February 23, 2024
While I was still in the San Blas, I did finally get the drone up for a bit (Thursday). Check out this short video.
It’s not much but does provide a sense of the place I have been holed up for the past few days.
In another short video, we can see a group (flock?) of Pelicans that hang around the area fishing. At first I thought they were flying away from the sound of the drone, but then I noted that they were actually fishing. In this clip if you look at the far left you can see little fish jumping, and the birds quickly migrate to the area looking for an easy meal. (There were millions of these little minnows growing up in this bay. I tried to catch a video of the schools zooming across the top of the water during night time feedings, but I was never in the right place at the right time with a camera. This is the closest I came to catching it on film.)
After I posted my last update I went to start my generator and … Nothing. Nada. That’s a bit scary at anchor with batteries down to 60% or so.
In this case I started the main engine to generate some power and protect the batteries. The Lugger engines are almost as reliable as death and taxes and the issue simply appeared out of nowhere. The genny had worked the previous evening with no problems.
Now the general reader will not be even a little interested in the details but in an effort to remember what to do and not do, as well as a review I can point to if any other owner on the Nordhavn Owners Group ever has the problem, I will offer some details.
First a diesel engine needs fresh air, a steady supply of clean fuel and compression to operate. Then power to turn the engine over and it really should start. It didn’t start so I began checking these conditions.
My boat has a water muffler which dramatically reduces noise when running and if you crank the engine too much without it starting there is a chance that this muffler lifts too much water and drowns the engine. (This is on the naughty list of engine problems). To prevent that it is necessary to shut off the water flow and remove the cover on the water pump so that no new water can get in, and any water currently present can escape. With that done I continued trying to get the engine to fire. No go.
Next up I changed out my primary and secondary fuel filters. Potentially they could be contaminated or blocked in some way. Then bleed the engine to make sure there is no air in the lines (technically this engine is self bleeding but I did it anyway to be sure). Try again. No bueno.
Next was the air filter. I checked that and it was clean, but I left it off anyway, just so there was absolutely no air constriction at all. Try again. No bueno.
At this point I sent a note out to the Nordhavn Owners Group looking for advice, as well as a message to the Lugger support person, Lugger Bob who does an amazing job of supporting Lugger owners worldwide. In any case, Bob was taking care of others at the moment but Chris from N47-19 highlighted that it could be the fuel stop solenoid.
The fuel stop solenoid is used on this motor to stop the engine if any significant error occurs (low oil pressure, high temp, etc.) to prevent destruction of the engine.
Unfortunately I don’t carry a spare for that. As Lugger Bob noted in a follow-up email, he has seen six failures in his 24 years, so perhaps it is seven now. But I am lucky enough to have one of the 24V solenoids that has gone bad.
The good news is that my wing engine and generator have the same engine block and the wing is also outfitted with a stop solenoid. I swapped them out and VOILA! Muy Bueno! (That’s three languages in one paragraph, I am clearly very worldly now.) I have a working generator. With many thanks to Chris and Bob I was up and running within a few hours and not too much unnecessary work. Now I just need two of those solenoids brought in on express delivery. There is a dealer in Panama City so I can hopefully get that done within two weeks.
Ultimately that meant that all of my drone work was left until late Thursday as I was also prepping for departure. But my snippets are above and I hope you enjoy them.
On Friday morning I pulled up anchor at 5:45 with the moon still offering a glow over the bay and departed for Colon. I was expecting 4-5 foot waves and a much faster run. Unfortunately I was wrong on both counts. The waves were more like 3 feet which made things more comfortable than I expected, but the currents and wind were still against me, so my speed was seriously hampered as soon I left the protection of the San Blas bay.
In the end I made the run to Shelter Bay marina in just under 12 hours, running the engine very hard. I didn’t have any cooling problems and the boat was quite smooth with all of the work I did to clean the bottom, props and stabilizers. It was a good run, if very long. The Atlantic side of the Canal is very busy, and there are at least a dozen ships sitting at anchor waiting to get through the canal and so I had to dodge those, but just one was moving and he graciously waited for me to get close to the entrance before lifting anchor and heading through the break wall, so it wasn’t a difficult navigation at all.
I am now tied to a dock, and will meet Jinhee in Panama City later this evening. We will celebrate our 29th anniversary in Panama City and then head back to the boat and the San Blas for some peaceful reflection before our next stage of the journey.
Addendum – Notes from Bob on recovery from a failed solenoid:
Here’s how to diagnose and recover from an inoperative fuel rack solenoid problem on generators up to 20 KW and L844D wing engines.
- If you’ve determined that battery voltage is getting to the fuel rack solenoid (touch the terminal with the purple wire) with the generator’s preheat switch pressed – or the wing engine key on, unscrew the solenoid from the block turning it counter clockwise. You may need to use large jaw pliers on the serrated section.
- Wrap the disconnected wire terminal with black tape so it can’t short out to metal. Try to start the engine normally as you usually would. If the solenoid is bad, the engine will start and run normally. *
- To stop the engine, you will need to use the manual shut down lever on the upper part of the governor housing located about a hand span above the throttle arm with the spring on it.
- Some very late model engines do not have a manual shut down lever and you’ll need to use something like a short pencil inserted into the solenoid hole a push gently inward against the fuel rack to stop the engine.
- Use large diagonal cutters or a hack saw to cut the solenoid plunger off flush with the threaded end and screw it back into the engine to prevent oil splash drops from the open hole making a mess..
If this is an L844D wing engine, you can operate it normally – the only difference is that you’ll need to shut it off manually with the lever.
When using this “workaround” in a generator, be aware that you MUST monitor the panel gauge because the automatic safety shutdowns will not function if the solenoid is removed or the plunger is cut off.