All good news. After the initial threat that I would need to invest in a new diesel at great cost, the diesel engineer has come back with more positive news. Every individual part is now working fine. It now just needs to be reassembled. As it’s a Mercedes, the diesel engine should still be running for many years to come and will probably outlive me….

The initial diesel engineer had installed new parts, but had forgotten to drain residual water from the system, so everything just packed up again when they ran the engine. Hence their comment ‘Buy another diesel.’ Just lazy workmanship.

When earlier on it was mentioned I needed some spare parts I had a manic search throughout Europe and found a company in Holland that specialises in parts for older, out of production boats. They confirmed they would have the reconditioned parts for the 42 year old Nanni/Mercedes on Heart. Big relief to know that there is still a company in Europe that can supply parts for this ‘American’ vessel with an Italian/German engine.

As all the individual parts now seem to be working fine, so no need to order these spare parts. The wait now is for the revised lift pump to be returned and then everything will be reassembled into a working diesel engine. In the meantime the diesel tanks will be washed out and cleaned properly so no diesel bugs for the foreseeable future!

Southern France has had so much torrential rain since Christmas that Heart collected a fair bit of water in her bilges, just by standing on the hard. That’s been pumped out, so she’s now very dry again.

No update yet as to when she’ll be ready to launch, but we’re getting closer, finally…..