Well, what a difference two weeks can make. Much of the work on Vega has been completed or is in hand. We are now considerably poorer. It is remarkable how a stop for any period racks up the boat costs.

In my last post I was concerned about the new engine mounts, shaft alignment and engine vibration. For my first week out here the engineer was tied up on another job so I contented myself by removing and posting home the AIS unit, polishing the metalwork (for which I can thoroughly recommend the gel Witchinox that with the aid of a toothbrush gets to parts that other creams cannot reach), washing and polishing the coachroof, getting the remaining rigging repairs under way, reading two books, doing my daily Wordle, coffee on board Endorphin, working out how to tie a Turks Head knot and taking the gas cylinders to be filled. Oh, and sending videos of the engine running in and out of gear and at different revs back to the supplier of the engine mounts for an opinion.

This week has been all action. The engineer Gustave (plus assistant Calvin) has spent three days working on the engine problems. Even with professionals you really need to be on hand to advise and make decisions. After suspecting poor fuel flow at low revs as the cause of the vibration and finding this not to be the case the real cause came to light in a surprising way. Gustave rested his foot on the back of the running engine and the vibration disappeared! The reason is partly my fault. The hardness of the rubber in Yanmar engine mounts is chosen having regard to the weight of the engine. The original mounts were 100 (soft) at the front and 150 at the back (harder as the engine is heavier at the back). Gustave recommended 150 at the front and 200 at the back as this seemed to work on other engines of the same type he has worked on. Assuming the mounts wouldn’t be available in the Seychelles I ordered them in the UK and had them sent out. However, when ordering I was persuaded that there was a better, more robust and cheaper alternative to the Yanmar mounts specifically developed for Yanmar engines. I went with this. It was only after fitting them that Gustave informed me that they seemed completely wrong and he had had to cut some of the front mounts away to make them fit without fouling the oil filter on one side or the engine case on the other. I am still puzzled by this as the overall dimensions are very similar to the Yanmar mounts. I wish Gustave had checked with me before cutting them. Anyway it turns out that the new (200) mounts are too firm and were transmitting vibration into the hull rather than absorbing it. It also turns out that the Yanmar mounts are available in the Seychelles and so I have compromised and bought two new mounts for the front (100) and put the alternative front mounts (150) on the back. Replacing the engine mounts meant realigning the engine with the prop shaft again. Gustave spent a lot of time doing this the first time and has even made up a jig to the same dimensions of the Aquadrive. This was another surprise for the UK supplier because the Aquadrive includes a CV coupling designed to accommodate a significant amount of misalignment between the engine and the propshaft. Nevertheless, the better the alignment the less wear in the CV joint. After another days work the alignment is now better than before. 

A further complication arose from the work on the shaft carried out in Thailand and when the boat was out of the water. We have a rope cutter fixed to the shaft between the cutlass bearing (where the shaft exits the hull) and the propellor. The rope cutter limits the extent to which the shaft can be drawn into the hull when joining the shaft to the thrust bearing on the Aquadrive. At some point, whether in Thailand or when the rope cutter was originally fitted, plastic spacers have been put between the thrust bearing and the low bulkhead to which it is bolted. Without these spacers the shaft would be drawn further into the hull when tightening up the thrust bearing, clamping the two halves of the rope cutter together and causing a lot of friction and noise. The obvious remedy would be to adjust the rope cutter but it is under the water. Also, for some reason they still used the internal spacers in Thailand when the rope cutter was accessible. Ideally we would adjust or even remove the rope cutter and bolt the thrust bearing straight onto the bulkhead. However, the rope cutter has worked for us on several occasions and I would be loath to lose it. Furthermore, filming with the Go Pro camera shows that there is very little, if any, room to adjust the position of the rope cutter. We had no option but to remove the breaking plastic spacers and replace them with metal ones, enough to tighten the bolts holding the thrust bearing to the correct torque whilst not clamping together the two halves of the rope cutter too tightly. Hopefully the whole arrangement is now as good as it can be, albeit it’s taken twice as long to achieve as it should have done. And I missed two coffee mornings working on it.

The AIS did reach the manufacturer in time for repair but unfortunately was not repairable. The worldwide chip shortage means that the required part is unavailable. The damage was likely caused by a power surge, possibly from lightning. Well, nothing else was affected if it was lightning although you may recall we hit a violent thunderstorm just after leaving Thailand which would have been the point at which the AIS stopped working. Still, Digital Yacht offered 30% off the price of a new AIS. Our model has of course been upgraded to the equivalent of a commercial Class A unit meaning it is more expensive and has loads of alarms and collision avoidance features that we don’t necessarily need. It does however have wifi and Bluetooth connectivity which makes it fully functional with charts on a phone or iPad. It was this that enabled us to use AIS when the plotter was not receiving cable data and is a backup feature we would like to continue with.

Our sails have been in the care of local sailmaker Maxwell. On a good day his Dutch training comes to the fore and he knows his onions. On a bad day one spliff too many can spell disaster - as the guy on the boat next door was keen to tell me after he saw us discussing the sails with Maxwell. With a strong creole lilt Maxwell told Annie not to worry - everything would be fine. So far it has been but only for half the sails. The mainsail and large genoa have yet to reappear and so I can’t put the mainsail on until after Annie gets back. 

Annie arrives back tomorrow (Sunday) and you wouldn’t believe the amount of washing, cleaning and tidying going on to make Vega welcoming. I might even tidy up the inside - (a joke, just in case you are in any doubt). Acapella canvas and fabric cleaner was recommended to me by two Danish guys on the boat next to us. Made in Sweden it is available on line and really good. I have now discovered it is absolutely brilliant for washing the white bed covers from the rear cabin. They are dazzlingly white again! A barbecue on Endorphin will be laid on to welcome Annie back and I hope she will be up to it after the long flight. Her leg pain is still a real concern and after X-ray and MRI scans revealed an old pelvic fracture (!) and moderate hip joint arthritis may need further treatment if her new pain killers are not effective. Not a good starting point for our final ocean crossings.

SY Vega