My main activities today were home-office work and immigration. More than that happened, of course.
Night
No music from ashore, no swell or waves, and no gusting winds or rainstorms plagued me overnight. I woke up once to a slapping noise on the hull and checked to see if the outboard had gone swimming again, but that was not the case.
The sunburn on my back was a bit warm, but it could have been much worse. I arose before sunrise and boiled water while firing up the computer. The “backup” coffee from St. Lucia is a bag of ground Starbucks “Morning Joe” coffee and it tastes much better in the store than when made in my V60. Though it does pack a certain caffeine wallop and that is what I need to get going in the morning.
Morning
After some conference calls and online discussions I needed to take a break and zip across the bay to Customs & Immigration. The outboard positively purred on the trip there. I gave myself a virtual mental congratulatory clap on the back for my mechanical expertise. Clearing into Dominica was, as always, a positive pleasure. A friendly agent, only 2 forms (with blue carbon paper for multiple copies), and the ability to clear in and out at the same time. Compare that to the officialdom of the BVI and Antigua!
So my home office and immigration tasks were complete. It’s now time to do some shopping. I asked if I could walk to the supermarket and the gatekeeper allowed me to go out of the secure dock area.
Unfortunately, after a 15 minute walk I arrived at the supermarket to find it shuttered. Although I feel that they should of have informed me that the store was close, I didn’t say a thing upon my return.
Noon
I returned to my dinghy and started on my 3 mile return journey across the bay. A third of the way across, while planing along at cruising speed, the engine suddenly died. I was only 100 feet from an anchored catamaran and the occupant was just getting out of his dinghy when I hailed him. He immediately came to my assistance, as rowing the dinghy against a fresh offshore breeze just slows down the drift rate. After several false starts, I got the engine running again while tied off on his catamaran. I released the line and headed off towards my distant boat, and he said he’d keep eyes on me during my trip.
I detoured ashore in order to walk on the beach a bit, and stopped at the Purple Turtle for a meal. Which they didn’t have. Due to the cook having not showed up for work, but I made do with a Kubuli.
I then made it back to Zanshin without further issue. After some office work I started the watermaker to fill the first tank all the way; then began taking my main engine apart in preparation for another “Hammer mod” treatment. I’ll leave it in running condition (just in case I need it) and plan on doing the hammering tomorrow.
Afternoon
After removing the appendages to the engine, I found that I could loosen the bolts for the fuel pump and apply the “hammer mod” without further disassembling the engine components. It took only 45 minute this time and once the Torx bolts were loosened I started the engine and let it warm up. The computer was logging injection information and I increased the throttle to about 1200RPM and waited. Soon the engine reached temperature and the RPMs started fluctuating. I grabbed my hammer and a long piece of wood and hammered to increase the flow. This seemed to make things better, so I hammered again. Perhaps it was a bit too much of a good thing, since the engine stopped. It wouldn’t start, so I whacked it from the other side. This might have been too much, as I think I felt it move; and a literal hairsbreadth is all the adjustment that should be done. It wouldn’t start at all now.
This was, as one can imagine, very disconcerting. I didn’t know which direction to move the cover so that I could get ignition. I used the VCDS hookup to see what the fuel injection quantities were while turning the engine and slowly, over the course of an hour, managed to find a spot where the engine would start. Not only that, but it ran at 1800RPM for 10-15 minutes with only some slight hiccups in the RPM at the end. I am charging the batteries at idle now, and tomorrow I’ll do some very minor “tapping” to see if I can fine-tune the fuel pump to run smoothly and continuously at 1800RPM.
Sundowner
I’m enjoying a cold beer right now while the engine is running smoothly, albeit at idle. I don’t think I’ll be going ashore, but will make some pasta for dinner, perhaps with some corn on the cob. I have a 05:00AM meeting tomorrow morning that I need to attend, so it is going to be an early night for me.