Intense frustration forced VS to leave Boston with our rigging work unfinished. A part had to be ordered from Sweden, due to arrive over the US Independence Day holiday. Almost needless to say it did not arrive and our itinerary, driven by the Arctic summer, required us to keep going north and east. We set off in good order in bright sunshine but in the entrance to Boston Harbour the engine overheat alarm went off for only the second time n six years. This can indicate serious problems and requires an immediate engine shut down to avoid potentially catastrophic mechanical damage. VS was in a busy narrow shipping channel beset with fast ferries but luckily there was enough wind to sail, just. The decision to keep going was easily reached due to the extreme coat of towing in the US, and a great reluctance to backtrack for the reason enumerated above. Almost immediately we were enveloped in thick fog requiring use of foghorn and radar. The plan had been to proceed 30nm up the coast and anchor overnight awaiting the good wind expected on the morrow; this plan was abandoned due to the difficulty and danger of approaching a very rocky coast in fog with no engine, so the ship set off to sea. The benign weather forecast soon proved to be wholly inaccurate. Totally wrong in every respect, the worst error the ship has experienced worldwide. One expects better from the self-declared most advanced nation on the planet. The weather was atrocious, with very strong winds from the wrong direction interspersed with flat calm, lots of rain and fog, and fishing boats without AIS all over the place. ANd no engine. Progress was slow and uncomfortable, and tiring as one of us spent a lot of time dismantling various parts of the engine cooling system trying to trace the fault while the other fought back seasickness and sailed the boat. Eventually the fault finding detective process required certainty as to whether VS had a rope or other debris around the prop. So advantage was taken of zero wind conditions to investigate. The crew member with the best wetsuit was elected, and here she is entering the water about 100nm off Canada.
It's not as bad as it looks - the water was clear and a balmy 14°C, and there were no sharks at all. And nothing round the prop. Repeated forays into the engine room failed to resolve the problem so it was necessary to sail all the way into the anchorage at Lunenburg; astonishingly the weather behaved impeccably and allowed this to happen, although to make a point the wind remained solidly on the nose all the way requiring tack after tack after tack.
The problem was (probably) diagnosed as an electrical fault the next day with the help of Magnus's (Mahimahi) infrared thermometer gun - what a fantastic tool. This thing allows the engine to be run under test, with complete certainty as to the temperature of whatever part one points it at, and thus proving that the engine was not in fact overheating. VS Now possesses one too, very surprisingly available for purchase in Lunenburg, and absolutely astonishingly made in Canada not China.
The trip from Boston was the worst of the whole expedition so far for levels of frustration and discomfort, rivalling that from Bermuda to Newport. Ugh!
