Today is Bastille Day in France, and of course, here in French Polynesia. It’s a major holiday and everything is closed. There will be 16-crew va’a races, parades, and such all day and evening.

Yesterday, we dropped by SOPOM, our mechanics shop, to pay our bill and ask the manager, Bruno, about what was done to the engine and whether we could trust it to get to Raiatea. Bruno’s response was interesting.

The Bosch shop’s bill was higher than we had anticipated for simple testing, but on questioning Bruno, we found that they not only cleaned the injector pump but rebuilt some parts.

[Skippable technical: our injection pump is a TDZ (a Spanish company) inline jerk pump. The 4 (one for each cylinder) cam-driven pistons that compress the fuel for each cylinder are controlled by a toothed bar that slides horizontally, and as it does, it interacts with meshed gears on each pump piston. As the pistons are rotated by the sliding bar, the amount of fuel that is compressed by the piston is changed, changing the fuel provided to each engine cylinder. The sliding bar is controlled by the accelerator or throttle, and is how the accelerator controls the amount of fuel injected into each cylinder, and therefore the engine speed.]

According to Bruno, the Bosch shop found that the fuel rack, as the sliding bar is called, was frozen in place. That can happen by corrosion from water in the fuel, or some mechanical obstruction, and we were not told the details. The injector pump is probably not completely rebuilt, but is at least partially rebuilt and I trust it.

The lift pump is a small mechanical pump that brings fuel from the tank, through the primary filter, and on into the secondary filter and finally to the injector pump. The lift pump is physically attached to the side of the injector pump and is driven by a cam in the pump. As I’ve mentioned, the lift pump was not performing to specs and Daniel removed it and returned yesterday with a cleaned pump, fit it to the engine, and the engine ran as before. Interestingly, the throttle was more sensitive than either of us remembered, so the fuel rack might have been deteriorating for some time. So, the engine runs. Can we trust it to get us safely to Raiatea? Is the lift pump to be trusted?

My problem with the diagnosis is why the two components (injector pump and lift pump) took a powder together when I changed the fuel source. The fuel problems caused by the lift pump and injector are understandable and either is sufficient to cause the symptoms that we encountered. It seems that the injector pump fuel rack obstruction was a problem ready to happen, and perhaps the strain of pulling fuel past air in the diesel lines was enough to cause the lift pump failure. I may never have a better solution that this. What I mean is, are these the problems and did the “fix” repair the problems? If they’re not the problems, or not all of the problem, then we will face a similar failure in the future. And so it goes.

Today, we’ll test the engine by some runs in the lagoon, pushing the system to see if the lift pump can deliver fuel as it should. If it does, if it passes our tests, then we’ll trust it to get me to Raiatea. if it doesn’t, then we’ll return to the marina, somehow, and I’ll wait here until the just-ordered new lift pump arrives from England. I’ll install that, get the boat ready, and head to Raiatea.

So the plan is this. Conni will fly from Papeete on Sunday, leaving the marina by taxi after we’ve packed her stuff and gotten it to the marina office. She’ll surf the web from there (if the marina’s Wifi is working) until she departs when she wishes. Her flight out is on Sunday morning. Before that, I’ll have departed the marina headed to Raiatea, assuming that the engine is running. It’s a single overnight sail, and I’ll be in the company, as far as possible, of our friends on Blue Heeler, since they’re also headed to Raiatea. If the engine doesn’t pass the tests today, all of my part is delayed and I’ll head to Raiatea without a backup, but it’s only 120 miles, a single overnight. I’ll not depart until the engine is ready, and conditions are benign and in my favor. Conni’s schedule remains the same.

Conni will visit her dad in Oakland and I’ll stay in Raiatea until the boat is decommissioned. We’ve arranged to have Wings pulled from the water on Monday, 18 July. With a little luck, I’ll arrive on Sunday sometime, grab a mooring ball for Wings, and will be able to call the Tiare Nui Pension for a ride to the bungalow for the night.

I’ll return to the boat on Monday morning and get her pulled and on stands and start the long decommissioning process. Within a week, I’ll hop the jet back to LA, then on to Anchorage.

I HATE traveling without Conni. We’ll be apart on our 25th anniversary when we had some nice activities planned. I’ll have to take down the boat alone and travel to Raiatea alone. I’ll miss a lot of scheduled events we had planned for our original arrival time. And yes, it’s all whining. We have a viable plan and it presents no difficult problems.

Happy Bastille Day!