Voyage of the Sea Bear

Slight delay in our trip. We are back in Manzanillo, getting repairs done to our diesel engine. We hope to re-depart in a few days. In the meantime we are at anchor out side of the Las Hadas marina (again).

We were about 5-6 nm out past the southern point of the bay when the “over temperature”light and beeper went off on the engine control panel. I quickly shut down the engine, and turned the helm over to my First Mate. I climbed down below and opened the engine access port. First glance showed the engine belt was very loose. The second glance showed the reason for the loose belt was that the pulley on the end of the Fresh Water Cooling Pump had sheared off and was laying in the bottom of the bilge. The engine wouldn’t be running for a while.

At almost exactly the same time as I gave the order to turn around and head back to Manzanillo, the wind dropped to zero. I don’t mean that it slowed down, or even that it changed direction. I mean it freakin STOPPED. And it stayed stopped for several hours.We had a good wind when we left, although it had been slowing down some. We were trying to deploy our big red, white and blue spinnaker sail, and were not having much luck. Anyway, here we were with no engine and no sail. Needless to say our forward speed was minimal. A few dolphins stopped by to visit, they always seem to show up when we’re dead in the water, or doing over 7 knots. We also had a sea tutrle  surface, then raceoff into the distance, just to show us that he was much faster  than we were. <sigh>

Eventually, much later in the day, the wind did start up. I was never so happy to see 0.3 knots of speed on the dial. By the time we got back into the bay, we were doing over 4 knots. I radioed in and raised “Distant Shores” and updated them on our situation. Entering a crowded anchorage with no engine, and dropping the hook has to be done right the first time, or you could bump into other boats, or drift onto the rocks. It was good to see several inflatable dingys waiting for us to act as little tug boats, pushing us into position. All went smoothly.

After securing our spot,  JC and I went into town, and located a machine shop that was recommended by a fellow cruiser. The price  quoted us to fabricate a replacement was less than I expected, and today we are off to drop off the broken bits, so they can be used as a pattern.

The trip into Manzanillo also gave us a chance to see their Waterfront district, called the “Malecon”. I was very impressed. Many nice bronze statues of a nautical theme, a large computer controlled water fountain synchronized to good music and a huge modernistic sword fish sculpture.  I really liked the big fish. I’ll see if I can get more pictures when we return to town this morning.

Anyway, we will again attempt to resume our trip once the new pulley is installed. Until then, we are forced to hang loose and enjoy this wonderful town. It’s a tough life.

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