…when the engine didn’t start!

We were sailing along the south coast of Italy going North, towards a place called Copanello where we were going to anchor for the night. The wind got really strong so Jeff reduced sails. We were almost at Copanello when we brought in the sails and we were going to motor towards the shore. Then Jeff used an unexpected preamble to bad news: “Victoria, don’t panic…but..” and in that split second before the announcement of whatever disaster had come upon us, my blood vessels froze, my respiratory system suspended its function, my heart beat entered slow motion and a loud throbbing flooded my ears just as my overly active imagination was completing Jeff’s sentence with visions of water coming into the boat, a huge hole in our keel, the boat sinking, sharks attacking, pirates shooting at us and more conventional stuff like alien invasion and a meteor hitting the boat simultaneously! “…but the engine doesn’t start” . (Ed note: Victoria actually does worry this much.) That was the actual last part of Jeff’s sentence. OK so the engine doesn’t start. No biggie, right! At least we are not sinking or getting exploded so we will deal with this! After all I have complete faith in Jeff’s abilities and his understanding of how a boat’s diesel engine works! We will be fine!

After two and a half hours of messing with the engine and hearing Jeff reassuring me that we have enough food on the boat to last us for weeks… my complete faith in Jeff’s abilities to fix the engine started wavering…! My priceless, extremely valuable assistance with the technical aspect of the problem was somewhat limited to “did you wiggle that wire?” or “is there a switch you didn’t turn?” but for some reason seemed only to (inexplicably) irritate the Captain instead of contributing to the solution.

Then Jeff started contemplating the “worst case scenario”…versions of our imminent future…”we’re in a sail boat, so we will sail”, “don’t worry, everything will be ok”, “we have a water maker so we have the essentials” and “we will definitely make it to a marina”…! It started dawning on me that the engine might NOT get fixed…! We will NOT be ok, and we may NEVER make it to a marina! Now, it was obvious that the Don’t Panic status was about to be overrun by an alarming state of total PANIC!

However, the Captain was still very calm and going up and down in the engine compartment, which means that everything is not lost, there is still hope! Hope kept Panic at bay (let us be for ever grateful for the little flying HOPE that escaped Pandora’s terrible Box).

Jeff resorted to books and phone calls and tackled the engine in different ways (for a reasonable explanation of what the actual problem was, you need to look up Jeff’s entry of 6/25/21, something to do with a thing called the starter solenoid) and at last …with only a few more moments of daylight…the engine roared into life!!! It’s alive!!! we did not have a champagne handy to celebrate properly but we let out cries of success that would definitely scare any fish around us and for a good radius of at least 50m or so!

We anchored at Copanello that night and next day we went to the marina at Crotone where there was a mechanic that came to look at our engine. The mechanic did not speak a word of English, Jeff’s Italian was somewhat restricted to ordering food, drinks and the check (N/A in the circumstances) but somehow they seemed to understand each other perfectly and they fixed the engine! 🙂 Isn’t it nice how these mechanical issues bring together the different peoples of the world?!

Since the Day of the Dead Engine, every time Jeff turns on the engine, and I hear the low humming confirmation of her rhythmical breathing, for the briefest of seconds, I feel a calming sense of relief and gratitude to the universe! This boating life is turning me into a very spiritual being!😉