Yesterday June 13th while motoring south in rough seas from
St Lucia to Saint Vincent in the
Caribbean, one of my propellers on a
Volvo Penta 130S sail drive fouled a poorly marked
fishing float. The float consisted of two clear plastic large soft drink bottles covered in seaweed slime. By snorkeling, we removed the vast majority of the
rope, including that jammed between the prop and the sail drive body. I checked the
oil level which was normal with no hint of
water contamination.
About two hours later, with both engines running at 2200RPM, we quite suddenly heard very nasty noises coming from that drive
gearbox and immediately shut the
engine down. On checking the
oil, the level just reached the bottom of the dipstick and was very milky. It appears the
rope had damaged the
seals and oil was
lost causing the
gearbox damage. Can anyone tell me if they have had similar experience, and if the event might be an
accident covered by
insurance? Now headed for
Grenada on one
engine and/or sailing for urgent
haul out.
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