15 th and Inverness arrival

Those wind gods were happy. We didn’t tack once and sailed past Buckie before finding that the wind was losing it’s oomph.

When I went to start the engine it turned over fine, as usual, but showed no signs of starting. As the engine has been such an enthusiastic starter over the years this was a bit of a surprise. I tried again with the same result.  It sounded as if it was turning over fast enough but wasn’t getting fuel. Checking the stop solenoid, it appeared to be solid rather than moveable but before going further I thought I’d better check the fuel too as I’d not checked it since Sweden and although I had been keeping tabs on it and thought I should have about 10 hours, at least, still of fuel, wanted to double check before going further. As I was about to start dismantling the aft cabin to get to the sounding pipe I smelled hot engine and looked again at the solenoid and saw vapour coming from it and it was hot. Manus turned off the engine electrics and we thought we’d found the problem. I checked the fuel which was fine. Looking at the solenoid I wondered how to isolate it, or, rather, being lazy, the easiest way to isolate it and it occurred to me that removing the live wire from the switch which stops the engine, might well work and, it might also be a shorted switch which was causing the solenoid to stick in and overheat. Getting to this involved removing a panel in the aft cabin, which I did and then removed the live feed to it and tested the switch  which appeared to be working normally.  Consternation. At this point I noticed a loose set screw in the compartment with the controls and then noticed that the throttle cable was no longer being held by it’s collar. I found another set screw and the collar sculling around in the bottom of the compartment  and replaced them on the cable. This would have had nothing to do with the issue but were just another boat type issue. I now thought that I’d better remove a wire from the solenoid and it was not an easy place to get to for an old git with failing vision and undexterous hands. I felt the wires going into it and thought I’d  first try hitting the solenoid to see if it would unstick - this was something I’d learned from years of buying old bangers instead of new cars, where sometimes the start solenoid could be persuaded to work by a sharp knock. I hit it with a spanner and could hear nothing and see nothing to encourage me. However. When I tried to move the solenoid  it was free. Ah Ha! I thought. Maybe it won’t need to be disconnected. Manus turned on the electrics again and it didn’t start heating up alarmingly. It still felt free. I thought ‘lets see if it will start’.  It did, stopping happily when I pulled the solenoid back. I now thought that we had a goosed solenoid but one that was free and disconnected and a working engine. We carried on and ran the engine putting her into gear and motorsailing whilst having  dinner which I’d been preparing before all this engine stuff had started. It was a pie made from mushrooms, the remains of the gammon along with the sauce from it along with the deglazing bits from the bottom of the pan in which the gammon and roasties had been cooked…. not bad. Whilst final preparations for dinner were under way my multitool / knife dropped to the galley sole. The leather pouch which had been slowly failing for years had finally given up. The tool itself is an old friend I’d bought it prior to my time on the Blue Leopard, it had sailed around the world with me on her, done the failed and successful Atlantic crossings on Freya and Yemaya. I was so dependant on it that prior to the Freya Atlantic crossing I’d bought a spare, just in case which I’d not needed up to now, stealing the pouch from this my friend re attached to my belt.

Anyway the wind continued to not blow and we rolled up the genoa when it no longer filled. After a tea, post dinner, the wind was down to next to nothing so we doused the main and put the cover on. There was about 6 hours of motoring to go to get to the canal and I thought I’d be up for the anchoring so Manus took a watch whilst I had a sleep then I got up and Manus wanted to be around for the end of the voyage so we both did the passage up  past Fort George, into the Inverness Firth, under the bridge and to anchor off the Clachnaharry sea lock - the beginning (or possibly the end) of the Caledonian canal, dropped the anchor, stopped the engine by pulling back the solenoid, had a celebratory drink for a voyage completed and went to bed.