Year 2- 11 August 2025 – Engine Dismantle Ambon– Indonesia

I was woken by loud music at about 5.00am. This was quite a jolly song but not ideal at 5.00am on the morning. Once the song finished a women started talking and talking and talking for about 45 minutes by which time I had almost lost the will to live. I think it was a sermon or pray. I had as you can imagine spent some time in the night thinking of the engine problem and praying (may be the prayer was to prompt me!) that we would solve the issue.

The good thing once I eventually got out of bed was that it was a nice day. In fact the best day I have had or Adam has had at Ambon. The sun shone and it was warm all day. This inspired me to make some Smoothies which were great and we had been given a Paw Paw the day before which Jon cut up. It was ok and a bit “earthy”.

After we had breakfast John of Ambon came with a colleague and the plan was to take off all the fuel fittings, turbo etc and to then take the left side of the block of the engine off. This was quite major surgery and I was a little nervous about it being done here but we had little alternative. We had to find where the coolant leak was coming from and so it had to be taken apart.  

I cringed a bit as they took the engine apart and wondered whether they would know where and how to out all the bolts back together etc. I just had to have faith. The guy’s got on with the work and I left them apart from the occasional look where more and more of the engine was taken apart.

Jon and Tony were given the daily checks to go through and they spent a few hours going through the boat and tried things out. It is a very good exercise to learn more about the boat. Once they had done the daily checks they set about looking at the grab bags (which we would take with us if we abandoned ship) and checking the contents and make sure things were charged and ready for using.

We had lunch and the weather was still good and we waited as the afternoon went on. Just after lunch they had got the block off and we found the issue. At the centre of the block was a round gasket which had perished. This was not a major issue to resolve assuming we had another gasket to take its place. It had obviously leaked before and there may have been a historical problem that I was not aware of. See the picture of the day which tells the story.

John of Ambon went off to get another gasket made and when he came back it was slightly too large. However, I had various gaskets and we found one that seemed to fit. They spent the afternoon putting everything back again and finished about 5.30pm. They will leave it until tomorrow to bleed the fuel section (as it had been taken off it will need re bleeding to get the air out of it) and they will also need to bleed the coolant system as well. I just hope when they come back that all will go to plan and that the new gasket stops all the leaks.

Once the guys left we had a sundowner as the weather was still good and the Jon and Tony reheated my curry with cooked courgettes and rice which was very enjoyable. Although it has been a treading water day we hopefully have made good progress and all will be good tomorrow. It will be good to resolve these issues and to be able to move on.    

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