I awoke this morning completely rested. The trip down from Mangonui had been quite tiring and a good sleep has put my mojo back. Gisborne marina is well situated close to the town, with local 4 square and laundry close by.
This morning I fresh water washed down the boat, it was absolutely caked with salt after shipping so much spray over the last few days. Then a trip up to 4 square to stock up on fresh bread and fruit. A visit to the laundrette to do the dhobi, finally I picked up some ice for the cold box before returning on board. Once back I set about making a well-deserved brunch.
With brunch out the way and feeling happy and healthy I started to get to grips with the Yanmar engine. I soon found very dirty fuel in the primary filter, that’s the big filter between the fuel tanks and the engine. I think the wild weather off the Mahia Peninsular stirred any dirt that had settled in the tanks and sent it to the filter. I reckon the dirty fuel clogged the filter causing the engine to stop.
I have a spare filter cartridge on board so got to changing it out and washing the filter bowl and everything to ensure no further contamination. Then I also changed the small fuel filter on the engine just in case any dirt had made its way that far in the system. A dirty and messy job and of course some diesel made its way into the bilge requiring further cleaning.
As I was on a maintenance day, I decided to change out the Jabsco raw water impeller and clean out the raw water intake strainer basket.
After bleeding the fuel system, I started up Mr. Yanmar and he ran as smoothly as ever. This was a relatively simple job, it took me well into the evening before everything was finished and tested, tools put away and the boat cleaned up. Happy to have resolved the problem I went to bed feeling relaxed and tired.
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 
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