Windblown to dead calm overnight! It is quite calm in the anchorage now, with hardly a hint of breeze to cool me down. The winds of last night seem almost like a dream now, but a bad one. At around 01:00 the winds picked up and I was having trouble sleeping anyway because I was worrying the diesel engine troubleshooting in my mind. By 03:00 I went topsides as the gusts were blowing my dinghy around, which was raised high to deter thieves. I securely tied my dinghy to the mothership and checked to make sure I wasn’t dragging anchor.
Much to my surprise I realized that I was dragging forward into 30+ constant winds. Since I know that this just doesn’t happen outside of a cartoon, I checked my transit light, another anchored boat, and found that IT was dragging at a pretty reasonable rate. And since that boat is further inshore than mine, it would have dragged onto the pier or rocks at Fort Shirley!
I got out my VHF and was about to hail them when I saw all the lights go on aboard and flurry of activity on deck. Then, I just sat back and watched. There was another boat that had evidently dragged anchor as well and they unsuccessfully attempted to set anchor several times over the course of a half hour. They must have given up, as they turned out to sea and headed south under engine.
Morning
The strong winds subsided at dawn and now, at noon, they are but memories. I wonder if the passengers aboard the Seabourn Ovation, which arrived shortly before true dawn, noticed the winds while they were underway.
Work in the office progresses. Many people are already gone from the office, as tomorrow is a national holiday in much of Germany (Biblical Magi day)
Lunch
Rather than eat, I took out the cut-off valve/solenoid. It looked Ok and when I applied 12V to it the internal magnets worked as expected.
Windblown to dead calm overnight means it is hot inside the boat, despite the fans buzzing.
I used some Q-tips to clean out the valve area and found no evidence of dirt or debris that might be clogging up the fuel flow. As an example of how the yacht and boat market work: The original VW solenoid/valve as pictured above can be had for US$24 online. The same part, but with a “marine” part number, goes for US$684.37 at the official engine website. With an almost 30x times markup that is ridiculous.
Panic
After replacing the solenoid and putting everything together, I tried to start the engine again and got loud beeping noises. That’s certainly not what I’d expected! I checked the error codes and all sorts of sensors were in error so I assumed that I’d messed up one of the 4 big connector blocks to the ECU while fudging around. I removed, re-inserted and tightened all the connectors and cleared the error codes on the computer. Attempting to start was different – lots of loud clicking noises but no starter turning the engine over. This is not good, as my generator isn’t working (I haven’t started work on the cause of that yet) and my house bank is break-even if I don’t use the computer much.
I checked the solenoid / cut-off installation, as that was all I’d actually changed this last cycle. All the connections were tight but I noticed it was very warm, but the engine had cooled to ambient temperatures overnight. I thought of a short-circuit from the solenoid to the engine block as possibly causing the warmth and saw that my starter battery was down to 11.4 volts. That’s quite low, so I delved into the depths of the bilge and found my starter cable. I connected my 12V house bank to the starter battery (which I’d labelled – fortunately) and breathed a very deep sigh of relief when the engine started up again.
Afternoon
I’ll certainly not switch careers to become a diesel technician/mechanic, that’s going to be a sure-fire way to end up on the dole. The engine is running right now and charging the batteries, I haven’t tried to increase the RPMs yet to see if removing, cleaning, and re-tensioning the shut-off valve return spring has made a difference.
(update) It hasn’t made a difference, I still get fluctuations above 1100RPM.
I’ve decided that I’m not getting anywhere with the diesel and will put the engine back together tonight or tomorrow and not change anything until I have a plan. I’ve reached out on the internet and hope to get some pointers as to where to look next.
I went ashore to the Purple Turtle for a dinner/sunset sandwich and am now back aboard Zanshin. I’ll shower and decide whether to relax on deck or put the engine together afterwards. I’m leaning towards the former at the moment.