Curse of the gremlins

 I realise, dear reader, that I'm still not keeping the blog properly up to date. I shall try harder, promise.

We had a week on board at the end of July with my cousin Mo joining us. Delayed arrivals for various reasons meant we didn't get going until the Monday. Not really a problem, just one of those things.

We were hoping to get out of the river and as a first step we headed down to Burnham Yacht Harbour for the night. Anchoring had been vetoed by the sailing committee who didn't fancy the chore of raising anchor using the slow manual windlass.

All went well until the approaches to Burnham when the engine revs suddenly dropped. With my heart in my mouth, we made it in and alongside without further ado but something was clearly wrong. Further investigation over the next couple of days revealed the dreadful truth - we had diesel bug.

That was not good news!

I rigged a supply from a jerry can of clean diesel, ran the engine for half an hour and she was sweet as a nut.

Back we went to Fambridge putting Pagan alongside on the pontoon for a couple of days whilst I stripped out and cleaned the entire fuel system.

Even the tank came out for a thorough cleaning and then everything went back together and we put clean diesel plus treatement in and happy days.

We really thought we'd solved the problem and perhaps we had but as we'll see the saga wasn't over by a long chalk.

That was one holiday brought to an abrupt end, we were looking forward to our next excursion ...

Towards the end of that week, I got the exciting news that our new sails were ready. However, we decided it really wasn't worth the trouble and expense of a special trip down to get them fitted when we were going to be back on board in three weeks time anyway.

So arrangements were duly made for the sailmaker to turn up on Tuesday giving us a few days to get sorted. The old sails had to come off, of course, and I did a bit of sorting out of a couple of other odds and ends. The sails bent on nicely and looked great. The new covers will follow now measurements have been taken, meanwhile the old covers suffice.

Now to try them, or so we hoped. A bit of a snap decision to head down to BYH again in company with another North Fambridge Yacht Club boat was taken.

All was going perfectly until, as we entered the moorings at Burnham with about two knots of ebb tide running under us, the engine suddenly cut out with no warning. To say it was hairy is an understatement! We were in fairly serious trouble with no good options other than to chuck the anchor out and hope we could avoid clattering into other boats. 

However, "Grace" came to our rescue! Now we might have done things better, maybe, and I'd probably do things differently in hindsight but "Grace" got alongside, we got lines attached and Martin was able to get things under some sort of control. We tried to pick up a buoy but missed. It had no tails on it and lassooing it failed miserably. As we were shaping up for another go, power boats kept coming past at a rate of knots and we were struggling to keep "Pagan" and "Grace" from suffering damage. So in the end, we got both boats into BYH where several people off moored boats helped to grab lines and get us stationary and safe.

The harbour master and crew came out in their dory and towed us round to a berth and we made fast with considerable relief. We took the crew of "Grace" out for a meal and drinks that evening which was the least we could do.

Two days of investigations followed. We had plenty of fuel in the tank, relieving me of my first worry (that I'd done something really dumb and run us out of fuel). However, we weren't getting as much fuel as I'd expect at the business end of things. Then I found we weren't getting any. I rigged the fuel transfer hand pump to the tank pickup and the fuel line and discovered I couldn't pump fuel through the system at all. 

That issue was solved by changing the CAV filter element again. I fear that I inadvertently fitted the wrong type of filter when I changed it out post-bug. Thinking that would sort things, I fired her up and she ran. For ten minutes. Then stopped again. To cut a long story short, I found that I could pump fuel through the system to the engine mounted fuel filter and pressure relief valve but that the engine driven fuel pump isn't pumping any fuel and neither is the manual priming pump.

To make matters worse, in the process of trying to bleed air out of the system, the top injector manifold bleed screw sheared off leaving the thread in the hole.

So we found ourselves stuck in Burnham Yacht harbour, five miles downriver from home base, with no engine and no hope of fixing said engine in the time available. To get it repaired away from base simply wasn't an option, we simply could not afford it.

The one bit of good news is that, just for once, the wind wasn't due wrong. In fact, it was very nearly due right. An Easterly breeze and the flood tide made sailing her back to Fambridge feasible, all we needed was a tow out of the marina and assistance, if required, getting her safely moored up at Fambridge.

Fellow member and good friend Patrick had offered his help -either bringing his boat downriver to escort us or joining us on board to assist as required. The latter was the preferred option as having a second pair of competent hands was more of a comfort than a boat following.

So in due course, the harbour master towed us out into the river and once we were happy, cast us off to make our way under sail.

And sail she did under her lovely new genoa and mizzen. It wasn't necessary to hoist the main so we didn't. Tempting though it was, just to have all plain sail set, we'd just have to fight the thing back down onto the boom again (new sails look great but they're an absolute beast to stow!)

The breeze, such as it was, was just about enough and, although I hesistate to say it for fear of a certain gale next time out (whenever that will be), we could have done with a bit more.

It was fitful and shifting around but it got the job done. With a bit more oomph and a bit less shiftiness, I'd have attempted to sail onto one of the more accessible vacant moorings (our own mooring is in amongst other boats) but as we approached Fambridge the breeze died to next to nothing.

Discretion being the better part of valour, we teamed up with the trot boat and Nigel, the helm for the day, ably assisted us through the moorings and onto our own buoy.

And breath!

A further tale of engines, neither of our outboards will start. The Mariner 4hp 4 stroke won't start and the Tohatsu 2.5hp 2 stroke appears to be siezed solid. The Mariner didn't entirely surprise me, it hasn't been touched for five years, but the Tohatsu was used only a few weeks ago. I shall investigate over the winter.

Our final act on this trip was to get the new genoa back off. We need to come out of the water now to sort the engine and we can't be lifted with a genoa bent on. We got it down on deck OK but trying to fold it up neatly on deck proved damn near impossible. So we bundled it up and called up the ever reliable trot boat (what a boon that service is), dumped the sail in the trot boat and then carried it up to the clubhouse.

Our friend Kerry off "Floozie" happened to be passing by and probably regretted offering to help but I'm glad he did. I was having a brain fart and Kerry gently reminded me of the right way to flake and fold a sail to stow it away. 

All that remained to be done was to put our feet up, have a beer and sleep. Today we packed up and offloaded what needed to be packed up and offloaded, shut everything down and headed home.

So what now?

Well for sure it's a bit of a disaster and I can't deny it was nearly the last straw. However, we will not be beaten! The dream may be on life support right now but it ain't dead yet.

Step 1 is to arrange to have Pagan lifted out and back into the yard cradle asap. Although I can't test the engine with her ashore, I can't work on it out on a swinging mooring. So that's to be done on the morrow. Jane and I are back down in three weeks for a long weekend and the main focus of that has to be stripping the boat of everything that needs to be off for the winter, including the new main and mizzen sails, and putting her to bed.

Which brings me to fixing the engine.

One thing is certain, we cannot afford a new engine. Not this year, not next year. So that's a non-starter however much I'd like to do it.

The second certainty is that neither I nor anyone else can do anything about the known problem of the sheared bleed screw and the almost certain problem of the failed fuel lift pump in situ. There simply isn't the access space to get at the area involved and do what needs to be done.

So one way or another, the engine has got to be shifted. The question is where it's got to be shifted to. And there I think I have a cunning plan. I need to look at things on board but I think I can avoid having to actually lift the engine out of the engine bay by sliding it back about a foot. It might have to be jacked up first to clear the prop shaft (or the prop shaft will have to be withdrawn) but with it moved aft about a foot or so, I can cut an access panel out of the dividing bulkhead between the engine bay and the starboard cockpit locker.

Failing that, another option is to slide the engine forward into the saloon. I'm not wild about that notion but it may yet be the plan we have to go with. Option 3 is to lift the engine into the cockpit. I'm fairly certain it would have to be moved aft first anyway and I'm not sure it will go through the hatch in the cockpit sole without a fair bit of ancillary removal but that remains to be seen.

Option 4 is to crane the engine right out of the boat and either work on it at Fambridge or bring it home, begging, stealing, borrowing or, if necessary, buying an engine crane to get it out of the back of my van at home.

I'm pretty confident that I can sort the problems out myself if I can just get at it! Replacement fuel pumps are about £100 which isn't going to break the piggy bank so if I can fix the problems without splashing the cash about happy days.

I forgot to mention that we had all but decided to part-ex the engine for a reconditioned unit from Westfield 4x4. Unfortunately, Manfred, the OM636 guru, has stopped doing recons and just supplies parts and technical advice now. That decided me on brushing off my engineering skills and getting stuck in myself. If push comes to shove, I shall have to pay for the services of a marine engine expert but not if I can help it as it will inevitably put us further behind the finance curve.

One other racing certainty is that before we can work on the engine, the calorifier that I fitted in the aft end of the engine bay has got to some out. I realised fairly rapidly after fitting it in what was just a dead unused space that it was a mistake. It makes access to the engine and ancillaries much more difficult and I've long intended to move it into the bottom of the starboard cockpit locker so that job has just moved right up the agenda.

Oh well, these things are sent to try us. And by 'eck is it trying at the moment!