UPDATE FROM BANGOR - FIXING BOATS IN EXOTIC PLACES

Aquila
Alan and Sarah Bennett
Mon 20 Jul 2015 16:58
A few phots from the passage here.  Ailsa Craig smoking like a volcano:

 
 


Fetching to windward in a very uncomfortable sea, we occasionally got a glimpse of the sun:

 
 


By 1400, the wind was dying - but now so was our engine.  Very little cooling water was coming out the exhaust; most of it was causing a continuously overflowing header tank.  So we decided to limp into Bangor to effect repairs.  At least the weather had moderated, and as we chugged the final 8 miles slowly at 3kts, at least we were able to enjoy a lovely evening:

 
 


Bangor looked a suitably 'exotic place' to fix the boat:

 
 


And the marina was very welcoming, despite our 2030 arrival time.
 
 


But ashore, we found that all that had glittered as seen from the sea was not gold:

 
 


Never mind.  The smoked salmon that Ken and Anne had arrived with certainly contributed to crew morale: Lawrence conjured up a superb smoked salmon carbonara, and the focus of our visit was to fix the fault on the engine, not board up shop!  

So on Tuesday morning after a hearty breakfast, the crew set-to dismantling the aft cabin and half the engine. The hard part was actually gaining access to the bolts securing the cooling water/exhaust swan neck to the manifold in order to exert sufficient torque on them.  Stubborn they were indeed, but by midday they had all surrendered.   For those techies that are still with the story, once the swan neck was off it was very clear that  the annulus where the cooling water is injected into the exhaust was almost 100% blocked with corrosion (caused by salt water over the 14 years of the boat's life to date).  Thereafter some judicious application of brawn, bent coat hangers, an old chisel and elbow grease cleared the blockages.  Another couple of hours, and by teatime we had a fully serviceable engine again, with enough water coming out the exhaust at the stern to see off Niagara Falls.

We will venture ashore tonight, and then sail at 0830 tomorrow to catch the tide down the North Channel.  Not sure where we will next stop - depends on how long we can carry the light westerlies forecast.