Think you are on holiday forget it! Today is the day that our sailing boat engine came out. After ten days of pre-work to get our boat ready for a summer of sailing in the Mediterranean we discovered that the engine had seized.
This was highly frustrating as Anders had spent many days changing oil and filters and preening the engine ready for start up. Our old Perkins 4108 engine had served us well and we had treated it with great respect over the years with brand new engine mountings, and a new fresh water pump.
When the big moment came she wouldn't budge on the crankshaft nut – even the largest sized spanner I have ever seen failed to entice her.
The terrible truth was soon known. Our engine had suffered from water penetration over the winter and was now rusted solid, only three of the pistons would move slightly, the fourth had given up.
We were fortunate enough to find a talented ex-Royal Navy chief engineer called Bob Bloomfield who at the time was working on another boat at Sant Carles marina, southern Spain where Moonshadow had been stored over the winter. He was prepared to help us remove the old engine and install a new one.
This involved 13 days of Bob's work assisted by Anders, and many hours sourcing supplies either locally or via the internet. Many times a day the pair could be seen racing through Sant Carles on our rusty old bikes trying to find the right size hose, bolt or fitting. When sign language failed, Anders would draw what was required. This turned out to be far more successful than Bob's attempt to describe duct tape by going 'quack quack.' The shop assistant was even more bewildered than before!
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