The Anegada Passage

Only about 2 hours into our 16 hour passage to St. Martin, our cooling water high temperature alarm started shining bright red. We were heading directly into the wind, so we only had our main sail up and we were running our engine at full cruising speed. Our autopilot was on and we were admiring the super moon when it happened. I jumped behind the wheel and quickly throttled down, while Rob rushed downstairs to inspect the engine. I glanced at our transom and saw that we had plenty of water flow coming out of our exhaust. Perhaps the sensor had just failed and there wasn’t really an issue. However, when Rob opened the engine compartment door our galley transformed into a steam room. It was clear that we had a severe leak in our cooling system, so I immediately fell off from the wind and shut the engine down.

Once the steam cleared, Rob continued inspecting the engine to determine the source of the leak. We were hoping that it was just a failed hose that could be easily replaced. However, it was too difficult to troubleshoot in the dark while we were bobbing up and down in the water, so we decided to turn around and sail to the closest anchorage (Norman Island). We put out the jib and with the wind behind us, we had a pleasant and peaceful sail under the super moon.

Picking up a mooring ball at night under sail would have been very difficult, so we decided to anchor in Benures Bay. There were 12 other boats anchored there making the bay crowded, so we had to anchor at the edge in 60 feet of water. For the first time ever, we let out all 200 feet of our chain and another 50-100 feet of rode. We were upset about our failed passage, but we were happy that we were able to keep our cool during a stressful situation and safely sail into a safe anchorage.

Once at anchor, we continued to inspect the engine. I found a small ball bearing, which I thought was odd and we were pretty certain that the steam and liquid we found in the engine compartment was coolant. But we wouldn’t know the extent of our issue until the next day.

We have a fresh water cooled engine. That means that fresh water (actually it’s a 50/50 mix of water and glycol) is constantly circulating around in a closed loop. Coolant is pumped to the cylinder block and cylinder head, cooling the engine. The hot water then runs through a heat exchanger where it is cooled by raw water (sea water). Therefore, there are two water pumps on the engine. The raw water pump sends seawater into the heat exchanger, then to the mixing elbow, and out of the exhaust. This pump we maintain on a regular basis by replacing the impeller. The coolant pump is physically mounted to the cylinder head and is not something that we maintenance on a regular basis.

The next morning, we found more small ball bearings in the engine compartment and noticed that the heat exchanger, which should be full of coolant, was completely empty. Rob noticed that the fresh water pump head appeared to be damaged. Sure enough, when we tried filling up the fresh water (coolant) reservoir, the liquid came rushing out of the pump head. The mechanical seal on the pump had failed while we were underway, causing all the coolant to boil out. The raw water pump was working just fine, which explains why I saw good water flow out the exhaust.

We had identified the problem, but getting the right parts to fix it would require some logistics work. We contacted the Yanmar dealer in the BVI, Parts and Power, and they insured us that if we could get to Tortola, then they could help us get back on our way. We could sail to West End and pick up a mooring in the daylight, but getting our 250-300 feet of rode up without an engine was another story. I did some quick research and discovered that our BoatUS tow membership would cover a tow from Norman Island to West End, Tortola because we were still within 25 miles of a BoatUS port (St. Thomas, USVI). Once again, our BoatUS membership paid off.

While we waited for the tow, there was one last thing to do. Engines can seize up when they overheat, as ours did. When our pump failed, we acted very quickly and shut the engine down almost immediately. It was now time to see if we acted quick enough. We held our breath as Rob pushed the start button. She turned over immediately and we quickly shut her down again. We had a failed water pump, but at least we didn’t have a seized-up engine. For the first time since leaving St John, we sighed in relief.

The tow boat was able to pull us forward while we brought in the rode and anchor using the generator to supply power to the windlass. We then spent the following two days in West End working on the engine. After we replaced the fresh water pump, we noticed that diesel was leaking around the fuel injectors. We removed and cleaned the fuel injectors and associated washers to stop the leaks. We then discovered that our low oil pressure sensor wasn’t working. The connection was gummed up, which probably occurred during the steam explosion, and required filing and cleaning.  Finally, we needed to replace the buzzer for our engine’s audible alarm. It hasn’t worked since we purchased the boat and we are very fortunate that this failure occurred during a night sail; otherwise, we might not have noticed the red alarm in the day light.

The entire time we were troubleshooting and repairing the engine, my gut was churning. My friends would be flying into St Martin soon and I had no idea if we would be able to meet them. It finally appeared that our engine was back in working order. Of course, we wouldn’t know for sure until we tested it out. Unfortunately, there was no time for a trial run. The weather window was perfect for the Anegada passage and we had friends that would be waiting on us.

At 3pm on Friday, Nov 18^th, we left the West End harbor and pointed our bow towards St. Martin for the second time. At the same moments, our friends, Steve and Michelle, boarded a plane in New Orleans and began their journey to St. Martin. We hoped that by Saturday afternoon we would be sipping cocktails and stuffing our bellies with baguettes together, but we had a long sail ahead of us.

We couldn’t have asked for a smoother passage. The seas were calm, the wind was light, and the stars shined brightly above us the entire way. Averaging over 6 kts, we were making excellent time. And yet, we were on the edge of our seats. We were too nervous about our engine to get comfortable. Every hour or so, Rob would inspect the engine and test the temperatures on the fresh water loop. We both listened closely to see if we could detect any pitch changes or squealing. But she purred like a kitten the entire way. About 12 hours into a passage, I finally started to relax and even allowed myself to listen to a podcast.

As the sun was rising, we pulled into Simpson Bay. It was 6:30am and the bridge wouldn’t open until 10:00am. We dropped our anchor and shut down the engine. Everyone did great—the crew, the dogs, and the engine.  We had made it to St. Martin and now it was time for all of us to get a little rest.