On to Mustique (or not).

We felt just a little blue about departing Bequia, because it clicked with us both, but we had to get going sometime, so we packed up, started the engine, let go the mooring line, and got on our way to Mustique…but…wait…the engine water temp gauge is reading hot? And now I hear the telltale sound of coolant boiling over in the expansion tank?! Yikes, Emmy, grab another mooring! What a way to start the day…


Okay, change of plans, we’ll stay in Bequia at least another day to resolve this issue, but we have to let the engine cool down some before fiddling with it…hmmm…what to do while we wait? I have it! Let’s swim ashore and have a beer (or two) at the Frangipani, a ridiculously cute, gingerbread decorated beachfront Inn/restaurant/bar, which is only about 50 yards from our new mooring! Gee, this does sound like a vacation, huh?


We swam back a couple hours later, not too worse for wear, and I began the step by step troubleshooting process, eventually deciding to pull the salt water pump apart and check the impeller before wading into more complex things like removing the heat exchanger for inspection and testing. The impeller didn’t really look all that bad, just a couple vanes were bent a little bit, which didn’t seem like that big a deal…but I had a spare impeller and gasket, so what the heck, let’s swap ‘em out and see what happens. Put the new one in and refilled the system with coolant, started up the engine and closely watched the temp gauge and expansion tank for any indications of overheating, but it stayed cool. Put the transmission in reverse and increased revs a little, to put a load on the engine, and see if that made a difference, but it continued to run cool. And the people were happy!


One tongue-in-cheek definition of cruising is “the opportunity to work on/fix/repair boats in exotic locations.” I suppose we’ve had our share of repair and maintenance issues over the past few months, but luckily so far we’ve had the right spare parts and/or been able to fairly quickly figure out and fix any problems as they‘ve presented themselves, so it really hasn’t felt like much of a burden. (Before we had a chance to post this we had another interesting opportunity to test our repair & maintenance skills, but that will go into the Canouan entry!)


Soooo….was it a bad impeller? Or maybe a floating plastic bag or something had blocked the water intake? Or perhaps a piece of some kind of gunk had temporarily clogged the heat exchanger, and subsequently flushed itself out? Or maybe some other goofy thing I haven‘t even thought of? All I know for sure is that it’s working again, so we can get back on the blue highway and head for Mustique - onward!