It's now Thursday and we lost a day somewhere. We both thought it was just Wednesday. Engine work continued into this morning. Earlier this week, Tracy posted a question on the US Virgin Island Facebook site asking for help finding a mechanic. We'd already gotten the name of Alvs from one of the local stores but on calling him, he wanted $98US per hour and required us to be in a marina or he was going to charge more. The closest marina ran $4.80 per foot per night or $216 US just for ONE NIGHT. Way out of our price point. The Facebook group gave us a couple of names one of whom works near us on "Pirate" tourist boats. We took off in Puff and looked up "Jay". Really nice guy and his thoughts after I told him all we had already done and checked was that we might be getting air into the raw water coolant lines and air doesn't cool anywhere near as good as water. Yesterday(Wednesday) we went in search of 1 inch reinforced water hose. The first place called the "Sub Pen" told us they only keep so much of it in stock and use it on boats that are there for repairs. Off to Island Water Chandlery in the next marina. They also didn't think they had enough and mainly in a "soft"wall hose. Off back to see Jay. He wasn't there but another cruiser was and he clewed us in on Napa Auto Parts. At just about a mile down the road, I left Tracy sitting in Puff and took off walking with a sample of the old hose(I'd already taken off one piece)with me. Good thing Keith told me where is was because I would never have found it. It was behind a gas station and around a corner set way back from being able to be seen from the street. Yes, they had some hose--a bit softer wall than I had hoped for but the pressure from the water pump on the engine wouldn't collapse it. I bought about 14 feet and headed back getting back with Tracy and we took off for Zephyr.

Not wanting to be disabled should a storm come, I put on a chunk of the new hose and at least we could start the engine should we need to. It was a section that joins at the through hull and the raw water filter inside the engine room. Strangely, one of the people that helped get Zephyr up and running after we bought her put a "T" into the water line that takes a hose somewhere else inside the boat, but we have no clue as to where but think it's possible it could have allowed air into the raw water lines though that hose has been the same since we bought Zephyr back in 2007. We put in new hose and left off the "T" with it's own hose section and put in a one piece length of hose. This morning(Thursday) we went in to take a look at the engines raw water impeller. We'd already drained out a good bit of the raw water just changing the hoses. I took off the plate that covers the raw water pump and looked inside. It looked pretty normal with the impellers fins bent at the angles they are supposed to be. Since I already had the cover off and we'd changed the impeller off Richards Bay, South Africa 15 months ago, we decided to just change it anyway. Since I don't have an impeller puller(grabs the sides of the impeller and pulls it out) I used a paint can opener. One of those small gadgets with a triangle of bent metal at one end and a curved tip at the other end. With it and a screwdriver and lots of sweat, it finally came out but not before I used some incredibly colorful language about it. The last time I did this was off Richards Bay, SA in 35 knot winds and a 6 knot current shoving us along at 0300 in the night. It took a while but I finally got it out and two small sections of rubber fins on it were partially broken off at the back of the impeller. Enough to slowdown the water flow going through the engine. I put in one of our backups(have two) and made sure to coat the impeller as well as the inside of the water pump with vasoline so it has lubricant to help out when the engine is started and the pump has no water in it. About 1130, we finally had the impeller in and all the hoses reconnected and we turned on the engine. OH SHIT---no water was coming out the exhaust at the stern. We stopped the engine quickly and that's when I really got ticked. Here I had an engine that at least ran and now it wasn't safe to turn it on. We thought the impeller was cooked so we made some calls and found a store that sold them as well as an impeller puller. Off we went in Puff and while we were there, I asked if they had anyone on staff that knew anything about engines. They sure did and we stood around for a while doing "engine talk". In the end, his suggestion was to make sure there was plenty of water in the hoses and raw water filter and once we were sure of that, to take off the cover on the water pump and momentarily start the engine and see if the impeller actually turns. Sound advice so with two new impellers($45 each) and a puller($48US), we took off for Zephyr. Once on board, I checked to make sure all the hoses were full and we turned the key. On came the engine and water flowed out the exhaust pipe on the stern. All it needed was to have the hoses full when the engine starts. We let it run for about 45 minutes and it was much cooler with the water tank only showing 153 degrees instead of the 180 it had been showing. Maybe, just maybe we had the problem fixed. After lunch, we started it up again and ran it for about 45 minutes at a higher rev and she stayed just about level at 185 degrees. A big improvement. Tomorrow, we will probably take off back to Christmas Island since it's up wind the tax the engine and see what happens.

It's now Friday afternoon and we are back at Charlotte Amalie. We did just a fast run to shore to get a few more provisions before pulling up the anchor and heading out for Christmas Bay, about 7 miles away. We wanted to run the engine under stress to see of what we have done corrected the problem. The fact that we are back at Charlotte Amalie tells you that the problem still exists. RATS!!! We are pumping a bunch of water out the stern exhaust but we are still over heating. It took some time but the thermometer jumped back up to the 200+ range and we turned around and headed back to where we started, no better for our work. Tomorrow, we'll be draining out the water in the fresh water system and changing it as well as the thermostat on the engine. Just to make it easy, not only do we have to drain the entire engine but we also have to remove the water tank that sits on top since the thermostat is under it. Not really good placement in our opinion but common in many marine engines. If we work and just keep changing things, eventually we will find out what the problem is. So far, it's not air getting into the raw water system, not the raw water impeller, not the heat exchanger, doesn't look to be the fresh water pump(water is flowing through the engine) and there doesn't appear to be an air blockage in the fresh water system in the engine. We are stumped but still trying. If we had to pick a place to have this happen, at least it's in a US territory where we can get just about anything we need. If you have any ideas, please post a comment on the blog. We really need some help and advise.