Up fairly early and make our
way out of port. Again the wind,
or what little of it there is, is on the nose. We will just have to motor. But again the motor is not pulling and we are going so
slowly we won’t make it in a reasonable time, even having started fairly early
on. So Richard decides to just
push it and puts the engine up to 3000 revs so we are making just under 5
knots. We go along like this for
about 2 hours when I spot white smoke coming out of the exhaust! Oh Shit (I think that is the proper
technical expression in the circumstances)! So now we turn the engine off and are basically drifting.
The wind has fallen to under 2
knots. We have to find a closer
port of safety. So Richard goes
down to the chart table and takes out the books. He finds a suitable place. It is called Palavas-Les-Flots. Richard rings them up and they can do us a berth and we warn
them that we might need assistance in berthing because of engine troubles. I am still very worried. The port is only 4.5 miles away, but
there is no wind. I am all for
calling up for help, but that could cause problems. If we take a tow, someone could claim salvage which can be
between 15-20% of the value of the boat.
Therefore, we can’t do that without speaking to our insurers first. At least we have mobile phone coverage
where we are.
Richard is convinced that
the wind will pick up. Also
as we have turned to go to port, the wind is following, so a least it is no
longer on the nose and there is some chance of making headway. We just have some lunch, and hope for
the best. In the meantime Richard
has the thought that maybe the engine problems are caused by weed. So he goes below to check on the sea
water filter. We both saw that
there was a discharge of water when the engine was running, but maybe that
could be the trouble. When he goes
to the engine it is so hot that even after it has been off for some time he can
barely take the water filter out and put it back again. It doesn’t seem to be full.
So, having secured our berth
for the night we just plug along on sail at a snail’s pace. We start at doing less than half a knot,
but the wind picks up a little and with 5 knots of wind we are managing a speed
of about 2 knots, not bad in the circumstances.
Finally we can see the
harbour entrance and it isn’t very late.
We must now take down the sails, and I am not sure what we should do
about the engine. I suggest that
we phone up the marina and ask for help, but Richard feels sure that using the
engine for the 10-15 mins it will take to get to our berth will be fine. After all, the engine has been off for
over 3 hours now, so it should have cooled down.
So we set the fenders, and
lines and turn the engine on.
Right away there is a problem.
There is no water coming out of the engine. So the cooling system is not working. At this stage I call the marina on the
radio. Of course, because there is
a problem, no one speaks English.
So I try to explain the situation in French. We are limping in on 1000 revs, hoping for the best, when
the worst happens. The overheating
alarm goes off. We now have to
turn the engine off. We are in the
middle of a marina going down the approach to the berth and we have no way of
starting or stopping the boat. We
are drifting gently straight for a concrete wall! I am getting more and more hysterical on the radio, but they
don’t seem to understand the urgency.
I see no sign of any rib, which was I expected them to send to push us
into a berth.
The berthing here is by way
of metal poles which you tie to on your way in. So Richard has a good idea and steers to the poles with the
intention that we just tie ourselves alongside a couple of them to stop the
boat and wait for help. As I lasso
two poles and we are safe at long last I see the men from the marina who are
coming to help. They are just on
foot. I am not sure how that was
meant to help us with no engine, but it doesn’t matter because now we just
happen to be tied up next to our berth!
So with the help of two men from the marina and a nice French couple we
are roped into the berth and we are safe and sound! What a relief.
Of course we now have to find marine engineer and a diver to go down and
find out what is going on with the propeller.
For the first thing the nice
French couple give us the name of an engineer which they recommend. They even direct me to one of his vans
in the yard. It turns out that the
person there only does outboards, but he gives me the business card for his
colleague who does the inboard engines.
We phone and arrange for him to come tomorrow. We are pleased with that because it will be Saturday and we didn’t
really want to have to wait until Monday or later. Best of all he speaks English!
Then we go to the office to
check in. They give us the details
of a diver who is resident in the Marina.
So we try to phone him and get an answer phone. We leave a message and then get a
number or messages back. He will
try to get to us on Monday afternoon and will phone either on Sunday evening or
Monday morning to confirm. Again,
he doesn’t seem to speak English!
This is getting interesting.
So we are here in Palavas
(not quite a palaver, but close!), for some time. We decide to find out about the town. It is the seaside town for Montpellier. It is a typical French seaside
town. It has a canal running
through it. The town has a left
and right bank. The marina is on
the right bank, which is not really the centre of the town. The main shopping is on the other
side. To get there you either walk
up to a bridge (which is a little way) or there is a little cable car much
nearer that you can take. However
the cable car does not run at lunchtime or at night! There are beaches on both sides of the town, not far from
the boat, so that could be nice, if we can get the time when repairers are not
coming to the boat!
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