Engine Confusion

BY DEREK SMITH

Imonth adventure but were still about five days out from Victoria when the wind died. After a brief discussion, the decision was made to fire up the iron wind and get back home. After about a day under power, with our little four-cylinder Land Rover diesel purring smoothly, confidence was running high. We would soon be on dry land once more!

Without any warning, a frightening boom, boom, boom, boom, boom sound started coming from the engine compartment that made the whole boat reverberate. I immediately shut down the engine and cautiously lifted the floorboards in the cockpit, expecting to see a smoking mess where the engine used to be. To my astonishment, there sat our little green engine looking exactly as it always had with no signs of catastrophe anywhere. After about 20 minutes of climbing around the engine and looking at it from every angle, we turned the key to see if she would start. That little beauty fired up and purred like nothing had happened! After a minute at idle I slipped her into forward and slowly eased the throttle ahead until we were back to our six-knot cruising speed. Everything seemed normal, and we were once again heading for home. With fingers crossed and the floorboards still up, we steamed along for another hour until it happened again. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! I pulled the throttle back to idle and looked at the engine and still everything looked normal. I waited

Continued on page 113

Mike Mockford