II: Spain to Montenegro
2024.03.08 - AYB - Reading time ~4 Minutes
When I was buying this boat, the owner told me that he was issued with a bill for the general engine repairs for over €7000. Job wasn’t done, seller just noted that the engine requires repairs. But as per my noobish feeling the engine was fine, so I just noted that bill and did nothing about that.
Several days we’ve been sitting in Andraitx waiting for the weather and eventually the storm was over and we decided to go to the Sardegna.
We departed accordingly to the SailGrib plan and for several hours everything was fine. But then two things happened: wind died and we had to spin up the engine, then in about two hours big squall came on our back and at the same time the engine decided to blow up with the coolant.
I have quickly checked out the impeller of the engine’s coolant system and found it perfectly fine. So the trouble was definitely somewhere else in the system
So we found ourselves in the open sea, weather was building up and the forecast wasn’t promising, and no engine. I had to make a decision: either going back 45 miles to Cagliari, or go forward 170 miles to Sicily. I took 10 minutes to think while Misha was “deeply conserned about our sanity to go to Montenegro ourselves” and finally I have decided to go back to Cagliari. The reason was quite simple — Cagliari is a local yachting center and may have good marine stores, services and shops but Sicily is a complete Terra Incognita for me.
We arrived to the bay of Cagliari at night, about 2200. Wind immediately died to 10-12 knots and the sea became flat. I called every marina around but most of them didn’t answer at all and those who did couldn’t help us at this time, offering anchoring somewhere around and wait the morning.
Since it was pitch dark already and every anchorage in the gulf was marked as “there are some big stones, take care” I decided to reef the sails to the very minimum and go back and forth in the gulf at the blazing speed of 1-2 knots.
When the morning came we connected again with the marina and they sent a boat to tow us in. We successfully moored and started searching for repairs. Luckily I met a guy in the marina, who is an engine master. Next day he came to my boat, disassembled the whole coolant system and look what we found there.
This is absolutely not what do you expect to find in the cooling system
So the mystery of the engine started to reveal. Pre-previous owner messed up with the impeller, told nothing to the new one, he was using the engine as is, Found it smoky, got the bill for the general repairs from the volvo-penta dickheads and that’s it.
While I was waiting for master to arrive I found another problem that required immediate fix, even temporary — the rudder stock got lose, and bolts got stuck. I tried to undo one and it immediately lost its head. So the only solution I found was to surround the failing thing with 8 screws and hope for the best.
Nevertheless, I got engine working like new, purring like a kitten, and we were free to go. Help from Franchesco wasn’t free, tho. Cleaning up the cooling system made me €300 even more poor with the obligation to send €200 later when I’ll get more money.
Second try to reach Cicily went really well and without any big troubles. We reached San Vito Lo Capo and moored at the local “marina” to have a rest. Don’t go there if you have any options. This is just a fishermans pontoons, insanely overpriced and zero services around. As soon we got rest, we left this miraclous place.
A bit of salt came when Misha realized that he is running out of allowed presence in EU and also he have to fly over the ocean to do the stuff he have to do. Summarizing the circumstances he decided to take off at the next stop at the Palermo.
I tried to find another company and one of the yachting chats brought a nice newbie to me. It was a little careless to take onboard a guy knew nothing about sailing and just willing to try it, but I had no option.
