Thursday 14 January

Thursday 14 January
The only engine spare part I have is one diesel injector, so replacing an injector is the only thing I can do without the mechanic, and ordering a new part. I made up a situation where a bad injector could be causing the problem. Then to trt to find which one was bad I would start the engine and loosen the injector pipe fitting, for each cylinder. If the cylinder were firing when I loosened the fitting it would stop firing, and the engine would slow down or stop. I did that for all four cylinders, and the engine slowed down or stopped for all four, which meant to me that all four injectors were OK. So now I await the mechanic.
All the boats here are in the "lagoon". It is very crowded and on my first pass when I got here I did not see an obvious place to anchor, and the marinas are not oriented for transit dockage; these are permanent slips for local boats. I have been anchored outside the lagoon behind a small island in relatively open water. I saw something I have never seen before. The waves were curving around both ends of the island and getting to me at exactly right angles. I was pointed into the waves coming around the left of the island and the waves coming around the right side of the island were coming exactly on my side, causing the boat to roll dramatically. No matter which way I pointed there would be dramatic rolling. But what I had never seen before was the pattern of the waves on the water. The combined waves created a square pattern, like a huge quilt on the surface of the water. It absolutely intrigued me.
I really wasn't ha[[y out in the bay, with its constant rolling, pitching and jerking. I wanted to find a place to anchor. I knew that there was a large shallow area beside the channel coming in. I thought that, surely, there is some distance between the edge of the channel and the shallow. All I need is about 25 feet distance. I pulled in the channel to where I wanted to try, put the boat in reverse and backed out of the channel into the shallow area. I was also backing into the wind. I was deliberately putting the boat aground. When the time came I wanted to unground by going in forward, the propeller has more thrust in forward than in reverse, and with the wind. It worked perfectly. The back of the keel dug into the bottom, and the bow was about four feet outside of the channel. Now I needed to put out the anchors, and I had to do that with the dinghy. I had the anchor line ready so it would feed out with out tangling. At this point the engine was off. I took the anchor out with the dinghy pulling the anchor line behind me. When I looked back to see if I was in the right spot, to my consternation the wind had pushed the boat free and the boat was drifting across the channel. Furthermore three boats were coming in the channel, one a tourist catamaran with about 25 people on board, all taking pictures. I dropped the anchor where it was and zipped back to the boat as fast as I could, started the engine and reversed back across the channel to where I was, pulling the anchor rope in as I went so I would not back over it. The boats passed in the channel, not taking notice of my embarrassment and shame. But now the anchor was only about 20 feet from the boat and I needed to re-set it farther away. S this time I left the engine idling in reverse, hopped in the dinghy, went out to the anchor, pulled it up, started pulling the rope to get the anchor farther away from the boat, and somehow got the rope in the propeller. One thing, I wasn't going to drift off. The propeller had wound the rope up tight; I was anchored by the propeller. It was wound solid. I tried to dive under the boat (at the stern the water was not but about four feet deep)but knew I could not get it unwound. So Hookah! to the rescue. Using the underwater breathing apparatus, various screw drivers and vice grip pliers, and working 30 minutes, a managed to free the rope. I had already gotten the knife to cut it off, I tried one more time, and got it free. But I still needed to anchor the boat. I set another anchor properly, then properly re-set the one that had gotten fouled.
I am now happily anchored inside the lagoon. That whole situation will require a lot of thought; how to do it right, what I should have done. But for now I am safe, comfortable, and not as arrogant as I was yesterday.
Bill Doar
s/v Advent II