When I fired up the engine this morning it took at least 15 seconds of cranking before it started. A fair bit of unburnt fuel came with the cooling water and lots of grey smoke to follow.

And horror! As soon as it was was working normally again I could here the knocking sound. Could it be that some water had come into at least one cylinder and thus bent a valve or two???? I felt just devastated now, this is too much. Sorry, but the Estonians hadn't got a clue as how to install an engine. Despite me mentioning this issue and asking about a vacuum valve at least twice they just shrugged and showed no signs what so ever of even being aware of the existance of such an item.

OK, we HAVE to get a mechanic in Mariehamn, and tonight I HAVE to disconnect the water hose from the exhaust elbow to see if that helps. Then I have the diagnosis clear, I think. Unfortunately, this would mean that this brand new engine with 4 hours on the gauge has to be opened again in a half day job at least. Will this voyage ever get back to being normal I wonder?

A light headwind kept us motoring for 4-5 hours. You will probablyy not believe this, but after an hour or so the next engine problem arose. First the RPM gauge stopped working. Hmm, no big deal, but it suggests a wiring problem or a bad connection somewhere. Then after a while the Beeper and 'low oil pressure alarm lamp' started acting up. Not steadily though, but like a connection issue too. I shut the egine off and then started again, same thing. Shut it off - disconnected the wire harness and connected it again- Then it worked. Interesting isn't it?

Anyway, the effort of today took us to Jurmo, this lovely pearl among all the jewels of th Finnish Archipelago Sea. I described this last year in this blog, so let me just add that it was raining, we picked a litre of lingonberries while walking around the island for 3 hours in the afternoon. Then we cooked Lingonberry Jam! Mmmm, soooo nice.