Páros Órmos Alikí (Part 1)

The wind was blowing at 20-25 knots and the concerns about not having a functional engine combined to mean that we were both awake early on Tuesday morning. Nicky suggested that we confirm the lift pump failure by rigging up a gravity fuel system. With a length of pipe, a syringe, a funnel and a jug we kept ourselves entertained for an hour whilst we waited for a more civilised time to start trying to track down a marine engineer. The jury rigged fuel supply leaked a bit but the engine ran properly; fuel lift pump failure looked to be the most likely problem.

Aliki   

That was good information to know because Robin Brown had got our e-mail first thing and rang us straight away. We were able to give him a quick summary of our situation and what we thought needed fixing. The support was incredible, 2 phone calls later he’d arranged for a marine engineer to be on the quay to meet us in hour and we had the offer of a run to the supermarket should we need any food.

Adonis at work   

We inflated the dinghy and I went ashore to meet Adonis, the marine engineer. He took the wet ride back to BV in good humour and immediately set to work on the engine. It was really useful to watch him work as he casually pulled apart the fuel supply system and systematically checked everything for any blockages. Adonis sucked through each of the pipes and components in turn; the ships bucket was employed as a spittoon for the mouthfuls of diesel fuel. He found some crud in the magnetic pre-filter which can’t have helped the fuel supply, cleaned that out and then rebuilt the fuel run bit by bit, sucking fuel through at each stage to confirm the supply. Then came purging the system of air and an attempt to start the engine. Success… but only for 30 seconds when the engine spluttered and died.

The fuel lift pump   

With everything else checked and cleaned there could only be one culprit stopping the engine from working and that was the fuel lift pump. Adonis removed that, prodded and tinkered before announcing that he would need to take it back to his workshop. After an even wetter ride back to the shore, Nicky reunited Adonis with his scooter and with the promise of a phone call in a few hours he set off towards Pároikía.




Robin and Diana were kept abreast of progress and they had even driven down to Alikí to see if there was anything else that they could do to help. Amazing support from lovely people that we had never even met.

Anchored a little closer to the shore   

Adonis was true to his work and rang us back at 1300; he’d fixed the fuel pump having replaced a small metal pin inside the mechanism. With the wind steadily increasing the return trip in the dinghy was very wet. Working whilst sitting in a small puddle of water on the saloon sole, Adonis refitted the pump, bled the system of air and was justifiably pleased with himself when the engine fired up first turn of the key and ran very sweetly. He rewarded himself with a cigarette which was promptly doused by flying spray on the trip back to the quay. Hopefully the healthy tip we gave him will make up for the repeated soakings and wasted cigarette!

We were very relieved and took the opportunity of a slight lull in the wind to lift our anchor and motor in a little closer to the beach where we re-anchored and set ourselves up for the real blow which was yet to come. A swim confirmed that the anchor was well dug in and we let out some extra chain.

We watched a very large yacht come and anchor in the bay but they only stayed for an hour, just long enough to run some people ashore to get to the airport we think. Even with their size, they too were being blown about all over the place.

We were joined by another yacht which looked set to stay, matching our plan. The forecast was showing steady winds of 30 knots with gusts of up to 36 knots for Wednesday and Thursday daytimes. The evenings were going to be a little less windy; we’d stay until Friday.

The final piece of the jigsaw fell into place when Charlotte rang confirming that she could get a ferry across from Naxos on Wednesday afternoon. It had been a successful day .

Páros  Órmos Aliki, Greece