Engines ….bloody engines !?!?

As previously mentioned our engine had refused to re-start in the Mar Menor so I decided to try to fix the engine. It started first time…..so to cut a very long story short, it is sufficient to say that we had finally identified the problem with starting the engine but only when hot.

A day’s work finding and fixing a loose connection on the solenoid cured the problem. It was one of the most frustrating jobs so far. The solenoid was so inaccessible that I couldn’t see the connection - even with the aid of a mirror and I found the problem by feel alone.! The whole job comprised undoing two connections putting on a new crimp connection and then doing them back up. A 10-minute job ordinarily, but when done by touch alone and took 12 hours. Seriously character building.

Hey, but what doesn’t’t kill you makes you stronger, which as just as well, because hot on the heels of this problem came another which was not solved so easily.

The engine now started and stopped OK but would from time to time misfire and lose power. I immediately suspected it was something I had done or damaged in my 12 hours lying on top of the engine fixing the starting problem. After another full day of unsuccessful investigation I decided to head for a Marina at the entrance to the Mar Menor called the Thomas Maestre Marina where there would be diesel mechanics that could help me.

The engine by now was totally unreliable so we sailed into the marina and berthed on the waiting quay. This performance attracted a few old fashioned looks from others who thought that we were showing off and being irresponsible. However needs must when the devil drives.

Shortly after our arrival a thunderstorm came through and it rained heavily for a couple of hours. The Spanish deal with this level of rain as badly as we English deal with a sprinkling of snow. When I rang the port for the mechanic, he very politely told me that he could not help me as he was dealing with the after effects of the terrible storm. Terrible storm? Frankly it would have passed unnoticed and unremarked in Warrington.

The mechanic did however discuss my problem with me and diagnosed very confidently that the problem was fuel starvation and that I should check fuel filters and fuel lines as dirt or water in the system was the problem 99% of the time. I had already previously checked and replaced the fuel filter, and taken samples from the bottom of the fuel tank without finding the problem. Day 2 and 3 quickly passed as I whiled away the hours tracing the fuel lines from tank to engine, stripping them down and checking them for cleanliness by sucking fuel through them. (Not a bad vintage but persistent oily after taste that lingers for days). All to no avail.

After 3 days I was beaten, but hey! At least I no longer had an intermittent problem as the engine would no longer run at all for longer than 5 seconds. The port mechanic was still unable to help so he recommended another mechanic who lived on a boat nearby.

Nick arrived within half an hour rowing across from the other side of the canal in his battered old Avon inflatable. It transpired that Nick had built his own 57ft boat out of steel and had lived on boats for the last 33 years with his wife and had brought up 3 kids on board.

He quickly displayed a confidence and knowledge with engines that made me green with envy. A couple of hours work identified a number of minor problems that were combining to frustrate my attempts to restart the engine. The fuel filter was fitted with two seals and one had to be discarded as this was letting air into the system. (Why don’t they tell you this on the instructions?)

The batteries weren’t receiving their full charge because of a loose earth connection which in turn was stopping the engine turning over fast enough or long enough to self bleed and get the air out of the system that my investigations had introduced.

The engine leapt into life at the first time of asking. Still suspicious because it had done this before I put it into gear and left it stretching the mooring ropes bar taut for 20 minutes. At the end of this test we declared the engine fixed, thanked Nick profusely and prepared for sea as we were going to leave the following day.

The following morning we set sail for Almerimar as with all the delays we no longer had time to explore the Balearics this season.

The engine started first time and pushed us along at the permitted 3 knots under the swing bridge as it opened at 10am. We exited the canal at the seaward end set course for a Cabo Palos and free of the port speed restriction opened the throttle wider. Whereupon the engine stopped!

Now there’s a problem!

Behind us lay a narrow canal, difficult, if not impossible to sail along, with a bridge that wouldn’t re-open for two hours; in front of us lay a 120/140 mile journey without engine. After some thought we decided to press on to Almerimar and that journey is recorded in another blog.

I did try and fix the engine whilst underway but it was such a sea sick making activity I gave up after a few hours.

Once at Almerimar I found the problem after about an hour. Own bloody goal as well! When I had fixed the solenoid problem I had unwittingly left a wire loose but resting on the correct terminal. This would make good contact when the engine revs were low but not at higher revs: the result was the cause of all my trials and tribulations.

Still looking on the bright side, I was now familiar with the engine and had acquired the ability to reach parts of it previously regarded as impossible by adopting techniques and positions only normally seen in advanced yoga classes.