Progress is slow as wave after wave of depressions sweep up the Irish Sea!

We missed the recent window to reach Bangor (Belfast), ninety miles up the coast, because the engine would not start! We thought it was a starter battery problem but having wired up a new battery it still would not start——it just grunted and would not turn.

Fortunately we did not persist and called the Yanmar agent. To cut a long story short we had water in the manifold and the engine had locked up. Derek (the engineer known to the Yanmar agent) came and looked, talked about the historical workings of the engine and went "ah ha" when we said that the anti syphon which had kept blocking had been redesigned in April 2014 when the pipe was run direct to the silencer box.

He took off the pipe and water poured out of the silencer and from the pipe leading from the top of the engine. He then slowly moved the crank shaft back and forward and slowly but surely it became freer as more water was pushed out. Finally he tried starting the engine, with the stop button depressed, and that pushed out more water as it grunted and turned. He then released the stop button and the engine stuttered into life—phew!!

We were very, very lucky that water had not overflowed from the manifold into the pistons otherwise it would have meant a new engine!!!!!!

The engine had done the same thing in Camaret last summer but after a couple of attempts to start it was ok and then again this Spring on the mooring for our first sail of the year it would not start but thinking it was a battery problem we switched over to the domestic batteries and it started——just coincidence. We thought nothing more of it but it always niggled in the back of Mark's mind that he had never found the reason for those two false starts. It was only here in Dun Laoghaire that it fully locked and we were told that we had been very wise not to keep trying to start it—more by luck than judgement.

A new syphon arrangement is being fitted tomorrow (Friday) and all should be ok——they say that no damage has been done. All this was being arranged by the Yanmar agent (Sean Wallace) from his hospital bed where he was having an operation on his metatarsal! I update him about the boat and he updates me about his foot. Sean is the first non-English president of the Gaffers association! The Irish are a delight and could not be more helpful and thoughtful.

Meanwhile Salty (Martin and Sarah Pumphrey) who left Falmouth one week before us are enjoying sailing the Western Isles---- but  apparently the woolly hats have not been taken off very often!

For all those in the south there is certainly nothing to be envious about at the moment and decisions to stay south and go south look eminently sensible. The chances of getting Helen to the Baltic are now looking less than zero!

We have met two French boats—one couple (Alain and Bernadette) on a 12 metre boat who have sailed the North West Passage, Patagnoia, and Antartica and are now heading through the Caledonian Canal and on up north to see the Northern lights, all this within the last eleven years and still using only paper charts. The other Frenchman is on his way to Iceland, Greenland and Halifax, Nova Scotia. Helen thinks they all need to see a psychiatrist!

Cheers

Helen’s best friend—the hottie!