Morning dawns as usual. Another nice day in Grenada, we can expect rain any time so can’t leave the boat with hatches open.

In the morning I start calling recommended local engine mechanic companies. Most of them say something like “We can come out in a few weeks” although one does say they can come on Thursday. It’s the busy season here and it’s not a job they want to take on anyway.

We also need to deal with another problem – there is water coming into the boat. That’s not good on a boat. Through the process of trying to find the leak and using the bilge pumps (there are two – an automatic and a manual) to pump out I discover our auto bilge pump does not work. The manual bilge has no back flow preventer so it pumps out the water, then lets half of it back down the outflow pipe so the bilge is never dry.

I think the water is likely coming from the through-hulls in front of the motor. This is not good since you really can’t change them when the boat is IN the water. I’ll try to dive on them later to see.

Christy has sewn the new halyard rope onto Axel’s long string so that it won’t come apart as we try to fish it through the mast. I tape it up and go up to the front to pull it through. I try several times but it won’t go over the pulley in the top of the mast. Sigh. So I ask Christy to sew the OTHER end of the string and we pull it from the inside of the mast to the outside. That works and we now have a sexy new halyard. It’s only 120 feet long which is just right for the mast but not long enough to hook onto a winch at the back. We don’t have one up front, although I could probably rig something up with the windlass. The intention is to have a spare and also use it to haul our whisker pole up onto the mast.

Later on in the afternoon I figure I’ll take one more stab at the motor – either that or it’s 50-50 we won’t be able to get help. Even if we do, there will be no time to do anything. So I start thinking.

The starter motor works perfectly when I jump start it, but won’t work with the key. All this time, I figured there was some kind of alternator connection problem and I’ve had my head in every compartment in the boat (even found where the bow thruster on/off switches are). OK, I’ll try one more thing. I bought a long section of 12V wire at Budget the other day so I run a wire from the ignition switch through the middle of the boat to the connection on the starter motor.

Turn the key, she starts like a dream. The windlass works, the stop solenoid works. That was it the whole time! Three wires leave the ignition switch and go through a series of harnesses down to the starter solenoid. I find where they come out on the aft part of the motor and take a guess that this end is where the break is (could have been anywhere). I patch on a new piece with a marette, turn the key and away she goes. What a relief, we are back in business.

Meanwhile, Axel has been helping us with the fiberglass repair on the front of the boat. I’ve learned a ton. Here it is in mid-project.

Christy and I now can start planning a mini-sailing trip to finally get somewhere. We decide we don’t have enough time to go far so on Wednesday, we’ll sail up to Cariacou, stay the night and come back Friday. That’s when we’re scheduled to move to Secret Harbour so when we come back we’ll just sail in there.

That’s the plan for now.