Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure
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@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
In A Coruña waiting for the Volvo Penta service guys. It's a good job we have them booked for today, because the port engine threw another fault about 30 mins out of A Coruña, and the bow thruster went AWOL too. So we had to dock in a strong side wind with one engine and no bow thruster. It was hairy. The fault in the bow thruster has been traced to a blown fuse on the charging circuit, so that is an easy fix. Our guess is that it was caused by a spike in shore power somewhere. One of the jobs on my list when we get home is to install an isolating transformer (it's at home waiting to be fitted), that will do lots of things, one of which is to isolate the boat from shitty shore power.
We popped into a local dive store to ask where the nearest chandlery was and @Madame-Buttonfly bought me this to remind me of the trip home....
It's a reel and line to attach to my Safety Market Buoy when we are doing our safety stop when diving. The most important criteria when choosing it is that it matches my Apeks torch
It’s your two favorite colors! What a sweet woman!
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So, we now know what the issue is. It is not an engine issue and never has been, it just manifested itself as one. The problem is a restricted tank breather pipe on the port engine, as the fuel level falls, a vacuum has been created, and at some point, this vacuum is stronger than the engine pump can pull, so the engine cuts out. We can't get to the tanks or the breather pipe, so we can't fix that here. The engineers jury-rigged a tank cross-over system to check their theory and all worked fine because the starboard tank could then relieve the vacuum on the port tank. Tomorrow, they will return to put in a crossover system that they are confident will get us home.
And here they are working on it......
I have told Sasga, that they need to get people to the UK once we are home, to fix the problem properly.
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
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@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
I have told Sasga, that they need to get people to the UK once we are home, to fix the problem properly.
I would have loved to hear that conversation...
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@Giles said in Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure:
The problem is a restricted tank breather pipe on the port engine
As in tank design problem, diameter too small; or a boat layout problem, pipe routing not being optimal?
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No idea. The starboard and port tank/engine layouts are symmetrically equal, and we have no issues with the starboard engine. It could be (and probably is) something as simple as the hose between the filler cap and the tank is 60cms long on the starboard side and 55cms long on the port side , so the radius of the hose is tighter on the port side. Or someone dropped their fag butt in the port tube........That's why I need the Sasga engineers to come fix......
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Being stuck in A Coruña for a day or two is no bad thing. It is a hidden and unknown gem. The architecture is amazing, the people are wonderful, the food is great and it is very reasonably priced. Paula and I are really looking forwards to coming back.
One of the things that I have never seen before, and really love are the balconies which are protected from inclement weather by great glazed facades.....
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@Giles nice shots G! There are more worse places to got stuck in haha! Enjoy
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Thank you for taking us along Giles … we live vicariously through you !
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Got enough chocolate for the night shift…?
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UPDATE (Fuck).....
The jury-rig fuel balancing system that was installed by the engineers is not balancing the fuel between the 2 tanks, as we were assured it would. Ho hum.
The starboard tank "percentage of full" is decreasing fast and the port is increasing at approx the same rate. We don't know why and we have no transfer pump to balance the tanks (well, if we had, we would not have had to do the jury rig in the first place).Discretion being the better part of valour, we are heading for the nearest fuel depot, about 50 miles to our east. We won't get there before it shuts tonight, so we will have to overnight there, refuel as soon as they open, and try again
"OK face up to it - you're useless but generally pretty honest and straightforward . . . it's a rare combination of qualities that I have come to admire in you" - Geo 2011
Luck
