Alongside Portland
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Noon position: 38 20.77 S 141 36.63
E Yesterday afternoon the wind fell light and fickle, but the sea remained short and choppy. Consequently I decided to run the engine for a while to make some miles in a relatively comfortable fashion, also to charge the batteries and just to give the newly reconditioned engine (mark 2) a bit of a run in. The engine ran fine for about half an hour when the revs started to fluctuate. I put the engine into neutral and as I did so the engine died. Bother! The falling and fluctuating revs suggested a fuel problem. I opened the engine box, broke out the tools, and bled the fuel system to the injection pump. There appeared to be plenty of fuel getting through with no sign of air in the system. Next I cracked a couple of injection pipes to the injectors and turned the engine over. Sure enough, no fuel was coming out of the pipes. After a few more tries I came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with the injection pump, something that I could not fix at sea. So we sailed on in the light breeze as best we could while I pondered what to do. While the forecast was pretty good for sailing on to Eden, there were very few ports which had the facilities to service an injection pump, between here and Sydney, let alone ones that I could sail into without an engine. After considering my options, I came to the conclusion that my best course of action would be to pull into Portland which was reasonably easy to enter and had at least one diesel fuel injection service centre. So, in the evening I rang the Portland volunteer coast guard and organised to rendezvous with their rescue boat outside of the entrance to the port at 0900 this morning and for them to tow us in alongside the town's marina. We then continued tacking into the now freshening NE breeze. I found on the port tack that the short choppy waves were from right ahead which made for slow going, Sylph hobby-horsing over the waves and only making good about two knots, but on the starboard tack the waves were on the beam and Sylph was able to ride smoothly and could make good four to five knots. I therefore tried closing Cape Nelson in the hope of finding more settled conditions in its lee, but as we got closer the wind started to drop without any noticeable difference to the wave action. So, just before midnight, we tacked back to the east to regain some clear air, accepting that for the time being we would just have to put up with our slow uncomfortable progress into the short choppy sea. At 0330 we had made enough easting to comfortably clear the rocks lying off Point Danger, so we tacked back to the north to enter Portland Bay. By 0545 we were a couple of miles to the east of the harbour entrance and were now experiencing relatively calm conditions, so I rolled up the jib and allowed Sylph to jog along slowly under mainsail alone. We put a couple of tacks in for what remained of the night to hold our position and at 0810 the Coast Guard vessel came out to meet us. A conversation took place across the water between the skipper of my rescue team and myself and we decided that I should sail into the harbour where conditions would be a lot calmer, there I could drop the mainsail and they could then secure Sylph alongside and tow her to the marina berth. And I am pleased to report that this is what duly happened without a hitch. At 0859 Sylph was secured alongside the port's small marina and I gave my thanks to the professional work of the volunteer crew as they departed back to their base. First order after making Sylph secure was to catch up on sleep as I thought I would probably only make silly mistakes trying to work on the engine in my fatigued state, which in turn would no doubt lead to some avoidable grumpiness on my part. I have now had a few hours of undisturbed sleep, had some lunch and am ready to get my hands dirty to yet once again investigate the inner workings of the (not quite so reliable) BRM. All is well. |