Oh No! The Motor won't start!

Hanging out in the D'Entrecasteax Channel requires a regular review of the weather. Yesterday we were parked up for a North Easterly breeze and had a lovely day in Quarantine Bay. It was so lovely and we went visiting and took afternoon tea of pumkin scones and some cakes slice across to Rick and Helve's launch, Caia. This morphed into 5ers and then dinner together with friends of theirs. It was late by the time we were returning to Zofia. Emerging into the dark for the dinghy ride home, the night sky was fully illuminated with stars only - no moon. The Milky Way, the Southern Cross, Orion.... all our favourite stars and constellations seemed to be shining with maximum lumens and were incredibly mirrored on the mercury-still water. We've seen the moon and stars reflect off the water during night sails before but we've never actually seen the night sky completely mirrored on the water!

We enjoyed the view so much we lay on the cockpit cushions for some time admiring the heavens and commenting on our good luck before retiring. We made a quick check of the weather before going to sleep and noted that we'd need to shift to a different bay in the morning.

Quarantine Bay was almost empty by the time the Bloke fired up the motor to warm it up in readiness for our trip to the anchorage on the opposite side of Barnes Bay, or at least tried to. It's never spluttered and stopped before. Diesel motors either work or they don't. What the heck!

Far from shrieking, yelling or any other action that would indicate defeat, fear and horror, the Bloke took it all in his stride. Annoyed of course, but not venting a string of "F*@Ks" in an escalating tone and morphing them from an adjective, to a verb and to a noun, as one might expect. No, my old sea dog remained as calm-as-can-be as he went through the trouble shooting process which inevitably began with an internal deconstruction of the boat seeing as everything is inside or underneath something else.

Mattresses and bedding UP and out the way.

The Bloke bleeds the fuel filter to check for water or other contaminants.

Diesel looks fine.

What's next? We'd already checked the Schrieber panel for the battery status read out. We hardly need to do this because the the motor could crank. Batteries were immediately eliminated from contention. What else do motors need to work their magic? Air, yes that's it. AIR! Opening the engine bay, which the Bloke does a lot, even on passage to ensure everything looks and sounds normal, he noticed that a microfibre cloth he keeps wrapped around the coolant cap (because it tends to leak a little) was missing. Where had it gone? We'd had a lot of 'motion' returning from Norfolk Bay. It has slid out of position and been sucked up the air intake!

 The guilty item!

Cloth removed and now motor running fine. Phew! Now we can motor across to the new 'today's wind anchorage. Happy Days.... or almost: as I write, there is no wind, it's completely overcast and once again raining. I'm revising downward my budget for sunscreen.