A Salt Lines Mystery: Engine Edition
What an exciting day we’ve had onboard Salt Lines! What started as a peaceful morning with the best of intentions to head back to Tongatapu before a sporty-looking front rolled in turned into a full day of engine alarms, jammed impellers, and new friends.
The view from the top of our mast last night in Port Maurelle, featuring Kāren on a paddle board!
After a lovely second day at anchor in Port Maurelle, we began our morning as usual with coffee and the sunrise. I did my morning boat checks, we ensured everyone was fed and watered, and we picked up anchor. Just as we started for Neiafu, a screaming alarm erupted from the engine panel in the nav station. We shut off the engine, unfurled the headsail, and instructed the crew to keep us sailing and avoid any collisions with land while Matt and I began troubleshooting. Despite verifying that our fuel, oil, sea strainer, and coolant were all in order, the alarm persisted. We opened the raw water pump to check the impeller and found it broken, jammed, and in all sorts of different directions. The next task was to unjam the impeller—a job requiring brute force and sheer will, according to Matt. Naturally, he assigned me the task, and I wrenched, levered, hammered, and cursed until it finally came free.
Nothing an old mallet can’t fix!
Meanwhile, on deck, the crew skillfully tacked us up to Neiafu through a narrow channel between the islands where the wind, as usual, was coming from exactly where we wanted to go. They were very disappointed when I had them turn us around instead of shooting the 40-meter gap between two extremely shallow reefs. Despite their confidence, I wasn't willing to risk getting stuck on a reef with no engine amidst all the other chaos.
Our track sailing up to Neiafu, only a couple close calls!
Back to the engine room excitement: it was now Matt’s turn to hammer, wrench and curse at the impeller, and he kindly took over fitting in the new one. After it was fitted into place, and the cover refitted, we tried the engine again. After discovering and fixing an airlock in the sea chest, the engine roared to life with no alarm! Cheers erupted from the crew, but Matt and I weren’t convinced it was all over yet. We headed straight for Neiafu, cautiously increasing the revs, and prayed we'd make it. And we did—almost! Just 20 meters from shallow enough water to anchor, the alarm sounded again. We shut off the engine and drifted slowly to the anchorage. Down went the anchor, and we all sighed with relief.
During all this excitement, Matt had put a call out on channel 26, the local cruising channel in Vava’u, asking if any Yanmar experts could assist with troubleshooting. To our relief, Peter, aboard his boat Acron responded, saying he had some engineering experience and would be happy to help. He arrived shortly after with his toolkit and a plan. Not long after, Pat from his boat called Calista showed up with printed pages from the Yanmar manual detailing potential causes of the alarm. With their help, we narrowed it down to a faulty electrical connection sending a diagnostic alarm to the control unit. After confirming the engine was running fine and all vital parameters were in the green, we disabled the alarm and bid farewell to our new friends.
Our heroes!
Unfortunately, as often happens with sailing, we missed our planned departure time and are setting off from Neiafu about five hours later than hoped, meaning we’ll likely catch some of the weather we aimed to avoid. No matter! The crew is in great spirits despite the delay and rain on the horizon, looking forward to the sail and a well-deserved celebration tomorrow evening back in Nuku’alofa.
Cheers! -Liv
