Old Diesel Never Die

Caribbean
It's been a while since my last post so I will try to give you the highlights over the past few months.
My boat, Anjea, is laid up in Makkum in Friesland (Netherlands). She is out of the water for a new dodger to be built and a few other jobs. I had planned to spend some time in the Netherlands while the work was being done but then I got a call from Yayo, a friend who lives in Suriname, about a new boat he just bought and needed help with. He was just after some advice and a chat about the boat, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to get on someone else's boat in the tropics after a long northern winter so Helen and I decided to fly out and help him sail the boat back to Europe.
Marlijn is a 42' steel cutter. The hull was built in a Polish shipyard 25 years ago and the boat was finished by a Dutch watchmaker. It's meticulously fitted out with lots of interior woodwork. But it's been built by someone who knows nothing about sailing. The watchmaker has put a lot of effort into the finish but it is still a watchmaker's boat and not a sailor's boat! For example, the boat has a nice engine with plenty of room around it but someone has installed a watermaker right above the engine. Watermakers need to be serviced and are notoriously leaky and it drips water all over the engine. And it is the only boat I've ever been on with a septic tank. One of our projects was to replace that with a good old standard Jabsco. Who wants to carry around a septic tank on a boat? Madness! Yayo bought it because he wanted a boat that would appeal to Fabien, his wife. She is not really a sailor and he thought that a boat with a good interior would be more appealing to her.

The Dutch watchmaker forgot to check his susceptability to seasickness and it turned out that he became very seasick. He and his wife made it from Netherands to Suriname where the boat has sat unused for a decade. No boat likes sitting unused for a decade, especially in the tropics, so there was a lot of work to do to get it back into shape.

So Helen and I got roped into installing new electrics and electronics, new plumbing, some new rigging (although most of it is in surprisingly good condition, including the sails) and endless cleaning and painting, most of which was done by Yayo and Wim.

We arrived in Suriname in early May and spent a month working on the boat. In between we've managed to sail it 900 miles thru the Caribbean to St Martin where we are now. There are four of us: Yayo, Wim, Helen and myself. Were a good team. Not hugely experienced but I have sailed with all of them before and I trust them.

As we pulled into Marigot Bay I said "what's that noise from the engine?" Yayo said "I don't know, I thought it was something else." I said "No, it's the engine, it's making a knocking noise." He said "Oh, that's normal, it always does that." I said "No, it's not normal, it sounds bad" That was over a week ago. It's very hard to get a mechanic here in St Martin. We've had three guys look at it so far and played recordings of the noise to a few more. Right now it seems it is either a valve or a leaking turbo. The valve should be adjustable or replacable but the turbo is a bit more of a problem simply because we cannot find any leak. The good news is that nobody thinks it is a big-end bearing.

As I write 'Tom' is here on the boat looking at the engine. He is a young French mechanic with a boat here near us and seems to know his way around engines.

Once the engine is sorted we'll look for a weather window to sail the boat to Europe. Its about 20 days sail to the Azores and then another 8 days or so to Portugal. We are hoping to get to the Azores before the end of June so we can spend some time there before heading to Portugal. I will then head back to Anjea in Makkum.

STOP PRESS

Tom has just looked at the engine and discovered a broken conrod. Hooray! Yayo and Wim have gone ashore to find a new one. At worst it will be a few days delay getting one shipped in. Tom says it is no problem fitting it and the engine should be good as new once it is done. Old diesels never die.

Me
Me

Dinner
Dinner courtesy of Helen

Helen & Michel
Helen with her favorite Frenchman, Michel

YayoFaby
Yayo & Faby

Wim & Yayo
Wim and Yayo




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