Journal Entry – June 1, 2007 Not Quite Air in the Fuel Line… The Death of “Big Red”

Author: Scott

Okay, the good news first. Pam and I are not totally mathematically challenged engine incompetent dorkazoids. Our fuel calculations were fine on our Tasman crossing and we did not let our Fuel Tank 2 run dry. In fact there is plenty of fuel in all of Starships tanks. Furthermore, we did not incorrectly bleed our engine of air, in fact if we would have run out of gas we were assured that our efforts to bleed the engine would have produced a running engine in no time. Finally, we did not run our starter battery dead, we could have had a nuclear reactor on board and our engine would still not have started.

Now for the bad news! Ivan the mechanic showed up again today and Starship had a freshly charged starter battery for him to experiment with for starting our sickly engine. After a number of attempts with the engine sounding like it was being dragged across a cheese grater by a pack of donkeys running for the barn (sort of a cl-cl-cl-cheeeet-chiiiiiit-chzzzzt sound), Ivan got busy taking off the forward pulley to reveal the crank shaft. He then produced the Arnold Schwartaneger of wrenches (or spanner in Australian/Kiwi) and manually turned the crank shaft with the mega-wrench. With each revolution of the crank shaft there was a gut-wrenching sound like King Kong running his fingers down a chalk board. After digging deeper into the patient we found the problem and it was terminal. Apparently our number one cylinder was nearly seized, and the engine was almost bone dry from lack of oil. Now before you go jumping to any over the moon conclusions, yes Scott and Pam did check the oil just a day before the death of “Big Red” and we even had a new oil pressure alarm installed before leaving New Zealand. The fact is, there was plenty of oil when we had checked and the oil pressure alarm stayed silent as a church mouse even through the agonizing end.

What we now know, three mechanics later and after the removal of “Big Red”, is that the oil cooler had corroded internally. When this happens salt water used to cool the oil through an exchanger is released into the engine. This is due to the walls of the exchanger corroding through to mix the engines oil with salt water, and within no time the engine has salt water pumping throughout it’s innards. There is apparently no warning to a mechanical catastrophe of this type and the patient always suffers an excruciating death. So, when we heard the engine change pitch and thought we were running out of fuel, in reality “Big Red” was screaming out in fatal anguish. This ends the short story and life of “Big Red”.

Now to say that we were shocked to the core is a colossal understatement. Once Ivan had left us to our mourning, we sat in silence, stunned, hardly tasting our lunch. A new rebuilt engine would cost upwards of ten thousand Australian dollars and the labor for the job was aggravatingly vague. The only thing that got us moving was our prearranged invitation to host a gathering with our new friends David, Donna, Bernie, and Kate aboard Starship. We somehow walked through the fog of disbelief to Edgecliff Center for groceries and refreshments.

I think what actually saved us from total despair was the fact that we had such wonderful guests visit us. Though we could not possibly have been great company our guests took over and helped us focus on the bright side. Yes, I know you must be saying “What freaking bright side?”, however, there is a small sliver of a glimmer in a very bleak situation. You see, in New Zealand we refit just about every system on Starship but the one variable that was not really addressed was her twenty year old Westerbeke 40 horsepower engine, affectionately known as “Big Red”. I think deep down we both had concerns of taking an engine of this era around the world, especially after learning of some of the prior owners poor maintenance habits. Then there is our own inclination for engine drama as demonstrated from Mexico to New Zealand. The tidbit of hope in our sorry situation is that we will now have a newly rebuilt engine with a known history we can trust. It turns out that we will even be able to fit a bigger, faster, stronger engine and perhaps we will breathe a little easier as we continue our voyage. Now how’s that for looking on the confounded brighter side? Thanks to our new Aussie buddies for your words of encouragement! We finished off this memorable day with lots of laughter, delicious Italian food, and new hope to face our latest challenge.