Engine Problems...

During one of my routine inspections of the engine, I found sea water coming out of the air intake on the engine. This is NOT a good thing. It means the inside of the engine got flooded with water. This could potentially destroy the engine if the water is not removed quickly. Unfortunately getting the water out is not an easy task especially at sea. So we made the tough decision to alter our course and begin sailing to Cabo San Lucus over 700 miles away. This will take us 4 to 5 days. It will probably be too late to save the engine.

Meanwhile we have used our Starlink to contact a mechanic and to get input from various forums. It maybe be possible to get the water out and the engine running ourselves. This will be VERY difficult while underway, but we are going to give it our best shot.

We stated the work last night and got part way there before we ran into some problems that we are waiting on advice for on how to proceed. We will do this first thing in the morning.

So how does a thing like this happen? Well with the big swells and wind, water got pushed up our exhaust pipe, and then into the engine. We will need a way to temporarily plug the exhaust in these conditions to stop it from happening again.

Meanwhile we sail on to Cabo. It not a very easy sail since we are close reaching in very large seas, but its doable.

The crew are all staying positive and engaged in solving this problem. If we can fix it we will alter course and head back for the Marquesas. I give it a 50/50 chance.

We also need some sunshine tomorrow. We had very little yesterday so we could not produce much power with our solar. Now our batteries are running low. We were planning to run the engine in order to charge our batteries back up, but right now that is not an option. A good day of sunshine will get us back to the power levels we need to get to Cabo. For now we are doing all we can to conserve our power, such as hand steering during the day instead of using the autopilot.

Meanwhile we would love you prayers, that we all stay safe, positive and container working well together. Plus prayers for sunshine and nice consistent wind. I know God has a plan, I’m just not sure what it is yet.

Thanks for traveling along with us on this life adventure!