The delights of Stornaway and more engineering problems.

Monday 20/5/19 

This sign displayed in a shop window says it all - there is no place like Stornaway!  You can read that a number of ways!

Furthermore, the look on this sailor’s face says it all.

Stornaway/Lewis is a popular place with cruise ships and tourist interested in wildlife and hiking. However, the town is somewhat run down and on this dank day the mood of the locals greatly outshone the weather.  Everyone was helpful and friendly.  On the down side beers are expensive - £10.70 for 2, that’s London prices, and we found little that endeared us to the place. 

We were eager to depart and set off at 1055 en-route to Loch Maddy where we would meet up with an old friend who lives on Uist.  Having just settled into the trip, at 1135 an engine warning popped up: “Check shift actuator”. To prevent damage, the engine cuts rpm to idle and effectively you are put into a get you home mode.  We started the wing engine and turned back to Stornaway. I went below to take a look but saw nothing obvious. We ran through the manual on the way back to the marina but we’re none the wiser as to the cause of the problem. 

By 1255 we were tied up in the marina. Time to investigate. 

The manual was of little help. What we did find was that the gearbox was stuck in forward, even when neutral was demanded on the throttle. When we moved to reverse the engine stalled. The gearbox and engine clearly didn’t like the conflict in commands. Ŵe swapped over the electrical control leads to the solenoids but could still not select neutral. Time for some more help.

I called French Marine, a marine engineering specialist based in my home marina. They put me onto Simon French who couldn’t have been more helpful. He gave willingly of his time and expertise to help figure out what was wrong. He called Volvo to get their advice and even called me back in the evening once he’d done more research.  Having explored a number of different options he concluded that the clutch pack had welded together.  Although I understood his logic I found it difficult to accept this was the cause.  We had checked the oil filter and looked at the oil and both seemed in perfect condition. Had the plates welded together there would surely have been some discolouration and debris in the oil.  Furthermore, we were merely cruising along when the fault occurred. No undue strain was being placed on the gearbox. I felt it was more likely to be connected to the solenoids in some way.  Being a totally hydraulic/electronic throttle system meant there was no manual back up and no easy way to determine whether gremlins were to blame. The nearest diagnostic computer was at Inverness on the mainland - a long and difficult trip to Stornaway.

On the positive side, we had a great meal at the Digby Chick restaurant and enjoyed some of the best seafood I have ever tasted and at a very reasonably price.

Despite the thought of having to do a gearbox change, we retired to bed feeling more buoyant for having had an awesome feast.

Tuesday 21/5/19

I called Elling to find out how to remove the gearbox, should this become necessary.  They also considered the most likely cause was the clutch plates having welded themselves together. This would not be a simple, or cheap, job but it could be done.  I put it out of my mind for the time being whilst we concentrated on exploring other avenues.  

I contacted the nearest Volvo Penta specialist at Caley Marine, Inverness. They put me onto Jamie, one of their directors.  Although, initially he agreed with the diagnosis of a clutch problem when I aired my concerns and suggested it could be something to do with the solenoids he told us how to check them. Very helpfully he emailed us the workshop manual for the gearbox thereby enhancing our understanding of how the gearbox and the shifting mechanism works. We had already tested the voltage across the terminal and this seemed normal; however, Jamie suggested testing the resistance.  This was the first real breakthrough.  The manual gave us the limits: one solenoid passed the test the other did not.  Jamie then ran through the precautions needed when removing the solenoids and we went about taking them out. The manual showed that when putting a voltage across the terminal a click should be heard.  More progress: no click on one solenoid.  This confirmed out suspicions that the fault lay with the solenoid rather than the gearbox. One of the solenoids was locked in a position which intern kept the gearbox in forward gear.  RELIEF! Caley Marine ordered the replacement solenoid and agreed to get it shipped to us ASAP. Throughout this whole process Jamie from Caley Marine could not have been more helpful and it was his willingness to listen and work through alternative options that helped us to find the answer. By the time we had got this far it was late in the day and we needed a beer and a meal.  The rest of the work could wait until morning.

Having go to know Stornaway a bit more we warmed to the place.

A nice view from the master cabin porthole.

If you ever pass this way a "must try" is the Stornaway black pudding. It's different from the stuff you buy in a supermarket and, if you can get over the thought of what it's made of, it tastes delicious.