One tiny hole is all it takes for plans to quickly fall apart. The boat was in great condition when we found her after three months laid up in Brazil. The lads at Pier Salvador had given her a wash and brush up and she looked great. Below, I was told to expect mildew on the bulkheads and mushrooms on the upholstery, but she was as clean as a whistle and ready to sail away. Then a few symptoms started to present themselves, suggesting all was not well. I had filled the diesel tank to the brim before I left, but the fuel guage showed the tank to be half full.Then a pumping of the bilge showed it not only to be full of water (not a worry given the intensity of the rainfall here) but also a large amount of diesel was down there too. Worrying. Alasdair, my mathematically minded crew, went into analytical mode and we deduced a leak in the fuel tank- not good. After the removal of many floorboads, much pumping of water through the bilges and the use of some kind of cleanser of dubious origin (it was only sold to us in unmarked bottles) we decided the tank was not leaking after all, shrugged, and headed off towards Itaparica, a large and leafy tropical,island opposite Salvador. The engine was not happy. It coughed as an engine does when it is sucking air, revs rising and falling, full revs unattainable. Back to Pier Salvador, the only option. Suspicion falls on a Lucus priming pump which sits between the engine and the primary filter. It leaks diesel when you press it - bad sign. We have now opened it up and there is a pinprick hole in the diaphragm. That is all it takes to bring things to a halt. What now? I'll let you know. Meanwhile, we have discovered a most congenial bar in the front room of a Portuguese colonial house. Alasdair and I perform most of the analytical thinking required to get the engine going again, while Mike reads to us, with growing indignation, from the Daily Telegraph which he is receiving via his new Kindle. At the moment,Tony Blair does not seem to be at the top of his favourite people list, for some