Case Pilote, Day 1

An engineer arrives bang on 8am and starts removing parts of our generator.  This means that we now have no air conditioning and our batteries have to be charged by the starboard engine.  Frank comes to see us a bit later to explain what is going to happen, some of which will depend on what they find.  He explains that he can hook us up to some electricity so that we can run the air conditioning but our plugs will not work here and we need to make a new system with our waterproof cable.  He also gives us access to the internet through his system which is great.

I go off to find the local supermarket as there is some hand washing I need to do, but first I go for a bit of a wander.  I already know my way round Case Pilote as we were here just a few weeks ago, and as I walk towards the town square to see if it is any more lively than it was the last time (it isn’t) I am approached by a young man talking at me ten to the dozen.  I smile and say bonjour and go to walk past but that doesn’t do the trick.  He gently takes my hand and gabbles even more French to me.  In my absolutely worst schoolgirl French I say I don’t understand what he is saying and I am English.  He relinquishes my hand eventually and I work out he is saying welcome.  Unfortunately his antics attract the attention of his mate over the road who starts shouting “I love you, baby” as I retreat.  I don’t catch the rest, but as he is smiling I hope it wasn’t too bad.

After my wander I go back to the supermarket and get something which I hope is clothes bleach to try to clean Mike’s t-shirts then it’s back to the boat to give them a good soak in whatever it is I have bought.

Frank lends us one of his cars as we have to go into Fort de France to clear in, buy some rope to make a new outhaul and some marine/shore plugs and take the rest of the laundry in for a service wash.  There are no self service places here and Fort de France is the closest place that will do it for me.

We go to Sea Services, do the necessary silly business checking in, and buy 13 metres of thick rope.  Unfortunately they do not have the necessary marine plugs that we need for the cable so after taking the laundry in, we drive the 37 kilometres to Marin, the only place where there is a wealth of chandleries.  The long drive round is actually quite beautiful once you are past the airport.  I wish I had brought my camera with me but I only expected to be going to Fort de France and found it difficult to find things to photograph there last time so I didn’t bother.

We don’t arrive until nearly 3pm and realise that neither of us have eaten since dinner last night so we stop for a croissant and a drink.  We also manage to get the marine plugs so the trip was worth it.

Back at Case Pilote, Frank shows us the results so far.  They have removed the cylinder head and it is obvious that one cylinder hasn’t been firing properly as there is black carbon on the valves and the top of the piston.  The cylinder head has been taken back to their workshop and they have removed the valve springs and the valves themselves.  The shaft of the exhaust valve from the defective cylinder has been eaten away and is no more than half of its original thickness.  If this had gone just a little bit further, the valve head would have come away and dropped into the cylinder, colliding with the piston and making a horrible (and definitely much more expensive) mess.  Tomorrow the cylinder head will be taken to a machine shop to have the valve seats reground.  And if you understand all this, you’re probably not female – Mike dictated this paragraph!

Photo:  Look at the difference between the damaged bottom valve and the one above it

The port engine has also had some attention.  It has been taken off its mountings in order to replace the corroded and leaking oil sump.  When it was removed they could clearly see that this has been damaged in the past, probably when it was dropped a few years back at TMM when it was being taken for repair.  Whoever did the repair didn’t put a gasket on when they reassembled the engine;  they just used a liquid gasket solution.  This is also probably a cause of the oil leak.  It is also apparent that the engine mounts are well past their sell by date as the rubber is now extremely soft so these have been replaced as well.  Also dictated my Mike!!

Mike and Frank make up the cable with the new plugs and hey presto, thank God, we have air conditioning once more.

Mike starts up the starboard engine to charge the batteries and notices that they don’t seem to be charging properly.  After firing off an e-mail to Per, the problem is identified, fixed and Mike has learned something else about his new electrical system.

We are now starting to eat up everything in the freezer in preparation for the electrics being turned off while Jeannius is out of the water in Grenada, so dinner is a strange fry up of onions, frozen peas and baby scallops with various seasonings.  Actually it was quite good!