Yesterday I was able to do a quick and easy fix to our auto pilot by just switching the hydraulic pump leads at the computer. Today, the other two problems were fixed. Terrell of Tradewinds Marine Electric (721-524-1927) returned to Leu Cat with news that the Triad part to the salon CruiseAir air conditioning unit could not be obtained. It turns out that all of the part suppliers are in Florida and they are all closed because Hurricane Matthew is quickly approaching. Plus, he was not sure when they would be open for business again. I suggested that he should just take the part out from one of our units in the port hull because seldom do we use those units. However, he said he first wanted to try replacing the bayonet connector that lead to the Triad. He had noticed that a couple were a bit loose and that could have caused the wires to overheat and might be the problem. In a few short minutes, the connectors were replace and…viola! The unit was working just fine. It turned out that the Triad was fine and we would not need to replace the part. Yea! Problem 2 was now behind us.

Erik, the engine mechanic also came to Leu Cat this morning to work on our starboard engine. Before we came, I had gone into the engine room and retrieved the oil cap that had come off. The treads on the cap were heavily melted and this is why the cap came off. Thus, the problem that was at the heart of the matter was that the engine had overheated. The reason was later discovered by Erik as he was pouring new antifreeze into the engine. He heard drips and discovered a large cooling hose had ruptured on the underneath portion of it. Fortunately, we were able to get the last replacement hose part on the island and he also had a replacement oil cap available. In no time the engine was up and operating and after the test, the stop button up at the helm even worked properly and shut the engine off. He suggested that I should replace the engine oil since the old oil would have significantly thinned out due to the overheating of the engine. Once the oil is changed, he suggested that I should run the engine for a few hours and monitor its temperature. If it stay’s cool and turns off fine, then we should be good to go. One mystery still exists however: why did the engine overheating light and alarm not go off when we lost our antifreeze? Either, the sensor is bad, the electrical wiring and/or connections are bad or the gauge is bad at the helm. This is something that we will be looking into when we get to Grenada.

Thus, tomorrow I will change the oil, test the engine and if it stays cool and turns off fine, we will be set to continue on working our way back to Grenada. We are not sure if we will leave tomorrow afternoon or Saturday morning. We will just have to wait and see how things go and how tired we are.