Day 58, Year 1: Engine Doctor to the Rescue, Again
Date: Wednesday, December 14, 2005, EST 1600
Weather: Mixed Bag
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Location: South End of Guadeloupe

If this were a board game and the goal was to successfully survive challenges thrown at you every time you make a move, then we would definitely win. Since setting sail from Boston on October 18, we have had one challenge right after another. And today was no exception. We sailed overnight by the light of an almost full moon. We passed one island after another, and shortly before daybreak we had a great view of the mountain lava flowing down the side of the volcano on Monserrat. At 0700 we checked in with Dave and Pam Gwinn, friends from Shipyard Quarters, who are spending the winter in the Bahamas aboard Jubilee. We talk with them by radio every couple of days. At 0730, we tried to listen in to the Caribbean Weather Net, but we were motoring and for some reason, we have had a lot of extra radio noise when the engine is running. I slowed down and turned off the engine so that Mark could hear the report. Here comes the challenge. You guessed it. When I tried to restart the engine, nothing. Not one single solitary sound. I double checked to make sure the gearshift was in neutral. It was. And still nothing.

The day went downhill from there. While Mark was checking things out, I tried to use what little wind there was to head us south. The wind picked up and we were able to sail to the north end of Guadeloupe. Then, no wind. We were getting 3 to 4 knots and moving ahead at about 1 knot. All the while we were trying to figure out what could be the problem. Mark checked the battery dedicated to starting the engine and it was fully charged, all connections were tight, and the ground was securely fastened. Still the engine would not turn over. It would “click, click”, and then it was silent. We decided to use the satellite phone to call David Laux, our engine doctor back in Delaware that installed the new Yanmar, but he was not at home. We called our contact at Mack Boring, Jack Law, and he connected us with an engineer. We did everything he told us to do, and still nothing. His conclusion was that we had a bad starter. I asked him how that could be since the engine is brand new. Of course, he had no answer. We got the names and numbers of Yanmar contacts in Martinque and St. Lucia, and contacted the St. Lucia shop first. They were very helpful and said that if we could get there by tomorrow, they would take care of us as soon as we arrived. They even gave us the cell phone number of someone who would come to the boat if we arrived after shop hours. That was encouraging.

There was still very little wind. We put up the spinnaker and tried to sail wing and wing with the head sail. We were going a whopping 1.5 knots, but at least we were moving south. We continued to try and reach David, and did get through to his wife Donna. She gave us a number where we could reach David around noon. We connected, he listened, and then said that times in his life, he has seen a battery register as fully charged, but not have enough amperage, possibly caused by cracked cell. And yes, our battery is brand new, but he still thought that was the problem. He had Mark make a connection from the main battery bank to the starting battery and try to start the engine. Bingo! That was the problem. David is a genius. We just need to find a way to entice him to sail around the world with us.

With all the delays, it was going to be early evening before we could get into the anchorage on the south end of Guadeloupe, so we have decided to just keep sailing through the night and stop tomorrow either in Martinque or go straight to St. Lucia. I didn’t handle this challenge very well and am realizing just how tired I am. The more I look around the boat at the things that were damaged from the rough passage to St. Martin, the more I realize that a few days of just sitting still sounds really inviting. So we will probably sail to St. Lucia tomorrow and stay in Rodney Bay until the kids arrive on Monday.