Yes I know that the Oil & Gas Industry and their lackeys, the Big Banks and Government, are destroying the Earth through Climate Change, air/land/water pollution, and habitat destruction, and I will continue to protest and march and sign petitions to push for change. Unfortunately, until I can save up enough pennies to buy an electric motor, or we quickly develop mad skills to be able to dock under sail, we will remain dependent on our diesel engine.

Part of the reason we had so many harbour hops was that we had engine troubles and needed to find marine mechanics. Over the span of the trip, the starter and two alternators failed, we lost all the coolant at one point, we had an oil leak, and our automatic bilge pump failed.
We hired 3 marine mechanics over the trip. They were nice guys but during high season were swamped with work. Despite their desire to help us, they only had time to look at the immediate problem--the part of the engine that was NOT working--and had no band width to ponder any "commonalities" to all the breakdowns that were occurring.
Our mechanic in Santa Cruz, while fixing the starter, made a comment about how the saltwater hose "looked funny" and the alternator was 'not in great shape' but since both were still functioning, didn't examine them. When the alternator died a week later, the mechanic in Santa Barbara was horrified and said he was surprised we'd made it that far.
Alternator problems are a big deal because it means the batteries don't get charged from running the motor. This means everything that uses electricity is affected--navigation, auto pilot, radar, bilge pumps, lights... We had two solar panels but needed two more. Luckily we had a small portable solar panel to keep our cell phones charged so we could use the Navionics app to get us safely to the nearest port.
The Santa Barbara mechanic also said we were using the wrong type of oil (which the Santa Cruz mechanic had recommended) as it wasn't thick enough. Sure enough, on our next long motoring leg, the thin oil dripped out and we ended up with a layer of oil in the bilge.

While we cleaned up the mess, Stephen and I tallied all the problems (and bills) and began to connect the dots. We figured that the salt water cooling hose had been a tiny bit loose, probably since before we bought the boat, but it worked its way off during a long motoring passage and sprayed sea water over the engine. We'd reconnected the hose but the salt water had left crystals and corrosion all over the starter and alternator and it was just a matter of time until they stopped working. The coolant hose had also disconnected from the same plate as the salt water hose (a design flaw of Volvo Penta 2004, according to the mechanics), resulting in a leak that luckily we caught before the engine heated up too much. Unfortunately, the higher heat thinned the already thin oil, causing it to leak out at the dipstick and other places. The extra load of oil in the bilge shorted out the electronic sensors and the automatic pump.
Our mechanic back in Nanaimo last January had said we were doing fine with our maintenance and didn't need an engine overhaul. What he didn't realize, maybe because we forgot to tell him, is that we were going to put HUGE pressures on the engine with our summer trip and maybe he should rethink his advice. The previous two owners had only dealt with short hops around the Gulf Islands and Sunshine Coast with no rough conditions or long periods of heavy use that could cause hoses to work loose, or wear out.


Before I continue, let me say that I am NOT mechanically inclined. I have always been ok to let 'the man of the house' (or anyone else) take care of all things related to cars and motors. Yes I've taken an auto mechanics course for women and know how to change the oil or a tire, but I've been fine with taking my car to the garage for servicing, adding oil or windshield fluid when the light went on, and calling BCAA when something went wrong. Credit card mechanics is ok, right?
The difference between a boat and a car is that having the car conk out while downtown is very different from the boat having no power when in rough weather, near a lee shore or shipping lane, or miles from the nearest port.
Stephen, out of his own interest, or because he had to, rose to the challenge and attentively sat in with the mechanics, studied the manuals and researched online forums and as our trip progressed, learned how to fix things with increasing confidence. I was finally forced to take my tiara off and get my hands dirty to help him. I got pretty good at unscrewing bolts where my smaller hands could reach farther under the motor and took on the job of cleaning off rust, salt, and oil.

One thing I realized with this trip is that dealing with engines is sort of like dealing with babies --to keep them alive and happy, you have to keep them fed, watered, not too hot, not too cold, protected and clothed with parts that FIT, clean....Ok maybe a better analogy would be owning a horse! Most of all, you have to learn to PAY ATTENTION to what the engine is trying to tell you. Makena sounded and behaved differently, when she needed us to do something. She also had several alarms and beeps that meant she needed attention but it took us a while to figure out what we had to do because we were incredibly naïve and assumed as long as she got us from A to B, and the fuel, oil and coolant levels were fine, everything else was fine too.

This trip was a long distance shakedown cruise when it came to learning about the engine mechanics of our boat. I am so glad everything else on the boar was ok as I've heard from other sailors this summer who had torn sails, a disconnected steering wheel, a broken wind vane, and even a propeller that fell off!