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Starblazer - 6/06/2015 - My words came back to haunt me!



The minor problem concerning water in the petrol was very minor however the rest of our cruising in Vava'u was not as easy as we had hoped. The few days following my last log threw up more problems than we would have liked. John states that he likes solving problems but even he would have not wished for what we have experienced.

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We had a couple of very peaceful nights anchored off Kanutu then set off in perfectly calm conditions for the Blue Lagoon, an anchorage where sunlight from behind is essential to see the reefs alongside and ahead as you enter. We had two minor problems with coral before we reached Blue Lagoon but managed to reverse off both times (remember my comments about reversing off for later) and entered the lagoon exceedingly carefully and anchored successfully, setting the anchor with reverse gear as usual. We explored the bay which is a really beautiful blue, but didn't find any area worth snorkelling.

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Early the next morning John discovered the freezer was showing +6, it hadn't shut down because of low battery volts and the fault indicating lights suggested it was not a problem we could fix ourselves. We carefully followed our inbound track out, keeping a sharp lookout for the reef areas which weren't as clearly visible because the sun was in front of us and motored to Port Maurelle where we had arranged to rendez-vous with Take Two.

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All boats have problems, theirs concerned the fitment holding the vang to the mast which had sheered its rivets. John went aboard to help Peter drill and tap 12 holes. While he was gone I emptied the freezer, stowing vacuum packed meats in the bottom of the fridge, identifying meat which needed eating quickly and less well packed meat to eat within a few days. We had a lovely evening aboard Take Two, contributing a bag of uncooked prawns which John couldn't have eaten on his own to go with the steaks Peter and Kim provided. We weren't in a rush to get back to Neiafu so went snorkelling before raising the anchor at about midday on Wednesday.

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I pulled up the anchor (or the windlass did while I pushed over the heap of chain occasionally) then John tried to motor out of the bay but found we had no drive in forward or reverse. I speedily dropped the anchor again! John could find no obvious problem unfortunately so we sailed off the anchorage and sailed most of the way back to Neiafu though the weak wind didn't co-operate. Just short of the narrows we dropped the sails, strapped the dinghy alongside and John drove us into the harbour while I steered. I radioed a warning to all boats that we were entering with very limited manoevreabilty. A small RIB from another ICA rally boat, Gallivanter, came out to offer assistance but we were doing fine. We did ask them to find us a mooring buoy because we lacked the ability to meander through the mooring field. We subsequently moved to another buoy and went ashore for a celebratory drink. In the bar, telling our tale of woe, we were offered the loan of a 12 volt portable freezer. Magic!

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Next morning when we couldn't get it to run John called up the owners, John and Lyn on Windflower, who admitted that they had had to install heavier cables to power it. No problem, we have cable and a socket so John set about getting the freezer working. Lifting up a floor panel he was horrified to discover water about an inch below the floorboards where there had been none the day before. The big pump we connect directly to the battery came into use again. Eventually we spotted that the seal between the prop shaft and stern tube (where the shaft goes through the hull) was leaking badly. Most of the next 18 hours seemed to be taken up with installing bilge pumps and replacing them as they failed, including at 0400! Pumping out the water is obviously not a permanent fix and John had a replacement shaft seal in stores, the only problem is that it is something you undertake with the boat on dry land. In Tonga this is not possible. There are no haulage facilities for a keelboat, the only wall on a ramp where we were told we could partially dry out turned out to only be about 2 metres long when our keel stopped us at high water early on Friday morning. Fortunately Kevin and Kathy from Astral Express had come along to help and the two dinghies managed to pull Starblazer free. Plan B worked: buy some plasticene, stuff up around the shaft and replace the seal keeping our fingers crossed and the big pump on standby.

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Progress on Friday was not good because we had to wait our turn to refuel with duty-fre diesel (48p per litre)and John didn't want to be diving under the boat when the call came! Several dinghies came to help us, thanks Malakite, Nika and Serendipity. Back on the mooring we set up the 20 metre tube attached to the smallest air tank and John dived down to stuff plasticene around the prop shaft. It took three attempts to stop all water ingress but we slept well!

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Saturday John made fantastic progress. After a belated start following the rally briefing for the next leg of the rally he set about undoing all the fixings holding the shaft seal, he then dived under the boat again to pull the shaft out a little. Back on board he managed to remove the block which joins the prop shaft to the flange on the drive shaft from the gearbox followed by the damaged shaft seal. While he was removing the flange from the back of the gearbox some bits dropped out, including a nut. Kevin had had a similar problem in the past, the nut holds the flange tightly on to the driveshaft from the gearbox. In reverse the force of the prop tries to pull the back of the gearbox of and hence pulls the boat backwards. When the nut shook loose the flange output drive plate could move backwards and fall off its drive splines resulting in no connection between gearbox and prop shaft. It is quite probable that we will lose gearbox oil but it does seem we may have a working gearbox.

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The job isn't quite complete because we still have to push the prop shaft back into position and tighten its fixings and then tighten up the fixings on the shaft seal but it is too dark for John to dive again this evening. Against all the odds, we appear to have sorted the gearbox problem and the major leak with no external help other than advice from fellow cruisers. The businesses John approached were either too busy or failed to show up. Thank heavens he likes solving problems!

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Sunday morning the final part of the job was expected to be quite quick.....wrong! John had connected the block which joins the prop shaft to the drive shaft but there was no way the prop shaft would align. A couple of dives later, he disconnected the block and managed to push the prop shaft most of the way in from under water then he struggled to join the flange on the back of the gearbox back onto the block securing the prop shaft. (A picture would surely have replaced very many words here!). The final jobs in the engine room were to tighten the 8 bolts clamping the prop shaft and tighten the clamp on the shaft seal. The final test was to start the engine and briefly slide it into forward, neutral, reverse and back to neutral. The prop shaft turned and there was no immediate water leak, hallelujah! John still has to refill the gearbox with oil and we've yet to see how badly it leaks but that is something we can cope with. We will still need a lift-out in Fiji as the prop shaft is not quite all the way in the block and John couldn't adequately swing a hammer underwater. The only downside is that our rope cutter won't work, we'll just have to make sure we miss fishing nets and lines.

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STOP PRESS - We dropped the mooring lines and motored out into the harbour, increased the revs, motored back to the buoy and stopped by engaging reverse. Success, there was no water ingress through the shaft seal and no obvious oil spraying from the gearbox. Tomorrow we clear out of Tonga, departing early Tuesday morning for the Lau group of Fiji, we're good to go.

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