Engine Problem

It’s 5/15/11, and it is said that cruising is fixing a boat in exotic places. Mel & I returned to some issues with Imagine. Apparently it was pretty windy one night in the anchorage. It blew the wind generator right off her mast. Turns out over 11 years the dozen, or so rivets that hold it’s stand in place came apart. Causing pieces to separate, and letting the generator fall. On it’s fall it sheared off all 3 of the blades. Funny thing is all are broken at the same length. The bungie cord that held the blades in place must have failed, and allowed the wind generator to start spinning?

Only one out of 2 engines will start, and it has to be jumped with an extra battery. 2 dead batteries, and I can’t find exact replacements, so I am having to improvise. That at times means multiple trips to shore. Which means time is being eaten up looking for small parts.

While we were gone the dinghy was stolen from her perch on the boat. It was set adrift once the motor was removed. Fortunately Chuy of Taboga Moorings was quick to regain the motor & dinghy. Hopefully there is no damage to the motor. The dink must’ve went up on some rocks. There are chips all along the hard bottom.

The day before we left Panama the little Honda Generator took a swan dive & died. After a little research we believe it is a bad valve. Getting it to shore will be quite cumbersome, and involved. So we will wait until we can sort out the starting problems with the engines, and move to an anchorage. This way we don’t need to take a ferry back & forth to the mainland juggling the generator the least as possible is highly desirable.

Barnacles are something that grows on an idle boat. They will grow at sea too, but much quicker when the boat is stationary. They have grown to the point that I can’t turn the wheel. I don’t have the stamina I use to have, or the strength. Mel won’t let me get in the water to do any scraping.

I just wanted to do as far as I could reach from the waterline, rudders, and props. Now I realize I am restricted a wee bit, but I figure. The more I can scrape the shorter time the diver will scrape, and the less money we will spend for the diver. That’s just the way I think, and especially since money is tight!

The motors have been running for a couple of days, and the bottom has been cleaned. We are off to the Las Brisas anchorage on the other side of the channel to the canal. There we can get water, fuel, and free access to public transportation. It cost $24 a round trip to shore from the mooring in Taboga.

Off we go with everything going smoothly. Well, at least for a short time before an alarm goes off. Seems the starboard engine has quit pumping water through the system.
Tell tale signs are water not coming out of the hull. An alarm that always annoys me, because of it’s insistant screaching, and a wee bit of steam coming out of the hull.
We shut down the motor, and the beauty of Imagine is the port motor is still running so we are not adrift.
I get down in the hole, and take off the pump.

Now I am nearly upside down, balanced over a large piece of steel that is 200 degrees between my knees.
The boat has it’s motion of it’s own trying to throw me off balance, and I am just not as physically fit as I use to be. This makes for a lot of effort to accomplish the job needed to be done. Cussing sure seems to ease the misery, but it drives my love nuts to listen to me. Thank goodness my head is in a hole, and she can’t hear everything.

The pump is finally installed, and I go to adjust the belt. The adjustment goes all the way to the end, and the belt is still loose! I am really out of practice. The adjustment of the belt is the first thing I should’ve looked at. Mel gets me a new belt, water is pumping overboard, and the engine is cooling.


I am happy, the boat is happy, and my little brown love is happy!


The Panama Canal is a busy place, and as we reach the channel to cross. Ships are coming, and going. We drive around in circles to let three ships pass, and finally get our chance to get on the other side. We aren’t 5 minutes on the other side, and another alarm goes off.

Have I mentioned how the screaching call of the engine alarms annoys me? Well sure enough the port engine is hot now, and no water coming out of the hull.
Sometimes I am a good student of life, and this is one of them. The first thing I do is touch the belt, and it’s very loose. I tighten it, and Mel starts the engine. Water is coming out of the hull, but the tempature is not going down. Mel shuts down the engine, and we will make the anchorage under one motor, or at least that is my plan.

It is said that man makes plans, and the gods laugh! The gods maybe laughing, but I am not. I am back to cussing! To make it worse Mel walks over to the starboard engine, and takes a look. I hate it when she calls me over. I always know something is wrong when she does that.

Sure enough there is water in the compartment, and lots of it. I shut down the engine, and in a hurry we roll out the jib. We are now coming into a congested area of very large steel work boats that are anchored.


You might be thinking well it’s a sailboat why weren’t you sailing anyway? You need wind to sail, and 5 knots is not much wind, so we were motoring to make better time. Obviously there is current, because we are going sideway, and towards one of those tens of millions of dollar yachts.

As the crew is standing at the rail watching us drift towards them. Water incoming, or not I start the starboard motor, and power past the yacht. It takes a couple of minutes, but we pass their bow, and I shut down the motor again.

We are doing nearly 2 knots, and the work boats are spread out enough for us to turn, and work our way under sail to the anchorage. We call a friend to ask them to standby while we drop the anchor, and set the hook under sail.

Unfortunately she is not on her boat, but gives us another number to call. Richard from Bananas, another catamaran says he will stand by. As we enter the anchorage I see a dinghy coming towards us, and it is Richard. He comes along side, and we talk boats for a few minutes, and then he ties up alongside us. We furl the headsail, and he powers us to a spot to drop the anchor along with a second dinghy that had come out to help.

The cruising community always restores my faith in mankind, and it’s kindness. Not to type that kindness is not ashore too. It just does not seem so obvious


It has been a quite day, and I am feeling like I have been beat up with a baseball bat. The days not over yet, but I am going to wait for the sun to go down, and the air to cool. The sun is low in the sky, and I crawl in the starboard engine compartment where the water is. We had bailed it out, and now I have Mel to a look, and see. She can see water dripping, and it’s obvious it is operator error, mine. I had not completely tightened down one hose. Now that the boat is stable I crawl back down, and bend over upside down, and can rest my knees against the motor.

Job accomplished, and the motor has been running cool ever since, well at least for 2 days now. We start the port engine after checking internal fluids, and start it up. It runs, and the tempature stays with in it’s normal range, we have engines again.

Remember why we came here? We came for fuel, and water. We were down to a litre of water. The fuel can wait, but water is a necessity of life. We managed to make it through the night, and in the morning. Another boat sent over three jugs of water. We start on the dinghy motor to try, and start it. It won’t start so we have to place her back on Imagine. That’s a job for tomorrow.