We set off for Figuera de Foz, 60 miles down the coast, early on a windowless morning. We would be motoring but this would give us a chance to test the new propeller. The engine had been a bit slow to go into forward gear a couple of times recently but other than that all was fine. We were pleased with the new propeller. The boat felt like it had more power,going faster at lower revs.
We arrived in Figuera de Foz late in the afternoon and as we approached the reception pontoon and put the engine into neutral Scruffbag could not get it back into forward gear. Luckily we drifted on to the pontoon. We had the same problem leaving the reception pontoon but we managed to moor up. Scruffbag decided to overhaul the control the following day.
We had been here 3 years previously but had arrived late and left early so we decided to stay for a couple of days and explore. It is an attractive beach resort with a small shipping port ,a railway station and an attractive old town.
Whilst there we had been asked by Pete to look out for an old Colin Archer boat and make ourselves known to its owner, Juan, an old colleague of his from his days on the dredged. We found Juan and gave him Pete's phone number. We had a look round his boat, which had been built to work off Norway and was different from the usual sailing boats we see and we had a drink with him later
After two days we decided to leave, This was not destined to happen. Once again the boat would not engage in forward so we returned to our mooring in reverse. We had no way of slowing down other than neutral a d Scruffbag had to jump ashore to stop the windvane hitting the pontoon.It did but only lightly. We would clearly be staying a further night and completely overhauling the control this time.We thought we had fixed it. The man in the marina office must have thought we were crazy.
The following day I went for a walk and before helping with the overhaul.
When Scruffbag had worked on the control, he asked me to check that the shaft was rotating when the engine was in forward gear.It was, and we thought we had finally fixed it.
We set off the next morning in a bit of a breeze. We managed to get forward gear and headed out into the river. We turned into the wind and put the engine into neutral. As the river was quite narrow we would have to turn around then turn back before the sail went up. We put the engine back into gear. Nothing. The rocks were looming and we were being g blown that way.A ship was heading down river towards us. Scruffbag put the engine into reverse and managed to resolve the situation and I dropped the sail. Back again, we reversed into the marina once more. Luckily a French couple were on hand to help us in. Another night in Figuera de Foz.
By now we realised that the problem was bigger than we had first thought. We guessed that something was amiss with the gearbox, probably the plates sticking. This would require another lift out as the seal is not secure. We would never return to Leixoes, which was, in any case,very expensive and there were few places along the coast with a big enough hoist. Luckily the fishing port of Nazare was only 25 miles away and had all the facilities including engineers workshops, plus, as it was a local authority yard it was well priced.
We would have to hold the boat onto the pontoon and try, try and try again until the engine went into forward then Scruffbag would jump aboard and we would not go out of forward gear until we reached Nazare. We phoned ahead to let them know our situation and they promised to give us an easy berth and someone to help us in.
Finally,the next morning in very little wind but lots of fog, after 15 minutes of trying the engine went into forward and we left to motor down to. Nazare
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