Spindrift ARC Log - Day 21
Austins' Travels
Chris & Lynn Austin
Sat 10 Dec 2011 21:36
No wind and we have been motoring continuously but then at lunchtime today the engine alarm started and we were overheating as the cooling water pump had failed. Exactly the same problem as we suffered in the Med at Messina which is supposed to happen only every 10 years or less!!!**%$! Maybe we have motored the equivalent to 10 years for a normal weekend and annual holiday yacht?
After 5 hours of very hard work by the whole crew to try to jury rig a pump from the manual bilge pump without success I looked for a spare domestic water electric pump in the spares box (this wouldn't be able to run for very long but is better than nothing) and, whoops, I found a spare engine water pump that I had forgotten was there! After 5 hours of fruitless work this was taken in good humour by the crew and I avoided being set adrift in the dinghy only because they didn't have the energy to pump it up. However, it is not the whole solution as the part that connects to it is severely damaged too. This means that the pump may last until we arrive or may get chewed up before that - we'll see. There is absolutely no wind but there may be some tomorrow. In the meantime we are motoring at full speed, hoping the fuel lasts and the water pump survives. It will be a long night.
But there is no threat to anyone or the boat as we are totally becalmed. If the wind returns we can sail and if not we will motor if we can or just drift till we get wind. There is no shipping so no problem there.
Yesterday evening Shaun caught a beautiful tuna which is dinner tonight. As the pork curry had already been cooked we put it in the fridge for today. No fish today as we were a bit distracted with other problems!!