It’s not just
cocktails at Sunset … Sat 24th – Sun 25th Feb
2018
It would be easy to imagine that living on a boat is one
lazy day after another, sunbathing, sightseeing and drinking cocktails as the
sun goes down. The reality is somewhat different and we actually spend a lot of
time and effort working on the boat trying to keep everything clean and tidy,
and making sure all the systems are working as they are supposed to. Over the
last couple of days we have been working our way through a long list of jobs
that included re-provisioning, laundry, filling the diesel tanks, topping up
jerry cans of gasoline for the outboard motor, cleaning the inside of the boat,
replacing the sacrificial zinc inside the water-cooler on the refrigeration
system, replacing the filter on the salt water supply to the water maker and “pickling’
the unit for storage … and more cleaning of the boat. However, the most
significant job and the greatest satisfaction came from addressing an issue
with our diesel engine.
During our return trip from St Vincent to St Lucia with
Simon, whilst motor sailing under fierce conditions our engine suddenly
stopped. Typically issues like this are due to problems with fuel supply or air
in the fuel lines. We switched to the alternative water separator but the
engine wouldn’t re-start, so we replaced the main fuel filter on the engine,
but still no success. In some desperation we switched from the main to the
forward fuel tank and lo and behold the engine fired up. Since then we have
been running on the forward tank with no problems. We subsequently assumed that
switching tanks was irrelevant and the problem re-starting was due to air in
the lines. Yesterday we replaced the water separator that was currently in use
because it appeared to have a lot of water in it, and we switched back to the
main tank. Almost immediately we started having problems again with the engine
dying whilst we charged our batteries and ran the fridge compressor. We reverted
to the forward fuel supply and everything again seemed fine. This suggested
that the water separator, fuel filter and diesel “lift” pump were all working fine
and that we had a blockage in the main tank fuel supply. I disconnected the
diesel supply hose just prior to the water separator and tried to blow through
the hose to the tank, but it seemed completely blocked. So I disconnected the
hose at the junction with the fuel tank and it appeared to have some debris in
it. I once again tried to blow air through and forced out a large black glob of
gunk into a bucket (see picture below). When I reconnected the hose to the fuel
tank I was able to blow air all the way through – success! Once we cleared the
air from the fuel lines the engine started up easily and seems to run well.
Unfortunately when diesel gets wet bacteria can grow and when they die form
black tar-like clumps. We had emptied and cleaned both diesel tanks by hand
prior to this trip but apparently there is now enough sludge in the main tank
that when it got really rough on the passage it got sucked up into the fuel
supply and caused a blockage. It was so satisfying to find and remove the
source of this particular problem but there’s no guarantee it won’t happen
again. At least next time we’ll be more aware of the potential issue and have
some ideas about how best to resolve it.
Having said that it’s not all cocktails at sunset, we did
have a lovely evening on board with our friends Val and Sylvain from
“Zenlattitude”. They were part of the Caribbean 1500 rally and I had spent
quite a lot of time with them in Tortola before Gloria arrived, but haven't
seen them since. They just arrived in Rodney Bay and they came over to Cotinga
for beer, wine and appetizers in the cockpit, followed by dinner down in the
main cabin. The appetizers, which Val and Sylvain kindly brought over, consisted
of smoked marlin wrapped around cream cheese, Emmental cheese, olives and
grapes. Dinner was chicken in a lime, mushroom and cream sauce with white rice
and a bean and tomato salad, followed by flambéed bananas and pecans. So
cruising isn’t all about boat jobs either. It’s a rough life but somebody has
to do it!
Mike
This is what a diesel-clot looks like - disgusting - I blew this out of the diesel supply hose into a regular bucket!
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