At the end of the last post, I promised some details about the passage. What a roller coaster ride it was! This video is from early in the trip and shows us sailing south around the heel of Italy with great wind!
Once through the Straits of Messina, we had very little wind and had to motor-sail for about 36 hours. The wind started to fill in and we finally could turn off the engines again. For about 8 hours, we had champagne sailing.
The champagne sailing turned into really good wind and then too much wind. We shifted down in gears and went from full main + Jenny to full main with jib, to 2 reefs plus jib, to 3 reefs + jib, to 3 reefs plus partial jib, and then just jib only. Winds were gusting above 30 knots and waves built quickly to a steep 8+ feet off our port (left) quarter, which seemed to throw us into a wild surf every few minutes. Switching to jib only smoothed things out nicely, and we could still do 7 knots. We had to stack some Tupperware and the cutting board on top of the waste chute to keep the lid on and the sea water out. It worked, although a few waves slammed so hard it sounded like a monster pounding underneath the lid trying to get out.
Fortunately things calmed down after 6-8 hours as we got into the lee of the northern tip of Sardinia. We were a little apprehensive going through the Strait of Bonifacio – a complicated part of the passage – at night, with it blowing like stink. The charts are littered with different beacons and lights and there was a lot of ferry, cruise ship, cargo, and private boat traffic converging or diverging from the Strait of Bonifacio. But, as we got closer, the wind dropped to almost nothing and with the help of a full moon, charts, and radar, we were able to pick our way through the islets and made it through by about 3 am or so.
Then there was another 50nm or so up the west coast of Corsica to a place called Ajaccio (birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte – in 1769), where we planned to clear in through immigration and customs (it is listed as a port of entry). This would help to break up the passage, give us a chance to walk around a bit, and see a little of the island.
Alas, that wasn’t to be. The dock that the marina offered us was stern-to against a 5-6 ft high concrete wall. Our gangplank is not long enough to make that work and the one the marina offered was worse. Then a 67 ft Alegria Fountaine Pajot catamaran decided to dock right next to us. This beast (pictured here) weighed probably 30 tons (close to 3 times our weight), and literally rubbed us (well Moxie that is) the wrong way. There was plenty of space, but for some reason the young skipper used us a fender to squeeze in next to us. There was a bit of surge in the harbor and the fenders he had out and that we had out were perpetually rubbing up and down like sandpaper on our hull. We said “no thanks, see ya later.” We decided to keep going and clear in at Gulf de Fos since La Grande Motte is not a port of entry.
Thus far, the winds had been fairly steady, and we were making great progress, but that soon changed. Below is Anthony’s description with my commentary in italics…
On Sunday evening, we were motor-sailing out of Ajaccio, Corsica and 40 miles into our crossing to mainland France. We were using only starboard engine when it suddenly sputtered and quit. Thinking that we had just got a line around the prop, it was “action stations”. Light was diminishing rapidly. We furled the jib to slow down, and I quickly donned bathing suit, mask, and flippers, and jumped off the boat so see what was the problem. Janice: – OMG – It’s getting dark quickly, we have no engines, and my husband –the only real sailor on this boat – is about to jump into the middle of the Med! We had to have a quick reality check about what would happen if he let go of the boat…. Without engines, and little wind, there was no way I would be able to rescue him… “I love you – tie this line around your waste please…..” Thankfully all looked good propeller wise, hmm …
I climbed back on, rinsed off, and we tried the motor again. It started and we were able to put it in gear. Maybe whatever tangled the prop fell off when we stopped. But, alas, the engine died again 15 minutes later. Hmm …
Then, we tried the port engine. It worked fine, but then quit after 20 minutes. Damn, two engines down. Whatever the problem is, it’s likely a fuel system issue (common to both engines). Janice: – not too worried yet… Anthony has lots of experience….
Time to change the fuel filters to see if that helps. Nothing like learning on the job – I’d done this many times before on Sea Fever but Moxie was a new boat, with a different filter setup and Volvo diesels, not Yanmars. Did I say it was also hot, especially in the engine room? Sweat was just pouring down me and making it hard to grip things, like to tighten and untighten. The first filter required it to be filled up with diesel, which was an operation in itself. Get out the Jerrican, use Janice’s water bottle as a filling bottle, and try not to spill diesel while the boat was bobbing around. We got that done, the Racor pre-filter that is, bled the engine to remove air bubbles, and tried the port engine again. It sputtered to life, good. Ran fine at 2200 rpm, good. Quit again after 20 min, not good. Damn …
I thought that the pre-filter should handle bacteria in bad fuel, but I wasn’t sure. So the next step, was to change fuel filter on the engine itself. This proved to be a very hot and difficult task. I had to bend over the hot engine to get access to the filter, but weak me, with bad leverage, and very sweaty palms could not twist the filter. Oh yeah, and I guess I forgot to buy a filter wrench. Sigh … time to engineer an alternative.
Let’s try one of Janice’s dishwashing gloves. Grunt, strain, nothing. How about some rope wrapped around the filter with leverage from vice-grips, nope, slips. How about rope and the dishwasher glove and the vice grips. Still nothing – what Gorilla put this thing on?!? All of these attempts take time: find the pieces, get to the engine room without slipping off the transom (it’s way past dark and the decks are wet with dew), lower myself into the engine room, Janice hands me stuff (usually a lot of paper towels, tools, and a flashlight – Janice: I felt like the mechanic’s version of a surgical nurse), contort into shape over the hot engine, feel where the filter is (cause I can only see a small part of it with one eye), wedge stuff around the filter and twist as hard as I can. Time for a breather … and a different plan. This one has potential: dishwasher glove for grip, a large hose clamp for maximum friction (thank goodness I bought some spare ones), some strong string to loop around the screw head of the hose clamp, and vice grips to grab the string and for leverage. Get it all setup and … YES! Success. 2 hours of sweat and frustration for lack of a cheap filter wrench.
Then we could get on with changing that filter, which we did, although it was messy with diesel. By now it was about 11pm. Fire up the engine and … after 30 minutes, it cuts out at normal revs. Aargh! We try 1800 rpm, this seems to work. So, we let it go for a while …
Until it quit again. How about the Starboard engine? Looks like the same pattern. Won’t run at say 2200 rpm, but will run at 1800 rpm until it doesn’t, will run at 1500 rpm until it doesn’t. By noon the next day, both engines became hard to start, let alone put into gear. So we were – engineless.
Now that wouldn’t be too bad if there were wind … but this wasn’t to be our day. I hope this is a record low mileage day for Moxie – I think we did may be 20 nm in 24 hours. Winds were below 5 kts 95% of the time, and mostly 2-4 kts. With swell from stronger winds hundreds of miles away, sails were flogging relentlessly, the masthead fly doing 360’s, and driving us insane.
The autopilot couldn’t hold its course due to lack of steerage. A few times at night the wind would switch directions by 90 degrees and the sails would be backed. We can’t tack with Black Mamba (our code 0), so we would do a very slow gybe back onto course, taking maybe 2 minutes to do a 360 at .2kts of speed. Janice: During my evening watch, we were trying to cross the shipping lane between mainland France and Corsica. Cargo ships, tanks and ferries were going in both directions, and we had no maneuverability. We eventually made it out of the shipping lane, only to go backwards over it again a short while later, due to a 1 knot adverse current.
That next day, several attempts were made to further diagnose and fix the engine issues. I called and texted with Stephane, the Outremer After Sales service manager to get his advice. As always, he was very helpful with suggestions. I later found out he was supposed to be resting at home this week, sorry for bugging you Stephane! All attempts did not fix the issue – the number one guess as to what is wrong is bad fuel, but the fact that changing the filters on the engine didn’t fix it has us puzzled.
The forecast didn’t look good. We could potentially be stuck out here for 2-3 more days with no wind. How much food do we have? Janice: We have two prepared meals in the fridge, lots of pasta, some pasta sauce, sardines, cheese, cereal, coffee, … we can last about 4 days.
What’s our plan A, B and C? We can’t dock without engines, and anchoring will be difficult. We need a wide-open anchorage with plenty of bailout options if things go south. After some discussion and mind changes, we decide to head all the way to LGM (La Grande-Motte) instead of Port Napoleon in Gulf de Fos. Port Napolean is a port of entry where we can clear in, but it’s unfamiliar and who knows if there is anyone there who can fix our problem. We will just have to explain to customs and immigration our force majeure– I’m sure they’ll understand, or will they …
Sometimes forecasts are wrong, and today that worked in our favor. We found some good wind early this morning (July 27th) and have been cruising along on a reach in 6-14 knots of wind ever since. We hope to be in LGM by tomorrow (July 28th), if the wind holds. We are “going in hot”- without engines. Anchoring and docking will be new experiences. Let’s hope no one pokes their eye out.
Janice: I admit I was a little panicked at the beginning – my mind was racing down lots of rabbit holes – How long would we be stuck drifting around? How much food did we have? Would the tankers and ferries run us over? Could we call the French Navy for help? What was happening at work? But I had just finished a book (Surviving the Forest) about a Polish woman who survived the Holocaust by living in the forest. At one point, while hidden in the forest, she had to smother her baby (he died) to keep the Nazis from hearing him cry. It certainly helped to put things in perspective. As my husband said – “It’s an inconvenience, not an emergency” Anthony was AMAZING and I wouldn’t want to sail with anyone else!
We came into La Grande Motte harbor at 4:00 am with sails up to make headway and give us steerage. It was dark and drizzling rain – and a little spooky. We were watching the depth meter closely and sailed as close to the beach as we dared – we almost ran over a no-engine buoy. We dropped the anchor and the sails as fast as possible, held our breath and hoped the anchor would quickly grab hold on the sandy bottom. It did! Hallelujah! We had made it safely back to La Grande Motte. After a quick “high five” we went straight to bed for some much needed sleep!
We contacted the marina the next morning to arrange a tow and a berth. Julian (who had helped with sail training and docking) and Maude –from Outremer, came to meet us. After a bit of discussion about the problem, Anthony and Julian decided to try the engines – in very low RPMs – with Maude and I each stationed in an engine compartment to apply hand pressure to the fuel pump if/when necessary. We crept back in with inflatable dinghies on standby in case that failed…. But they weren’t necessary and a short time later we were safely tied up to the dock in front of the Capitaniere. Finally – back on land after 8 days! And nobody got their eye poked out!
Now we wait for the diesel mechanic and Raphael, from the After Sales Service team, to start on the list of items that need attention. We also need to figure out how to clear into the country. …. But there’s no hurry… we’re going to go get some coffee and take a long walk first!
Glad you persevered and overcame your inconvenience! Enjoy that terra firma time!
So far, terra firma is fabulous! Long daily walks, followed by coffee at some street cafe!
Inconvenience!!! You guys are IMPRESSIVE!!!
I’m still in Florida and just got caught up on your posts! My mom and brother have enjoyed hearing all about your BIG Adventure!
After reading this, Danny and I definitely need to get back to Croatia.
I Can’t wait to hear what happened to your engines. Bad gas?
Good luck!
I’m off to Maryland tomorrow to help Brooke and Frankie get moved in and set up in their apartment. Not nearly as exciting as what you guys are doing. I’ll be back in Colorado on the 8th.
Praying for Safe travels, no more engine problems and the perfect winds! 🙏🏻
Holy toledo. The suspense is killing me. What’s the latest on the engines? (It’s Monday the 9th August here).
So what was the cause? Bad fuel? All good now? There’s no one else I would want by your side either! Love you both! Enjoy this amazing journey❤️