Well, for those that have been following our blog, we made it safely into Pohnpei(pronounced Ponapay) Monday afternoon almost exactly two weeks after leaving Funafuti in the Tuvalu Islands. We covered close to 1680 miles as close as we can figure as we had our chart plotter turned off to conserve our battery power several times.

We'd had problems with our engine getting water in the oil as we entered Funafuti and figured we had the problem fixed after changing the oil cooler and the raw water pump. We'd gone back and forth across the lagoon at the atoll several times all with no problem, but as soon as we left the atoll and headed for Kosrae in the FSM, the engine again decided to ceased functioning. We had more water in the oil. This time, clear up into the cylinder heads. A really bad thing to have happen. I reached out via our SSB radio and contacted Dave on Soggy Paws for help. He chatted with Jerry on Challenger and they came up with a plan on trying to get the engine started or at the very least, getting the water out of the cylinders and saving the engine from total failure. Without their help, I would have have little to no clew as to how to fix the problem. Our thanks go out to both of them. We pumped out all the water/oil--20 liters, and put in a mixture of 1 quart oil and 5 quarts of diesel fuel and then wedged pennies under the exhaust valves in the engine and hand cranking the engine and forcing the water out through the valves. Worked great though the ends of my thumbs still hurt from trying to push down on the valve springs to get the pennies in. We hand cranked it several times and got tons of water out of the engine that was trapped in the cylinder heads. Every day, we would go into the engine room and hand turn the engine to keep the oil/diesel fuel mixture going in the engine so the pistons in the cylinder heads wouldn't freeze. When we'd had the problem before, it appeared that the starter wasn't getting enough juice from the batteries. I'd checked and rechecked the connections I don't know how many times. I sent an email to the main company(American Diesel)that not only had made the engines in the past but is the largest supplier of replacement parts. We were half way to Pohnpei when he emailed back that we were getting water up through the exhaust pipes in the stern and it was flooding back into the engine. There was a design flaw in the exhaust system that the exhaust elbow wasn't high enough to keep the water out of the engine when we were constantly getting hit in the stern by all the waves as they passed us. I disconnected the exhaust and pumped out the muffler(full of water) and pumped what I could out of the rest of the exhaust hose. We shoved a plug into the exhaust hose and duct taped it closed. No more water was going to get into our engine. The damage was done.

Meanwhile, Mother Nature continued to have fun with us. While our weather forecaster was telling us we should expect 10-15 knot winds with gusts to 25, we were getting a steady 20 knot wind with gusts to 35 knots. The seas around us started out nice with a 1-2 meter swell rolling under Zephyrs hull. By the time we were half way to Pohnpei(new destination with more people to help) we were hitting 6 to 7 meters swells. The water towered over us as we hit the bottom between the swells or we were on an elevator ride that took us way above the surrounding seas. We were lucky that the wind(for the most part) was either 90 degrees to our right or 120 degrees off out right. It allowed us to zoom along at anywhere from 5 knots to 9 knots making our DuoGen(drags in the water behind the boat with a small propellor that revolves making electricity)work finally. We only had to run the Honda generator a couple of times and we had to tie it off from side to side and a third line lead to the cockpit. With a book shoved under one side to keep it leaning into the oncoming swells, it ran quite well when we needed her. Most times, the only electric running was the refrigerator which provided us with a daily treat of an ice cold Coke at lunchtime. It was one of the highlites of our day. Not quite to a slush but darn close most days. Oh, what a treat!!!

Day after day, it just kept on coming with her throwing in big squalls that were so forceful with the water came though the zippers that holds our canopy together. If there was any kind of hole, the rain found it. We hit one batch of storms that after getting pelted inside the cockpit, I retrieved my foul weather gear and covered up properly from head to ankle. My exposed feet were so soaked in water that they looked like raisins(yuck).

This ended up being one of our most challenging passages that we have ever made. Adding in the 788 miles from American Samoa to Tuvalu and we covered quite a distance. The best thing I can say about our passage is that I lost 25 pounds since we left American Samoa. If I go back and do it again, I might be down to where I want to be. Tracy also lost quite a bit of weight during the crossing. With breakfast being a couple of crackers with marmalade or jam on them or a granola bar with either water, Tang of hot tea. Lunch was probably Chicken or Tuna salad on coconut bread we bought in Funafuti or on tortilla chips with our ice cold(God bless our freezer)Cokes(one each). Dinner might be Tacos or one of the preprepared meals Tracy made before we left American Samoa that was sealed in a bag so it could be heated in hat water on the stove top. If the weather was too bad for cooking, it might have been Vienna Sausages right out of the can. By far, not the most healthy of foods, but when it difficult to sit let alone stand in the boat, you don't get choosy as to what you are going to eat. For a change, I drank a ton of water during the voyage. I drank and drank and then drank some more just to keep the fluids topped up in my body. I've never been a fan of water and cringe when ever I see some one shell out good money for bottled water when water out of the faucet is just fine. We make out own water on Zephyr when there isn't a source on the islands we visit, so for the most part, the water on board is safe to drink. This voyage, I was determined to drink water, water and more water rather than Tang or another flavored water. I think Tracy was quite surprised at my water intake. It got so that where ever I was, I had a bottle of water beside me.

As we approached Pohnpei, two fishing boats came out loaded with other cruisers so we could get towed into the harbor. We sailed through the pass in the coral reef and then dropped the sails and tossed out the tow line and were slowly brought back to the rear of the bay to the small marina. As we neared the marina, three dinghies came along side and one tied up to our starboard side and the other two acted as tug boats pushing us into the dock area. With lots of people on the docks, we tied off to a float off our bow and then our stern was tied off to the poles that hold the docks in place. We are far to big to tie off to the docks here. We were safe and sound for the for the first time in two weeks.

John Ranahan(rep for SSCA) had made calls to Immigration so that they would come to the docks and get us checked in. He thought that they would contact the Harbor Master, Customs, EPA, Quarantine, and Health. Apparently not as when I contacted the Harbor Masters office, they wanted Zephyr to be hauled back to their docks for inspection though they never come on board. They didn't care that we had no engine. We had failed to contact them as we neared the entrance to the harbor and they got into a snit about it. We simply said we would do what we could and hung up. Health was the first to visit us as with out their approval, no one else could come on board to inspect us. Next came Quarantine. They wanted a list of what food items we had on board and to look at the papers we have for our two cats. At 1710, along comes Immigration. Three people in a car now on overtime since it was past 1700. We'd been at the dock since 1400 but we were happy to pay just to get their approval. Now we had to pay($47.67US) for two hours of over time for each of the three people in the car even though only one person did the work with the papers. They were gone by 1730. I was out 90 minutes of their company. Since I only had three @20.00 bills they promised to bring the change back in the morning. It's now well into the afternoon as so far, no Immigration. Gee what a surprise. Today, we visited the office of the Harbor Master and got cleared in just fine giving them copies of our Crew List and Documentation papers. We still had Customs and the EPA. We'd visited Customs on the way into town and were advised that both of their officers were at the airport checking in passengers but would be at our boat about 1400 to clear us in. It's now 1745 and still no one has arrived. I figure they will show up after 1700 just to get the overtime money again. Guess we will see.

So there your have it. Another voyage under our belts with lots of things to get fixed on Zephyr. We expect to have the engine fixed by tomorrow. We changed out the oil/diesel yesterday and hand cranked it and then used the battery electric starter and she turned over great so by tomorrow we should be up and running. I did find a man who had some of the hose we need to solve the problem with the exhaust so we should have the entire problem taken care of in a could of days. The list is long for things that need repairing so I won't go into it now. After all, cruising is defined as fixing boats in exotic location and that is just what we will be doing(again)