The Adventure is still on!

With lots of prayer, perseverance and determination, my cousin Chris and I were able to get the engine running. We could not have done it without the support from a mechanic friend of mine, Greg Fountain, and a Facebook Yanmar engine group. They gave us the confidence we could do this repair.

Chris and I spent 4.5 hours this morning with our heads in the engine compartment as we sailed toward Cabo, 700 miles away. We were on a very close reach with 20+ knots of wind and a 10+ foot sea. It was extremely challenging conditions to be working in, to say the least.

For those who like the technical details of how all this happened, here it is. First, how did we know we even had a problem? Well both Chris and I were concerned about the boats exhaust pipe and how much time it was spending under water due to the added weight on the boat, and the big seas and wind from behind us. I decided to do a routine check of the engine before starting it so we could charge our depleted batteries. While inspecting the engine, I saw water dripping out of the engine air intake. This meant the entire engine had become flooded with sea water.

We fixed it by first removing the exhaust hose and plugging it so no more water would come in. When then had to get the water out of the engine. We did this by removing our fuel injectors which creates and opening for the water to come out. I have never removed these injectors and was very concerned the would not even pull out, but with some effort we got all 3 out.

We then took a big socket wrench and placed it on a nut on the front of the engine which would allow us to turn the engine over by hand. As we turned the engine over, water shot out the injector holes like a geyser! It was seriously and impressive amount of water! When then cracked the engine with the starter and even more what shot out, hitting the ceiling of the boat. Now we had a mess to clean up.

When an engine gets flooded, the water also gets in the oil, so we did an oil change next. After that we carefully put everything back together.

The crew all circled around the engine, we held hands and prayed if it was God's will that the engine would run. On the first crank, BAM! the engine fired right up! Praise God!

We got the boat cleaned up, had a crew meeting and decided to change course and head back for the Marquesas!

This was definitely on of the most difficult and challenging engine repair I've ever done, and doing it at sea was next level.

To prevent this from happening again we will be plugging the exhaust pipe where it exits the boat so water can't come in. We will remove it before starting the engine.