitor showed we had dropped a couple of percent. Then switching to amps input, it became obvious that all the wind gen was doing was spinning around, and not creating a charging contribution.

Upon examination of all the fuses under the starboard aft bunk, we found one fuse holder without a fuse, and another with a melted fuse. It turned out the melted fuse related to one of the solar panels. What did happen when the fuse was replaced, was the solar input doubled and we had over 9 amps coming in from both panels. This was fantastic news as we had never had this many amps coming from the solar panels before. We can only guess that the fuse had not been working for quite some time. We replaced the fuse holder with a heavy duty one, and upped the rating. However, the bad news was the Duogen issue was still not resolved. Thanks to Duogen themselves, who have really fantastic customer service, we received a trouble shooting guide via email. It was not long before we isolated the fault to the regulator.

All being well we are hoping to leave St Lucia before Christmas, and head to Bonaire.

Below is a picture of a daytime squall. The weather here is still unsettled.