The saga continues

Each alternator is held by two custom-made brackets of different shapes: top and bottom. Two new, reinforced alternator top brackets were delivered the day I started to feel better. I installed them, but it seems that my mechanical abilities need some reinforcement too: I broke something else in the process. Hey, it’s not easy when you have to crouch in anatomically impossible positions in those tight spaces, and you can not really see what your hands are doing, alright? And I am a software engineer (stress in the word software), so it’s actually admirable that I only damaged the port engine and not both.

With the pictures I sent to the Yanmar guys their polite verdict was “it
appears that your coolant switch prong was broken off”. Yay! I’ll get to learn what a coolant switch is and how to replace one! So much for the romanticism of sailing.

It turns out that, to replace the broken part, “if you can get a vacuum on the system you won’t have to drain the coolant if you are quick”. Now I have to decide if it’s less scary to drain the coolant or get a vacuum and be quick. So far, other than the “be quick” part, which is already making me anxious, I have no idea what these options involve.

Regardless, according to my freshly acquired bit of diesel engines knowledge, the coolant switch is a sensor that alerts if the engine is overheating. Who needs those pesky overheating alarms anyway? We decided to push forward before the weather deteriorated. (My first mate ordered a new coolant switch to be picked up in Norfolk, VA; that was an ordeal in itself, but I’ll spare you the details.)

For once we had a pleasant sail over calm seas on a sunny day, doing 6.5 knots of speed on 9 knots of wind on our aft quarter. It was toasty warm inside the lovely greenhouse that we have for cockpit. Scantily clad, we relished in our micro climate and refused to open any window until we accumulated enough heat to compensate for all the cold nights in the recent past and near future.

A curious dolphin came to say hello. It was all delightful… until it wasn’t anymore, which was when we entered the mouth of Delaware Bay. The wind picked up to 20 knots, and the opposing 2.5 knots of current created a nasty chop that took us on a wild ride.

When we were approaching “the quiet but progressive town of Lewes, Delaware”, our destination on the other side of the bay, we dropped sails and started the engines. Ominous noises came from the port engine room. Alarms buzzed from the panel. I was in denial. But it was true. The bottom bracket broke.