A Joyful Noise? Indeed, but all is not well!

Pi Day (3.1415) and Albert Einstein's Birthday

The final touches to the engine were done and vital fluids were added.  I turned the key, pressed the start button and.... VAROOOM!  YAHOO!  SHE STARTED,  SOUNDED GREAT AND SHE RAN SMOOTHLY.

After a few minutes it was time to look for leaks so I pressed the engine kill switch.  The engine didn't quit.  I thought that was ironic.  First it wouldn't run, it was fixed, it ran, but now it wouldn't quit.  The mechanic put his hand over the air intake and the engine stopped.

There were no apparent leaks so I turned the key, pressed the button and.... nothing!

I turned the key again and we listened carefully for the starter solenoid to click.... nothing.  My starter relay was badly rusted and the mechanic wanted to replace it.  As luck would have it, I had a spare on board.  He installed the new starter switch, but as he did, sparks flew for an instant.  Oops!  He finished installing the switch and I turned the key, pressed the button and..... varoooom!  She started and ran again.

Not all was perfect, however.  The tachometer, hour meter and kill switch didn't work, the alternator did not charge and there seemed to be no life in the regulator.  So, projects remained.  I could stop the engine by putting my hand over the air intake and the engine choked after a few revolutions. 

I ran the engine at the dock, in gear, against the dock lines to put some load and hours on the engine to run it in.  The mechanic thought the mechanical tachometer sensor was "killed" by the shop during the clean up of the engine block, so he thought that the sensor needed to be replaced.  

He suspected that a relay in the kill switch circuit was bad due to its immersion in sea water in the engine compartment when the oil cooler leaked sea water.  

As for the alternator and regulator, that will take some studying.  I will be trying to follow the troubleshooting instructions in the manuals tomorrow as well as I am able.

March 15, the ides of March

Being wary, when I put my head down in the engine compartment to find the tachometer sensor, I saw that, what I thought was the sensor, had no wires attached to it.  I poured over the manuals and schematics and identified the colors of the wires intended to connect to the sensor, found them hanging loose and connected them.  I started the engine and sure enough, the tachometer worked. I ran the engine against the dock lines again for several hours, varying the RPMs every so often, but not exceeding 1500 RPM as I had been instructed.  As time went on and I backed the speed down near an idle, the motor stalled.  It would only run with the throttle advanced so that's what I did and ran the engine for seven hours.  Tomorrow, Monday, the mechanic could deal with the throttle.

March 16

In the morning, I noticed some water and oil in the pan beneath engine.  The mechanic did not show up, but the rain did.  It rained long and hard.  I didn't run the engine today because of the oil and water leak.  It hadn't rained since Super Bowl Sunday (and Monday) and for most of the remainder of February it was sunny every day.  I had been purchasing water in five gallon jugs for 18 pesos (just over $1 US) and had been adding them to the water tank from time to time, only running dry once.  I bought a tarp at Walmart and had shaded the boat against the sun.  The exception to the sunny days came along in the middle of the month of February and I noticed then that the tarp allowed water to run off and onto the deck leaving the cockpit dry.  Our water fill intake is on the starboard side deck almost where most of the tarp's run off was falling on that side.  It was a shame to not use that water.  So, the following day, I rigged a water catchment system that I could install beneath the edge of the tarp.   Finally, after a month of sun, it began to rain and today I deployed the water catcher.  We filled our 160 gallon water tank before the rain ended today!

During the rain, I had a chance to get to know my alternator and regulator.  I tested all the connecting wires between the alternator and regulator and found one that did not conduct.  I could not find the actual fault, but at least I identified the source of a problem, maybe.

March 17,  Happy St. Patrick's Day indeed

When the mechanic came aboard he talked about the rain the day before and that the big bridge between Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta, on the state line, was closed due to flooding! He also noticed the oil and water leak.  I mentioned my trouble shooting of the alternator/regulator.  While groping around under and in the recesses of the engine he found that the wire that would not conduct had an in-line fuse connected in the wire.  This wire connects the oil pressure switch on the other side of the engine to the regulator.   When the switch detects oil pressure (and it does that almost the instant the engine starts), current goes to the regulator which energizes the alternator so that the alternator starts producing a large, regulated charging current.  The fuse in that oil pressure switch/regulator circuit had blown (remember the sparks three days ago?) and when I replaced the fuse and started the engine the regulator lit up and the alternator began to produce current to the battery.  The mechanic installed a new stop switch relay, adjusted the throttle, tightened some bolts in the oil pan and left us to run the engine some more.  With an engine that would run and one that I could control, I took the opportunity to move the boat to another slip a little further away from the marijuana smokers and some of the loud music and to face the boat bow-in instead of stern-in for some more privacy finally, after two months.  We moved to a slip with a little more room, width wise, so that we could more safely exit, but more importantly, return.  Because the engine ran, we planned to run the boat in Banderas Bay under real life conditions, tomorrow(?).  We intended to do some more daytime Bay excursions to run-in the engine and seat the valves before having the mechanic give the engine a once over look, change the oil and adjust the valves before we headed to San Carlos.  PROGRESS!  Is that a little oil and water I see in the pan below the engine?

March 18,  My half year birthday

Yes, there is some oil and water in the pan this morning, but I cleaned it up and checked the fluid levels.  The fluid levels were okay -- WE'RE TAKING THIS VESSEL OUT IN THE BAY!!!  Remember that it rained hard on the sixteenth?  The run off from that rain had washed; trees, logs, brush, coconuts, plastic chairs, large "rafts" of assorted debris and other flotsam into the bay, so we had to play dodge'm often until we got farther away from shore.  When we returned to the dock from a good run out on the water, it was dark.   We were delayed entering the channel because a cruise ship was leaving the harbor and we had to wait, but we now had a total of 25.5 hours on the rebuilt engine (by my stopwatch, since the hour meter still doesn't operate).  We missed our land shower at the marina, because the bathrooms are locked at 6pm and there was more oil and water in the pan.  There was more water than oil and the water did not taste salty.  Lots of yuck, but no salt.

March 19

Today we had a mission on the water, in spite of the leaks. We would put some more hours on the motor and bid adieu to friends on a sister ship, another Island Packet 370, Kookaburra, out of Bellingham, Washington, owned by Mac and Wendy with their friend Churro on board as they set out on "The Puddle Jump" (crossing the Pacific to the Marquesas Islands)!  They were docked in Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta and we thought we would send them off with a wave and a conch horn salute, meeting them on the water on their way out of the Bay, around noon.  By 3:30 they had not come out of the Nuevo Vallarta inlet and we needed to get back to our dock in Marina Vallarta by 5pm to not miss our land shower again.  As we turned to leave, I spotted them, so we turned back again, motored along side, waved and I blew the conch, wishing them well.

 We got back to our slip at 5:15 and got our land showers as well.

March 20

Our new family members, the mechanics, came aboard and tried again to staunch the leaks.   An oil leak was located at the engine connection for the dip stick tube.  All the oil was extracted and the dip stick tube was removed.  The mechanic, cleaned the surfaces, changed the washers, added more sealant, reinstalled the dip stick and added new oil and oil filter with thirty-nine hours now on the engine.  There is more to Friday's story, but that is a different topic.

March 21

There was about a cup of oil floating on more water in the pan this morning, so the mechanics returned.  A water leak was located at a fresh water hose whose clamp was not tightened enough and more tweaking of bolts was performed.  I ran the engine at the dock.

March 22

This morning there was no water, but maybe three tablespoons of oil in the pan.  None the less, I wanted to take the boat out for a run today.  When I started the engine, I saw that the regulator display was dark.  I shut the engine off to begin the search for the problem.  Again, all but one wire had continuity and this time I knew where that pesky fuse was located.  Yes it had blown.  The mechanic had shorted the circuit as he rooted about looking for the oil leak yesterday.  I installed a new fuse and was out of the slip at 10:30.

March 23

By morning, more oil (no water - little victories!) was in the pan so when the mechanic arrived he decided that he would employ drastic measures. He took off the exhaust water mixing elbow and hose to the muffler, removed the transmission, removed the bell housing and the flywheel and found an oil leak at the crankshaft seal.  We need to replace that seal. I await word about that and therefore the new timeline.  I feel confident about this being the final solution, but only time - yet more time - will tell. Meanwhile the engine parts languish in the aft stateroom.

Engine Problems - In Paradise

Jan 10 - Jan 13

Saturday morning, I awoke at 0330!  I had slept through the alarm!  I woke Barb and we were underway in about ten minutes.  The RADAR showed no traffic and once the engine had warmed up, I ran the engine to 6.5 knots.  The 0200 plan would mean that we would need to run at 6 knots, but since I overslept I needed to run faster to make it to the anchorage by dark.  The bottom and the prop was clean and we seemed to have no problem reaching 6.5 knots, until …….. an alarm went off!!

I slowed the engine, took it out of gear and shut it down.  An inspection of the engine compartment, check of fluid levels and wiring yielded no signs of a problem.  Maybe it was a faulty alarm?  I hit the start button and the engine turned about a quarter turn and went arrummppph.  Not good.  A second try with the starter battery and house batteries in parallel gave the same result.  Really not good.

We were about four miles southwest of the La Cruz anchorage.  There was a little wind from the south so we raised sails, turned the boat around and headed back.  We arrived at the anchorage about an hour before sunrise twilight and I suggested that Barb go below to rest while I remained sailing with only the main sail and with almost no wind, back and forth outside the anchorage.  As dawn broke Barb came up and I decided I would lower the dinghy and tie it to our aft quarter and see how our mighty Tohatsu five-horsepower outboard would push our 14 ton vessel through the water and more importantly, how would it stop it?  The experiment was successful in that I found that it took quite a while to get the boat moving, reaching about 2 knots. That gave Barb enough forward speed to steer (sluggishly).  Stopping the boat took longer than I expected, but it did stop.

I climbed back on board, called the marina and said that we were returning without an engine and would stop at the first available dock slip.  We got an okay and I got back in the dinghy.  We proceeded into the channel and Barb gave a “Securite´, Securite´, Securite´” call on the radio warning that Jupiter's Smile was a vessel in tow entering the marina and that any and all concerned vessels should contact Jupiter's Smile on VHF channel 16.  Barb flawlessly put our starboard side to the “T” head dock as I slowed the boat and then stepped on the dock to secure bow and stern lines.  Safe!

There are no utilities on this section of dock so we both got in the dinghy and looked for a likely location to which we might relocate while we assessed the situation.  There was a wide slip with a finger dock on the starboard side (bow in) next to Adesso (Lane and Vickie whom we had met during our first season “in the Sea”.)   We would share the slip with Sailish Sea (Ian and Diane whom we had heard on the radio, but never met) on our port side …. if we could negotiate an “S” maneuver first to starboard into the fairway and then hard to port into the slip.  I alerted Lane and Ian that their first duty was to protect their own vessels and then help us land if they could.

Try to follow this description of our next maneuvers.  We returned to Jupiter's Smile.  I tied the dinghy to the aft starboard quarter, started the outboard, hopped onto the dock, untied Jupiter's Smile’s bow, heaved the line over the starboard side life lines, gave the bow a shove away from the dock, scampered to the stern line untied then and draped it over the starboard side life lines, hopped into the dinghy and noticed that Jupiter's Smile was already moving slowly forward.   With the tide?  The wind?  No matter what, it was good.  I untied the dinghy, scooted it to Jupiter's Smile’s port bow and waited … until the boat cleared the end of the dock and then I pushed perpendicular to the bow with the dinghy like a tugboat would do, turning Jupiter's Smile to starboard and into the fairway.  We were going too slowly for Barb to have any effect with the rudder, but that was okay.  Once headed down the fairway, I scooted to the stern and pushed from behind to get a little  more forward motion up and give Barb a chance to steer.  I scooted again, but this time to the starboard bow and did my tug boat imitation again, turning Jupiter's Smile to port now.  Entering the slip, the people on the dock hooked our bow line with a boat hook, but the stern was too far to port so I raced down the starboard side to the port side aft quarter and gave Jupiter's Smile’s stern a push to starboard, raced to the starboard aft quarter, tied off the dinghy and put its motor in reverse, pulling to starboard and slowing the boat.  The people dockside hooked the stern line and we were in.

We hadn’t seen Adesso last season because they had to have their engine replaced so they didn’t have time to venture far.  As luck would have it their mechanic, Greg Emery, was coming to Adesso to check on something that day and Lane said he would send Greg over to talk to us.  

We checked back into the marina and in with the Port Captain.  He just took our clearing out papers and said he would treat it as if we never left.  Greg did, Lane did and Greg gave us his opinion on what we had done to the engine.  If he was right, we had blown a head gasket or had a cracked head and water had gotten into one cylinder or more.  Since we stopped the engine quickly, we probably didn’t have much damage.  Considering the age of the engine and hours it has run, it would be wise to rebuild it as long as repairs were going to take place anyway.  He said that it would be most convenient for him if we could get Jupiter's Smile to Marina Vallarta and save an hour and a half round trip each day as he worked for us.  We agreed to all this and he said he would find us a slip at Marina Vallarta and call us.  We went out to dinner at Frascati’s Restaurant in the marina to reward ourselves for our bad luck and our good luck in the handling of the situation.

On Sunday, we went to Charley’s Place and witnessed another Denver Bronco playoff embarrassment, this time against the Indianapolis Colts.  But, the Patriots won so at least part of the family is thrilled.  And the Seahawks won again.

Greg called on Monday (the Marina office is closed Sundays) and said there was a slip available.  When could we get there?  We said we didn’t need a tow if there was wind and that we would venture out tomorrow.  I called for help from cruisers with dinghies to effect the exit from the marina and got a good response.  Lane said he would help and Ian, whose dinghy was being repaired, volunteered Jason on Defender.  Dan on Dazzler said he would help as well.  So, we paid the marina and checked out with the Port Captain again.  He asked if we were really leaving this time and I said we would see in the morning.  We would call “Securite´, Securite´, Securite´” on our way out of the marina and the channel as we would be under tow again.

Tuesday morning, at about 9 am the towing team assembled and we got going with only a little direction from me, getting Lane to push, tug boat style, turning our bow to port at the end of the fairway.  Dazzler Dan’s outboard had three times the horsepower of ours so we made good speed and had good helm response out the channel.  As I hoisted sails, Dan cast off from us, we passed out thank you beers to our helpers and we were on our way to sail for the harbor of Puerto Vallarta, about 10 nm away.  There was only a little wind and we were able to make only about 3 knots, but that would get us there before 1 pm if the wind held.  Little by little the wind strengthened, but is was blowing out of the valley off the shore.  I knew this was a geographically influenced meteorologic phenomenon and that the wind would die, then shift as the valley warmed.  None-the-less, we were sailing at six knots for a short while, before the wind died.  I launched the dinghy and went into tug boat mode reaching 2.6 knots with 4 nm to go.  Greg called and asked where we were and after we had gone about two more miles he pulled along side in his thirty-one foot sport fishing boat to take up the tow.  The swells were too big to tie abreast of us so he towed us with a towing bridle into the harbor.  He then tied abreast of us to proceed down the channel to the marina.  With the help of men on the dock, Greg’s patient boat handling and his nimble assistant, Ruffino, we got docked stern in, without mishap.  Greg said sleep well and he would see us in the morning.

Jan 14 - 31

Wednesday morning, Greg and Ruffino arrived and went to work right away dismantling the upper part of the engine.  As Ruffino removed the head, exposing the cylinders, we could see that water had entered all four of them, but after tasting it, Greg said, that at least it was fresh water with coolant and not salt water.  He also said that there was a great amount of carbon present and that we had not been working the engine at high enough RPM to prevent that carbon build up.  He recommended we pull the engine out, check to see if the head was cracked or if only the head gasket had unsealed, rebuild the engine and that I run it hard like it was meant to be run once he reinstalled it.  We agree to all.  Live and learn.  The price of tuition was going to be high, however.

The engine mounts were unbolted, the prop shaft was unbolted from the transmission and the engine was moved forward in its compartment.  The transmission was unbolted and separated from the engine and removed from the compartment.  With a hoist tied to our boom and the boom supported with our spare halyard, the engine was lifted out of the engine compartment and into the companionway to our bridge deck.  The hoist was repositioned so that when we swung the boom, the engine would clear the coach roof and it did.  We lowered the engine to the dock.  Ruffino cleaned things up, hand trucked the engine to Greg’s truck and off they went.  So the engine is in the shop being machined, parts for the rebuild will arrive from the US and then we will have a new, rebuilt engine and we will have learned much.

We have passed the time at the marina cleaning up the engine compartment, dinner plate clean and doing a myriad of other little boat chores.  We have been into the city only twice so far.  Barb is knitting and we are both reading a lot.  We walk the marina’s waterfront and sometimes we walk the two miles to Walmart and if we have much to carry we take the bus back, but usually not.  There are two laundry shops in the marina.  We have run into two boats we have known from the past and two more boats with new friends.  Barb has been preparing meals aboard, but we have gone out to dinner, lunch or cocktails eight times (including Ernesto’s two more times) over the eighteen days we’ve been here … waiting.  One of those times was at a restaurant just outside our dock’s gate to watch the Seahawks and Patriots both win and to pit them against each other in the Superbowl.  Along with Betsy and Leona, we shall support the Patriots.  Unlike Betsy and Leona we will be surrounded by Seahawk fans no doubt.

March 13

Our engine(lessness) saga, which began on January 14th when the engine was removed, continues.  On Friday, March 6th, the machined and partially assembled engine parts were delivered to the boat, hoisted aboard and the engine block, minus the head, water cooling jacket, flywheel and transmission was inserted into the engine compartment.  The engine is too large to simply be put into the compartment in one piece, so the big parts needed to be mated together inside the engine compartment.  Then came the task of attaching all the hoses and electrical parts and connections to the engine.

Over the next few days, the mechanic assembled the parts.  On the 11th, As we added oil there was a small leak which they fixed.  When we added fresh water to the cooling system it was discovered that a plug in the rear of the engine block had not been installed, so fresh water was running out.  To fix this required taking most of the engine apart again to get the plug inserted!  During the disassembly (which required the removal of the engine’s heat exchanger water tank, starter, transmission, flywheel and bell housing) one of the six bolts that attach the flywheel to the crankshaft broke off.  The plug that was missing has been installed.  Various remedies have been employed to try to remove the bolt stub without success.  As I write this, I am waiting for the mechanic to return to drill out what remains of the bolt before the engine can be reassembled.  The engine should be able to be reassembled fairly quickly (lots of practice!) BUT the bolt stub has got to come out FIRST!  

These are the facts of the matter.  I shall not share my feelings about all this.