Engine Problems

This morning we judged it a good time to head south. The wind was from the north and expected to moderate in the afternoon. (It did nothing of the sort and increased to 18 kt gusting to over 20, but that's another story.)

We got the boat and ourselves ready and when the time came the engine would crank but not start. On the way from La Paz we had been getting instances where the engine would die down at startup even with the throttle wide open. After a second try it would sag then slowly pick up the revolutions and run normally. As I was later to tell Mark Jochems, like a couple of amateurs we proceeded as though nothing had happened hoping that it would all go away. Well it didn't. This morning after four good tries we could not get the engine to start and it looked like fuel starvation.

I slid back the engine cover and looked at the Racor primary fuel filter and was amazed to find about 20mm of water at the bottom of the bowl. I drained this off and we had another go with no success. After thinking things over I flipped the engine decompression lever and asked Arnold to hit the starter for 20 or 30 seconds. The idea was to get the engine to turn over and get the fuel system working without dragging down the starter batteries with cylinder compression. After this exercise we hit the starter again and the engine slowly climbed out of its torpor and went to normal revolutions. I then spent 30 minutes boning up on diesel engines in Nigel Caldar's superb manual. There were several possible causes and several possible measures to take. But which one? I don't know a lot about diesel engines and I wanted to avoid at all costs digging a bigger hole for us. There was only one best course of action. I sent a message to Mark Jochems at Shoreline Marine Diesel in Port Townsend. Mark and his team had done great work on Pachuca's SABB engine and knew it well. While we were awaiting his reply we discovered that although the engine would run to 1600 revs, under load it would basically die. We learned this after weighing anchor and being forced to quickly drop the anchor again 130 meters to the east and in 1 more meter of water. Great! We could recharge our batteries but go nowhere!

Within an hour Mark had responded with suggestions and questions. This started and interaction of three or four messages in which Mark guided me past what was irrelevant and pointed me to what should be investigated. I won't go into the details of that interaction but by the end of the day I think that we had established that the lift pump was working satisfactorily and in checking that out I had in fact bled the system. Along the way I drained samples from the bottom of the main fuel tanks and found a bit of water in each, though Mark assured me that none of this water would have gotten past the Racor primary filter. By nightfall we had the engine where we could start it and it would actually drive the boat against the 18 kt wind with slowly increasing revs, though I would have to throttle back before 1000 revs lest we overrun the anchor.

Our plan is to try to make for Isla del Espiritu Santo if the engine starts and the wind is OK, and sail into an anchorage in Isla de Espiritu Santo if we have to because the engine does not start. That would position us about 20-25 miles from La Paz (depending on which bay we chose) and if we have to we will sail into La Paz with a northerly wind. Arnold is extremely apprehensive about sailing up that long narrow channel to La Paz but I showed him how we could do it under sail with a northerly wind. Having said that, I think that the engine will see us through, but if not we will sail it. I can understand Arnold's apprehension because he is accustomed to the comfort of using the engine for getting in and out of harbors. And along those lines, I must give Arnold great credit for attending with great vigilance to the welfare of this boat. As long as he is on board I know that there is someone who is even more guarded than I am about our situation. I told him that before the 1970's, sail is all that many yachties had, and that the conditions with which we are working aren't that bad. We can do it. We'll have to.

What happens at La Paz? I don't know. Much depends on how the engine behaves and what Mark has to say. I do not mind calling in a diesel mechanic, but I am definitely not prepared to spend weeks waiting for parts. I've got to move on before the hurricane season starts, even if I have to do it with sail only.

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