"Red Alert"
12 December 2008 | Oil Problems Continue for the Crew of S/V THIRD DAY
Capt Rich
Perhaps Jason said it best today, as I lowered the crew status alert level from red to yellow, "Dad this will make a good blog post when we get back to the marina".
We had left Marina Palmira at 1000 this morning and were just settling into our passage routines when it happened. Amy was the first to hear the alarm bell followed by Lori and then Jason. By the time I was able to hear the alarm, I noticed that the engine oil pressure gauge was reading ZERO! We had lost all engine oil pressure and the engine was still running at 2000 RPMs which sent me lunging for the engine cut-off and then all fell silent, as the boat started to slow to an almost dead stop. Lori and I made eye contact and knew what that bell alarm was telling us and we both didn't want to believe it. The engine warning bell sounds for two reasons: an overheating engine and loss of oil pressure and since the oil pressure gauge was reading zero, it was clear that we had lost oil pressure, the only question was how?
Looking back at it all now, through the lens of time, the whole crew handled the "Red Alert Situation" like a seasoned sailing crew. At times like these, orders are barked out at a shotgun pace and all members of the crew spring into action. Since we were motoring out of the La Paz harbor with the sails down when the engine went silent, Lori and Amy shot up on deck to raise the mainsail so that we could maintain steerage while Jason and I started removing the cabinetry to expose the engine and access the damage. Jason and I saw the fresh warm oil streaming down the engine enclosure wall and into the bilge that just days before we had spent hours scrubbing clean. While we were down below trying to determine the source of the oil spray, Amy and Lori reported that there was no wind and the anchor had been made ready to deploy if the situation deteriorated.
I remember thinking, "just how could this situation deteriorate? We are now engineless a few miles out of the La Paz channel with no wind".
To my surprise, the high pressure oil lines seemed to be intact, so where was the oil coming from? I added a gallon of oil to the engine and had Jason turn on the engine just long enough to see oil spraying out of the oil pressure sending unit! Sha-ZAM....a totally new oil leak situation had occurred and we were now joking about renaming our boat "Oil Slick".
Still with no wind, the mainsail was lowered and the crew gathered in the cockpit to discuss options and to cover the best and worst case scenarios given our current situation. Amy was watching for ship traffic while I worked the problem with the goal of getting us safely back to La Paz because at this point continuing on to Matzalan was out of the question. I had plenty of oil to refill the engine and I was pretty sure that we did not damage the engine, but my problem was that blown oil pressure unit. If I just added more oil, I would lose it quickly and be right back in the same position. The thought of using our dingy as a tug boat was discussed and put on the back burner as an option, but I wasn't giving up yet on getting the engine running. I then remembered that when George (Thatboatguy) and I were installing the Frankenmaker, my water maker/generator unit, we had replaced the original 1/8 inch NPT oil pressure sender unit and for some reason I had kept the old unit in my engine parts bag. I explained the issue to the crew and as we literally laughed out loud, I reached into the spare parts bag and pulled out the part that would eventually get our engine running again and see us safely back to slip 331 in Marina Palmira. I wasn't sure of the condition of the old sensor, so it was decided that we should return to La Paz and purchase a new unit and take our time to ensure that we had a working low oil pressure alarm, because at this point, our track record on all things oil related isn't that great.
We motored back to La Paz, checking the engine every few minutes and our old dock neighbors had strange looks on their faces and we tied back up to the dock.
A new oil pressure sensor is now installed and the alarm functioning, so the plan is to try and leave again Saturday morning as we experience our own version of ground hog day here in La Paz.
The day wasn't lost however, because coming back to La Paz gave us the opportunity to have dinner with the crew of S/V Totem, a cruising family of 5 from Washington and we had a nice time sharing cruising experiences from the family perspective and laughing at our string of unfortunate luck with all things oil. We will surely meet up with them again further South.
Today was just another typical day in the life of a full time cruising family; really, we faced yet another "Red Alert" situation together and came through it better for the experience, with the kids seeing problem solving at it's finest. Sure it would be nice if the experiences weren't so messy, but it could be worse in so many ways, for us to even think of complaining while dealing with our "problems" in shorts, crocs, and t-shirts on December 12th somehow just wouldn't seem right. Now, what's in store for us tomorrow? Bring it on because life just doesn't get any better than this!