The Best Made Plans!

I guess it is true that “life” is what happens while you are making other plans. During our lifetimes, it seems that we are tested by trials and tribulations that that just aren’t fair. But then nobody ever said life was fair. Unfortunately at these times, it is not only our tenacity and stamina that is tested, but our faith in God. It is especially so, when these trials and tribulations continue for months on end with no foreseeable gain or no end in sight. Not only threatening your dreams, but making the possibility of a bright future appear dim indeed. At these disturbing times I believe one must place ones trust in God, but at the same time reach down, pull up your boot straps, and pull yourself out! In other words, we can’t just sit on our ass (donkey) and expect him to do it all.

With that said, I will describe the latest tribulation that is attempting to test my faith to its limits. The plan was to pull out of here tomorrow and head for Ensenada Mexico to get our visas. We planned on spending two days there and then taking off on the last leg down the Baja Coast. All I had left to do yesterday was; change the oil and oil filter, pump out the water contaminated fuel, clean out the filter bowls, install new filters, and bleed the system. The day before I took the injectors in and had them serviced. While there I purchased new seals for the injector pump and planned on installing them after we arrived in Mexico. This decision was made because the leaking of fuel into the oil was minimal and we would sail straight through. In doing so, the engine would only be started two or three times for short periods, so should not be a problem. Hindsight now tells me this was a recipe for disaster.

We are now stranded in San Diego indefinitely. This is due to an unforeseen engine failure that happened upon the completion of the final tasks. When I started the engine it fired right up and sounded better than ever. I put it in gear, set the throttle a hair above an idle and checked the oil and water gauges. All seemed fine as it purred along. It ran about ten minutes before a light tinny noise sounded for a split second. It was so short of duration that I began to question if it was my imagination. It ran fine for another five minutes or so and then a very loud (again tinny ) sound erupted from the engine compartment. I immediately shut it down and thinking it was an errant piece of metal that fell against a moving part, began to search for the problem. I have heard bad rods before and it has been my experience that they have a dull heavy sound, not a tinny one. I found an old piece of copper tubing under the crank pulley that I hoped was the culprit. It wasn’t! I started the engine again and it sounded great for a bit, but when I increased the idle the noise came back intermittently. It comes and goes and sounds tinny. It just didn’t sound like a rod or a lifter to me. I decided to call Brad and see what he thought. He came right over and said it was a rod, shit!

Now what? Well, we have to either rebuild or replace the engine. We can’t do it where we are presently. Our time here is up tomorrow. We have to move out to an anchorage (with no engine to set the hook) due to excessively expensive slip rates in San Diego. Good thing it’s a sailboat. Brad said the rebuild will cost from $ 4500. to $ 6000. plus labor. There is no way we can afford this, as we have had many unexpected expenses (0ver 16 Gs) on our trip down that have seriously depleted our resources. I think we might have located a rebuilt Perkins 4.108-M long block for around $3000.00. If it works out and some of the people who owe us money come through, it will be do-able. Otherwise, We will be stuck in SD indefinitely and looking for work!

On the good side; perhaps it is a good thing that we are here instead of out at sea with this problem. Jesus must love us, or that is where we would be!