UH OH! Is that white smoke coming from our engine?!
While sailing away from Fort de France, Martinique after carnival Adam noticed some white smoke coming from the port engine. Adam asked me to get "the book". We have Nigel Calder's book on engines that Adam gave me one year as a Hannukah present 😂 Since I'm half Adam's size, I'm the one who frequently maintains the engines so Adam seems to think I have some magic power over them. Unfortunately, neither of us knows much about engines. Adam always says they're his blind spot. I dutifully grabbed my book, looked up white smoke and learned that it has something to do with either water or fuel. We were able to slow the engine down and the white smoke went away which we found reassuring. As a matter of fact, we had actually seen the white smoke for a brief period of time sometime the week before, but since it went away, we both ignored it and went on with our sail - obviously not a good strategy, but seems to work even better when you have an ostrich partner in crime! As we had sundowners with friends during a lovely stop at Les Anses D'Alrlet, Martinique on our way towards Le Marin, we told them about the white smoke and they also mentioned water or diesel. Our friend Mike, on S/V Innisfree, told us we'd probably smell fuel if it was fuel. Since the smoke disappated quickly he told us, it was likely water. That sounded better than fuel so I was somewhat relieved.
The dock and the church at Les Anses D'Arlet
The next day we set out for Le Marin, Martinique. Le Marin is a huge boating center where you can get most things you need for a boat and find most boating services. The trip to Le Marin is usually an upwind slog. Catamarans like Solmate don't head to wind well so we don't necessarily look forward to heading east in the Caribbean since the trades are usually on the nose. For non sailors, this means that we travel slowly, even with both engines engaged and sometimes we have to face large waves as well. As luck would have it, and we are SUPER lucky, the wind and seas were light and we had a pleasant trip to Le Marin.
On the way, we got to enjoy a bit of history. Below is Diamond Rock. A fascinating place.
Caves on the rock served as sleeping quarters for the men; the officers used tents. The sailors used pulleys and ropes to raise supplies to the summit. To augment their uncertain food supply, the garrison had a small herd of goats and a flock of guinea hens and chickens that survived on the meager foliage. The British also established a hospital in a cave at the base of the rock that became a popular place to put sailors and marines recovering from fevers or injuries. Adam and I read the history as we sailed by and saluted Diamond Rock.
Onto Le Marin for repairs. Le Marin is a cool place with more sailboats than we'd ever seen congregated in one place! There are probably 100's of moorings outside the marina. They were so close together that you could almost pass your neighbor a cup of coffee.
Because we were on a timeline, before we arrived, I called the Volvo Penta service center and they said they'd call me back to set an appointment. This was a little stressful since we were on a schedule and they were not promising much in terms of timeliness. As sailors say, the most dangerous thing to have on a boat is a calendar. In other words, sticking to a schedule, rather than the needs of the boat or sailing when the weather dictates, can be downright dangerous. But, Lexi, our daughter, was coming to visit in a few short days in St. Lucia (about 25 mi south) and we didn't have much of a choice. As we pulled into Le Marin, we became a little stressed about finding a spot for Solmate since it was so crowded with boats. I called the marina and they said all the moorings were full and I could call back in a few hours to see if there was a vacant one. We surveyed the area with a tight feeling in our chests because it seemed that all the barstools were taken and there was no room at the inn. With persistence, we ultimately checked out the Baie des Cyclones less than a 1 mi dinghy ride from Le Marin. It turned out that we hit the jackpot. We found a lovely protected bay with plenty of room for us that seemed to be a million miles from everything. The bay has a wild, tropical, moutainous shoreline with one lone house on a hill and only 2 other boats were anchored there. It seemed too good to be true so for several days we wondered what the catch was but never found one.
About an hour after we'd been there, I got a phone call from a guy speaking only French. Since we'd been spending a lot of time in the French islands, I felt like my French was coming along so I didn't ask the guy to try to speak in English and instead went with the French. I anxiously asked if he was Marce the guy I'd spoken to about our engine. He said, no, he was Franc and that he could do something around noon. I thought my prayers had been answered and he was going to come to fix the engine at noon. I thanked him profusely and asked him in broken French if I could send my location to him at the Whatsapp number he'd called me on. We confirmed the number and hung up. I then sent him my location. Then he sent me his location which I immediately noted was in Les Anses D'Arlet - the place we had left at 6am, about 4 hours prior. I asked him if he could come to me. I sent him additional pictures of where I was located. I finally switched to using google translate and asked him the location of his workshop and about fixing the boat. He wrote back that he thought I was deceiving him. Well I was baffled and then looked back again at the location he sent me which also had a business name - AutoFrance. Then I realized that I'd actually been chatting with a rental car agent who could rent me a car at noon. So much for my excellent French skills. Before the engine started smoking, I had called a rental car agency because I had wanted to go food shopping at a large market and do some exploring with a rental car. I had totally forgotten about that and was hyper focused on the engine when Franc, the rental car agent, returned my call. I apologized profusely and explained with the help of google translate and Franc wished us well.
Next, I called the Volvo service people again and there was no answer. Amazingly, within another hour, I got a call from an English speaking guy named Ludovic who said he was coming to fix the engines. He asked me where we were and told me there were 2 Baie des Cyclones in the area. So, I texted my pics of our location and he correctly located us. I texted him to ask when he was coming and he said, "now". Music to our ears. Ludovic, a local guy who spoke English very well, and Jacob, a Swede, who spoke English so well I almost thought he was American, quickly evaluated the engines and announced it was the water pump that needed to be replaced. Voila, we actually had a water pump aboard. Adam remembered that the mechanic back in Portsmouth, VA who had done our yearly maintenance in October told us that there was an issue with the water pump. He was vague about it but suggested we have an extra on board. Ludovic showed us what we should look for in the future. See the vertical ridges in the pics below.
These ridges were preventing a good seal and were allowing water to escape. We certainly had no idea about these but we're learning every day. Then we decided to check the starboard engine and it had the same issue. Luckily Ludovic had an extra water pump in stock for us. He and Jacob went for their lunch break and came back an hour later with a water pump and had it installed in another hour. These guys were as good as it gets! Prompt, knowledgeable, friendly and thorough. While they were in the engine rooms, they found that the shaft that connects our steering columns together from one engine to the other was disconnected so that Adam could reconnect them. They also tuned our engines while they were in there so they would idle in sync with one another. They even cleaned the engine pans out for us! These guys were more than we could ever ask for. If you ever need Volvo engine work in Le Marin, "Inboard Diesel Service" are your guys.
With the engine service out of our way, we were able to sit back and enjoy Le Marin for a few days before leaving to meet Lexi in St. Lucia. We had a lovely lunch ashore with friends Wanda and Mike from S/V Going to the Sun at Mango Bay cafe. We loved the wall art at this trendy, beachy Le Marin hot spot.
Before we left for St Lucia, we also got to enjoy a day in St. Anne which has a lovely, soft white sand beach. A white sand beach is not as common as I would have thought down here in these parts of the Caribbean due to mostly volcanic darker sand beaches. We had a nice lunch at Bao Beach and played in the sea.
Onto St. Lucia to meet up with Lexi. We are super excited to see our girl!
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