At 4 in the morning I took things apart. Cleaned the heat exchanger stack and put it together again. Turned on the engine…. No change.
Very frustrated I left, knowing that I would be able to sail most of the way today and only use the engine a little bit. The wind had picked up again and was now gusting to more tan 30 knots. We were flying along with only a deep reefed Genoa at 7 knots and more.
After a while came the part where I needed the motor and… voilà… it worked normally. Probably didn’t leave it running long enough in the morning for it to draw enough seawater. Whatever. I was very glad of course. The little waves where very steep and I noticed this wouldn’t have worked with low revs.
The barometer was dropping extremely quickly and I was getting scared. The wind was now gusting to more than 45 knots and 30 almost felt as a relief. The last few miles to harbour needed to be motored in a narrow channel and I was making about 1 knot speed over ground against this wind. The motor did not give up and heroically made it to the harbour. I was of course now convinced that trying to dock by myself in this wind would cause major insurance claims. But the harbour turned out to be well sheltered and I had outside help so everything went very smooth and I am now docked right next to a playground with a big sandbox which I’m sure will be blown onto my ship as the storm progresses.
Right now I couldn’t be any happier. I have made it here in time. And this seems like a nice place to spend the next few days.
