Enroute to New Zealand

We are finally on the way to the fabled land of New Zealand (or N Zed as they say). We left Neiafu harbor at Vava'U after going over the weather forecasts for several days and discussing everything ad nauseum with the other cruisers. We even hired a professional weather forecaster and router to give us more assurance on this somtimes difficult passage. In the end we even went against his advice and left on Sunday when he recommended waiting until the 15th but that would be 10 days later with still no idea if the weather would be any better then.

The problem was the local weather in Tongan waters. It was forecasted to be nasty but then the rest of the trip to NZ looked very good. He said that if were were "keen" on getting through the first 2-3 days then we would be fine. It turns out that the first two days were indeed extremely nasty and we suffered through it. We both took anti-seasickness pills (Meclizine) and they helped but did not completely prevent the hideous feeling of nausea and malaise that we had. It did not help that our raw water pump impeller came apart the morning of the second day when our batteries were low and we needed to run the engine. Cindy was on watch in the cockpit and I was down below trying to sleep (a side effect of the pills is that they make you sleepy - but the other side effect is that you can't actually sleep on them!).

I heard something weird then the engine died and Cindy called for me to come up quick. I asked her what she did (not the best thing to ask or the best way to put it) when I should have said "what's happening". But I was groggy and not thinking clearly. The engine alarm had gone off because the engine overheated. I wasn't feeling great so we pondered a bit and let the engine cool down. I had not checked water coming out the back of the stern because it was rough and water was splashing over the sides at the time. It had always worked before....famous last words.

Well, for those of you who don't know - marine diesels (most all of them) are salt water cooled using heat exchangers that are the equivalent of a car's radiator only instead of air going past it is the ocean water. This "raw" water has to be pumped though by the impeller pump then to the engine oil cooler, then the transmission oil cooler, then the engine fresh water coolant cooler then to the muffler where it cools the hot exhaust gases before being run out the stern of the boat. You know it is pumping OK by checking the raw water coming out the exhaust pipe at the stern. I did not check this one time...

I checked for water at the intake and it was OK so took the cover off the impeller pump and the rubber vanes on the impeller were now all gone except for one (one out of nine or so). That won't do it so no water and engine overheats. Cindy did just right in shutting the engine off when the alarm went off. (Atta crew!)

I almost threw up just inspecting the pump so I had to go back topside to clear my head and settle the stomach. Later I went back and found the tools and spare impeller. I had already installed something called a "Speedy Seal" kit which makes it easy to take the cover off the pump just for this kind of situation. However, that is only the first part as you have to get the old impeller out and the new one in. Luckily the old came out easy (not always) and I was feeling good, but getting the new one in took two more trips topside to calm the stomach. Mind you, I am working on my knees in a violently rolling boat next to a hot engine that smells like diesel. This would have been a mildly easy job in the harbor but I had to wait until we were in 30kt winds and triple reefs in the main and jib.

Getting the new impeller means bending back all the little vane dealies back in the same direction all at the same time else it will not go in. I tried and tried and tried and had to get a sick Cindy to hold the flashlight while I worked. Finally I took a couple of plastic zip ties and put them around the vanes and progressively tightened them while bending the vanes in the right direction which I had to figure out from the pump layout since there weren't any left to get the right "set" from the old one. Got it in (two more trips topside and lost my coke I had just drank over the rail). Then I had to dismantle the hoses and oil cooler next in line from the pump as that is where most of the pump parts that broke off went and they would impede water flow which is the whole point of the exercise. This took as long as all the rest of it combined but got it working. Bang, the engine fired right up and stayed cool.

All this only took 4 hours yesterday. We have not been eating anything except muffins and some chips since it has been too rough to cook and our stomachs did not want food anyway. I finally put on a Scopalomine (sp?) patch for more serious seasickness medication. You wear this little dime-size patch behind your ear and it provides three days of time release medication. It seems to be helping otherwise I could not be typing this message.

It also helps that today it calmed down a bunch (right on schedule) and we are now doing 6.8kts in about 15kts of wind, close-hauled with relatively calm seas. We are still rocking and rolling and Cindy has been down on her back trying to sleep and calm her stomach as she stopped taking the meds today. I need to check the incoming emails to see what is ahead of us too. We have about 850nm to go to Whangarei (pronounced fawn-ga-ray - go figure). We should make it on the 14th or 15th if weather holds. Right now it is a great sail but we did not enjoy the last two days. Better to get our lumps early we thought - now we want to make sure there aren't any more lumps coming.

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