Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
At least things started well on the voyage to New Caledonia. We got the ship all prepared, we cleared Customs and Immigration, and the good Fijian folks at the Vuda Point Marina came out to sing the lovely Fijian song of farewell, “Isa Lei”.
The weather was stunning, the sea was sparkly and full of light, and the winds were predicted fair.
We went out through the channel by Momi Bay. I hadn’t been through it since the time that I wrote about in Old Bill Rises From The Dead, and that was at night, so it was great to go through it again in the daylight.
I found a good spot to mount my thermometer to measure air temperatures, well shielded from the sun under the awning (red arrow) but fully exposed to the wind. I’ll discuss my results in a future post.
And here’s the thermometer in use …
However, day was turning to night when the first sign of trouble appeared. The diesel engine started “loping”, meaning it would speed up and slow down, speed up and slow down … grrr. Now. I’m a decent diesel mechanic, as are many commercial fishermen. However, we were fortunate to have an Australian “diesel fitter” among the crew, and he knew his stuff. After a long battle with the engine, he figured out that it was drawing air into the fuel from … well, somewhere. Here are the possible options, the red lines are fuel lines, any one of which could be leaking air …
As time went on, the problem got worse, and efforts to find the leak failed. At about thirty hours into the voyage, since it was just about twice as far to New Caledonia as back to Fiji, the prudent mariners decided to turn around. Discretion is almost always the better part of valor on the ocean, and a bad engine on an ocean crossing is no joke.
However, there were still temperatures to take, a trip back to make, and more awesome weather than a man could hope for. Outbound it was calm, but on the way back, we saw lots of thunderstorms.
I got to thinking about “virga” on this trip. Virga is rain that falls from clouds but evaporates before it hits the surface. I saw lots of it, and I wonder how much of it is captured by the climate models. In fact, how much of it is captured by observations? How would you even measure it when it doesn’t hit the ground? Gotta love the settled science …
In the night, a half-dozen flying fish flew on board, attracted by the lights. We also got a couple of flying squid on the deck, which is about a metre and a half (5’) off the water … amazing creatures. The one in the photo is about 200 mm (8″) long.
And of course, under it all, the ethereal shimmering cobalt-blue sea parting under the bow, deep beyond imagining …
All too soon, however, we were back inside the reef in Fiji, with the headlands standing proud in the afternoon sunlight and us boys looking on in awe …
So … that was our trip. Great fun, but far too short. We got in an hour before sunset, tied up to the Quarantine Buoy outside the Marina, and put up the yellow “Q” flag that signifies we’re waiting for Customs and Immigration to board the boat and check our papers.
Now, it’s the next morning, the “Q” flag is still flying, and we can’t leave the boat. The Customs folks will get here … sometime. It’s Fiji. Meanwhile, the trip is delayed indefinitely, so I’m going to fly on to Australia. I started out to go there, and by gum, I’m gonna make it. Am I upset about the trip evaporating? Nope. As the poet said, “The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley”. Or as the swabbies say, “God is my co-pilot, but Murphy is my engineer” …
Besides, one thing I’ve learned in my voyages is that Bokonon was right when he said, “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” Me, I just dance it as best I know how. Plus which, I want to meet Tu the tattoo god …
So the beat goes on. Of course, I’ll continue the story of my meanderings, more to come.
My best wishes to all, fair seas and fair winds to everyone,
w.
Willis, I’m Montana born and bred and love the mountains and prairies. Spent four years in the US Navy in the early 70s and was very happy to leave the briny ocean for my beautiful peaks. You sir, have made me miss the sea- well done!
I understand that well, Dave. I grew up on a cattle ranch in the mountains, and I do love them also. What’s a poor boy to do?
w.
Never was in Fiji, but your pictures remind me vividly of my time as a swabbie in Guam.
Ferdinand Engelbeen May 9, 2016 at 12:26 am
Thanks, Ferdinand. For me, I’ve mostly given up railing against changes in my itinerary. Mike used to tell me, “The worst thing for you is the best thing for you”, and he’s been right almost all the time in that regard. It’s all just dancing lessons from God, and I’m just as happy dancing to Australia on an airplane as dancing across the ocean to Australia.
What, I’m supposed to feel sad that I get to go to Oz and hang out with a good mate and his warm and wonderful Solomon Islands wife and visit the tattoo god? Yeah, poor me …
Most people would kill for the chance to take the voyage I just took, so I’ll be damned if I’m going to see it as “a pity”. I see it as another astounding adventure, plus for the first time in my life I got to take some scientific data. That alone made the trip worthwhile, and all the rest, the camaraderie, the boat, the glorious clouds, the views of the islands, the thrill of the fish hooking up and then getting off, fighting sleepiness on the 2AM watch, the virga in the distance, the blue of the deeps with shafts of sunlight going down, down, down …that’s all just gravy. No need to pity me, my friend, I’m living the dream no matter how it turns out.
All the best to you, and thanks for your support,
w.
My Own experience of your diesel problem would be that there is a water layer in the tank and the fuel and filters are now contaminated – this was a regular problem on my old tractor, it would run uneven for a while and then terminally would run fast before stopping completely. It then would start but only run for a short time. This was caused by the tank contamination blocking the small coarse filter in the tank, the suction created by the injector pump would invariably then draw in air from somewhere – normally from the seal on the manual lift pump.
Sure I am saying the obvious but it took me an age of scratching my head to work out what was wrong – at the time I was unaware of this ability for growth on the surface between water and diesel – isnt nature amazing!! even if da**ed annoying at times
Good luck in OZ Willis we call it gods own country.
I thought it was The Banks Owned Country.
.
I should think you could measure it with radar. You might need a specialized radar unit with a low beam and a higher beam both aimed along the same azimuth. But it could probably be done. So it probably has been done. Extracting virga information from radars designed for other purposes like air traffic control? Seems dubious in this modern digital age. Any useful information about virga will probably disappear during the data preparation.
Sorry to hear that the ocean portion of the trip ended early. But at least it ended safely. Have a good time in Australia.
There is an interesting study using radar, at this link, from 1988.
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/1520-0450%281988%29027%3C0209%3AEORFFC%3E2.0.CO%3B2
Hi Willis
Just a curious question, being at a third of the distance why not press on, I understand the risk of the known issue, but now you are forced to do the 1/3 way back, and again the full journey (with the unknown risks).
I am not a sailor at all, but I think in this case the risk is equally great. what do you think ?
Jan
p.s. love your contributions to WUWT !!!!! keep em coming.
Thanks, Jan. The ocean is a very unforgiving place. Once you find that you’re in trouble and that your boat is not seaworthy, in general it’s your best bet to get to shore as quickly as possible. The problem was getting worse. Suppose the engine were to last for say 48 hours before conking out … we were 30 hours to Fiji and 60 to New Caledonia. Easy math …
Beyond that, the boat had been in Fiji previously, so we knew where to take it, we’d been in port before. And Fiji is the economic center of the Pacific, so it’s much easier to get parts and spares there.
The main reason, however, was safety.
Best regards,
w.
Thanks Willis… Goes to show every day is a learning day. Have fun down under!
Nice one Willis.
Knowing when something is broken and needs fixing certainly sets you apart from the climate modellers.
‘A man who is not afraid of the sea will soon be drowned,’ he said, ‘for he will be going out on a day he shouldn’t. But we do be afraid of the sea, and we do only be drownded now and again.’
J M Synge, The Aran Islands
Good decision Willis, disasters usually start with ‘having to be somewhere’.
Willis, it looks to me that the person who designed and installed the fuel supply system put a great deal of thought into it. Everything is securely fastened, placed conveniently and there are even drip pans for filters. There appear to be redundant filters and flow or pressure meters inline along with enough valves and filters to create tremendous flexibility and some diagnostic and backup capabilities. And then it failed.
It reminds me of some of the schemes for our future grid. Some want to add a huge number of components which will serve a wide range of needs and wishes and which promise flexibility and redundancy.
And then reality rears its ugly head and one rediscovers the truth about systems: at some point complexity becomes the enemy of reliability, maintainability, and repairability.
Good luck on your travels!
Hi Willis,
great reading, as an occasional sailor coming from country which doesn’t have sea access, I envy you from deep of my heart.. I practically feel salt calling me.
I drove diesel car in Europe for many years, knowing troubles of diesel engines and their sensitivity to fuel quality I mixed my own diesel additive which I used for 120000km in my diesel engine and kept my engine in like new shape. For full tank 65 liters I added 3dcl of gasoline, 1dcl of Kerosene, 50ml of two stroke engine oil and 10ml of ethyl hexyl nitrate or alkyl nitrate based diesel additive.
This is working in 2 ways, first enhancing evaporation properties where gasoline evaporates at 70 – 150C, Kerosene at 150 – 200C and finally diesel fuel at 200-300C. So fuel mixture starts to evaporate earlier than with pure diesel thus evaporate completely earlier and create better fuel/air mixture, well known problem of diesel engines.
Second ethyl hexyl nitrate has very low point of auto ignition, like 130C, pure diesel has 220C. This is lessening ignition delay in diesel engines causing better and faster burning through mixture.
Finally there is 2 stroke oil just to improve greasing properties of diesel fuel to protect all fuel pump, injectors.
Gasoline and Kerosene act as solvents in diesel too, solving parafines and other heavy stuff in diesel, clogging filters.
I used it in modern diesel engine VW 2.0 TDI, though built in US car Dodge Caliber 🙂 with high pressure 2000bar injectors. This engine is well known for its sensitivity to fuel and failing injectors due insufficient greasing properties of diesel. Thanks to this mixture I avoided it.
In simpler engine like boat diesel it should be without problems.
Not a good idea to add volatiles to the fuel in some diesel engines, as they use the fuel to cool the injectors, and then return the hot fuel to the fuel tank. GM 6-71, V12-71, etc.
Hmm kerosene and gasoline are far from volatiles, Gasoline is lowest boiling point in this mixture and used same way in petrol cars. If you are scared of this skip gasoline. Kerosene in principle is very light and very pure diesel fuel (something between gasoline and diesel), it will do its part of job.
Willis,
Sorry ’bout the engine trouble. I can sympathize. I also appreciate all of the discussions on how to fix diesel air bleeds. It reminds me of standard diesel bar talk among sailors in any bar in the Caribbean.
I had a Perkins 4-154 in my CSY-44 that would not run more than a couple of minutes after sailing for two or three of hours on port tack. Never did find the cause. As long as we changed tack occasionally it didn’t fail. And, I never found the cause, even after 6 years in the Caribbean. I finally gave up looking and either changed tack every hour or so or just bled the injectors when necessary. Of course bleeding the injectors in a heavy cross sea was interesting.
great pictures Willis. Your posts are never a disappointment.
Another great read, Willis, thank you. I also enjoyed all the diesel chat comments, having been an auto engineer for 50+ years.
W
Stop bloody gloating.
Thick walled teflon tubing works really well on marine diesel systems. Teflon tubing cold flows, so, barbed stainless ferrules have to be inserted inside all of the compression fittings. The nice part is that the bubbles and contamination can be seen. Teflon should not be used under high flow condtions as it will act like a vandergraaf generator.
Would you not have to replace it fairly often because of the cold flow, or are you only using it in gravity feed lines?
I use it only on suction and gravity lines on a small 18KW auxiliary. It has worked well since 1987.
Thanks for that info…,
Joe
For comparison, here’s the fuel manifold on a 52′ ocean crossing powerboat.
http://mvdirona.com/Blog/content/binary/Blog_Fuel_Manifold_IMG_4862%20(600×450).jpg
http://mvdirona.com/2013/12/dirona-fuel-manifold/
Willis,
Thank you for taking time out of your travels to share your story with us. Always fascinating and greatly appreciated.
Note, I shared your original posts with one of my best college buds…who lives on a sailboat in Rhode Island. He “jokingly” dismissed the vessel as “not a proper sailboat by R.I. standards.” Being just an ignorant farm-boy from Tennessee, I actually had no clue what he was talking about. But I get it now! Hah! Lots of fun and excitement.
And I just wanted to say that I appreciate the tone and graciousness of your posts. Yes, we’d all love to be sharing the same adventure, even though it turned out a bit differently than planned.
Happy travels.
rip