Year 2- 10 August 2025 – Major Problems in Ambon– Indonesia

We woke to a greyish but gradually a brighter day. I made banana pancakes for us all which went down well. We were leaving today to go to Tifu Village some 105nm West. I therefore needed to go through the boat with Tony and Adam.

Once we had had our coffee I went through the boat from bow to stern externally which took some time and the weather was bright and warm. We then had brief break and then I went through the boat internally from bow to stern. We then went through our emergency procedures and discussed them with the three of us. I had checked the engine room and all was fine and the floor under the engine was immaculate as it had been properly cleaned by the engineer.

We got ourselves ready to leave and prepared the boat. At about 11.30 am we upped the anchor and luckily it came up cleanly other than a bit of fishing line which we had to cut off the chain. It took us a while to get the anchor up but we did it. We then started to motor out of the bay. We got about a mile and the engine temperature alarm went off. This was very surprising so we turned the engine off and called the engineer John of Ambon who was around. He came across in his dinghy and the coolant level was low. He then filled it and there must have been an airlock and so we put more coolant in a number of times. I though this will sort it and we had to keep filling coolant. We then ran the engine up again and it overheated again. We filled up the coolant level again and it did not seem to solve the problem.

The engineer had to leave but we needed to sail back to the anchorage. The wind was very fickle – one minute 10 kts and the next 1kt. In short it took us two and a half hours to sail back that mile and a half to the anchorage  as we could not really use the engine. We put the engine on for the last 5 minutes so we could anchor and even then we were beginning to overheat.

We reflected on the situation and something did not ring right with me. At first there was a lack of coolant as air had not come out the system. Even though there was a leak again which had appeared I thought if the coolant was circulating then it should keep the temperature down and you would need to keep topping up the coolant. This was not happening so I think in addition to the leak there was a circulation problem. We got out the engine manual and looked at it and there was certain explanations about how to bleed the air out of the coolant system which had not been done. We may therefore be able to bleed it but not be able to deal with the leak which we think is to do with the gasket on the exhaust manifold. This is potentially a different problem. However, this is a Sunday and we will get no help today.  

We eventually anchored securely and had some lunch. The rain came in so we were effectively trapped in the rain in an anchorage in which the boat had been there for a week and it is not a great place.  After lunch just to compound things Tony had a problem with his heads (again) and so I found a spare macerator and Tony took the old one out and cleaned it and put it back and it seemed to be ok. He will monitor the situation and see how it goes.

We had a rest and we could not do anything really. Our mechanic is due back in the morning but we will be contacting a Volvo dealer early morning to discuss the situation. Clearly this is not ideal and a major problem which I hope we will resolve.

I cooked a chicken curry which we all enjoyed and hope that we will make progress tomorrow. C’est la vie. Life is sent to try us. Th engine has been so good and now – well – lets pray we can sort this. The problem is that we are not in a part of the world where we can easily get parts.  Not a good day on the whole.     

The picture of the day is the view of the early dawn. The best bit i think of the whole day.

Need/Opportunity Year Three

In year three I will be going from Thailand to Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and then on to Chagos, Mauritius, Reunion, Cape Town, St Helena, Azores and back to the UK.  I am looking for crew from Mauritius/ Reunion Island to Cape Town and from Cape Town to the UK. If of any interest do email me.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com