Today, at around 1130 h I just ordered a meal in Puerto Lindo, when i got a call from Wikus that he is in Linton Bay Marina. 24 h early than we discussed yesterday on the phone.

I rushed back – a bit more than 2 km to walk. He opened engine- saildrive area and didn’t find what he expected: a problem with the damper plate he replaced.

At the end we found the problem. The engine mountings got a bit free play, and at low RPM the normal engine vibrations make the rattling noise I heard. He says that’s not a big problem as this only appears when the engines are around idling and low RPM. At normal crossing RPM the engine doesn’t vibrate it same way, thus the noise cannot be heard.

We decided that he gets the engine mountings for both engines and than we plan a day, when I’m in Linton Bay Marina for a day to two. Then he replaces the mountings on both machines.

Additionally, he placed a piece of rubber between the saildrive mounting, the 3rd support for the engine-saildrive unit, to damp the vibrations at low RPM.

Tomorrow, I make outbound clearance in Portobello and then cast off the lines for the San Blas archipelago.