Simpson Lagoon - Zen and the Art of Diesel Maintenance

Kevin spent all day yesterday and most of this morning down in the genset locker (a workspace about 4 feet wide by 6 feet long by 4 feet tall) taking apart as much of the generator and engine as possible so that we would be able to haul it out through the 14-inch opening at the top of the locker. When it became obvious that the anchorage in the Baai (Bay) was too rolly to actually hoist the thing out, we decided to move inside the lagoon area. The lagoon is fully encircled by land, the French half of the island is to the north and the Dutch side is to the south. We went through the bridge on the Dutch side around 11:30, anchored, had lunch, and then proceeded to tackle the generator problem.

Kevin continued working while I played the role of Step N' Fetchit, trying to bring the correct tool when requested. It was a long hot afternoon, and Kevin determined that there was no way to separate the generator from the diesel engine; so instead of lifting a 120-lb block of metal, we were going to have to lift a 230-lb block of metal. Kevin rigged up a solution involving the jib halyard and another block and tackle to hold the genset steady and we were ready to begin. Kevin guided the engine up out of the hole as I cranked the winch to lift the thing. The operation went perfectly; it was our moment of triumph -- getting it out and onto the deck was much easier than we had thought. Unfortunately everything else was downhill from there.

The oil pan is so corroded that it doesn't even resemble metal so much as dirty particle board. We had hoped to find that it just had a crack or something that could be welded and thus solve the oil leak we've been having. No such luck -- the outer layers of the pan crumble to the touch. It was held in place by something like 14 bolts and of course four of them were so corroded that Kevin had to shear the bolt heads off. One of last four bolts just wouldn't budge at all and Kevin spent two solid hours and broke three tools (drill bit, screwdriver, vise grips) trying to get the damn thing off. On the upside, he did MacGyver a new way to power the cordless drill: instead of using the batteries which only hold a charge for 30 seconds, he just wired it straight to our house battery bank (six paralleled car batteries). Go, drill, go!

Anyway, as I type this he is still trying to get the oil pan off of the engine (all the bolts are gone, but it is still stuck for some reason). We have yet to explore any part of Sint Maarten, but hopefully we will get to see some of it after we get the grunt work taken care of.

Where we are:
Location=Simpson Lagoon, St. Maarten
Lat=18 02.444
Lon=63 05.568