Left Behind but Not Alone

Yesterday was not the best day of our sailing adventure and we were not able to leave St Lucia with the rest of the Workd ARC fleet due to an on-going engine problem that has plagued us for the last couple of weeks.

In Antigua it originally appeared that we might have an oil pump failure - a fairly terminal issue - and the last few weeks have been a high octane roller coaster of emotions, stress - and fear that we might have to pull out of the World ARC, whilst we tried to navigate our way through all the advice and teeth sucking starting from “well these 6BY3 Yanmar engines are absolute rubbish - what can you expect?” (not true) to “o without doubt you’re going to need a new engine and we can do that for you for US$50,000” (also not true!)

It transpired that an engine interface required a software update, so over Christmas and New Year (not stressful at all!) we managed to get a ‘not new’ interface from Yanmar in Florida with the correct software version programmed and sent out to St Lucia. It seemed the universe was finally aligning: FedEx managed to actually deliver it on time and to the right place (quite a result for FedEx in my experience); it got through customs quickly (yes!!); and an engineer fitted and rewired 36 hours before departure. We tested it and it worked perfectly …….. except as it turns out, it didn’t.

So as we left our berth yesterday for the start line the engine stopped - and so did our hearts. The next 10 minutes were pretty scary as we tried to get onto another dock with no way to reverse and therefore slow the boat down. But with the help of a great dockmaster we managed to ‘land’ successfully at what felt like about 50mph.

We managed to retrieve our old interface out of customs and also get a Yanmar specialist down to diagnose the problem. It appears that we need to programme the new interface to recognise the engine ….. a rather major detail that we were totally ignorant of.

And so we just have to sit tight until Monday when we hope the specialist can fit us in to reprogramme and ‘reboot’ the boat so we can start our voyage to Santa Marta in Colombia.

How are we feeling? Well I feel horribly disappointed and frustrated. Yesterday was a very low point: after literally months of preparation and psyching ourselves up for leaving, it was just heartbreaking to hear the countdown to the start over the VHF and not to be out there with the fleet. We went out for a beer or 10 last night with 2 other crews who are also left here waiting for repairs, so at least we are not on our own. And today we dust ourselves down and pick ourselves up again to get ready for the challenge on Monday to be reprogrammed as quickly as possible so we can catch up with the fleet. I try to remind myself that this is certainly a first world problem and to get it in perspective. For sure this is just a hiccup and we have everything crossed that we will be able to start our Pacific adventure on Monday or Tuesday. Fingers (and toes) are firmly crossed.