Yesterday all our problems....

This morning and all the way up until around 15:40 this afternoon all our problems seemed so far away. Now unfortunately it looks like they are here to stay.

We were happily motoring along at 5 knots the engine was puttering along as normal, then instead of puttering it went putter putter putter bang putter bang and stopped. We checked the engine visually and then the oil. Nothing seemed amiss. I tried to start it again and all was not well. So in no wind we put the sails up. We had 6 miles to sail to the end of the loch. The wind came and went and was flukey. One minute there was no wind, seconds later we were tearing along in 18 knots of breeze. It took us a few hours to get to the end of the loch and into a depth we could anchor.

We tried sailing up to a mooring pontoon, but the wind died and we'd have to turn a corner with the wind on the nose and a had narrow channel to tack up, then a hire boat came out of the rain. We waved them down and they were able to tow us to a pontoon.

A whisky and curry later I thought I'd take the rocker cover off and see if I could see any problems.

This is what I saw



The rocker arm shaft has sheared. We now have the task of getting a replacement, and getting on our way again.

Hopefully it has't caused or way caused by any other damage.

Just when things were going well for us at last. Boats eh?