Tranny burning up (longish)

[AdamY]

Okay so we departed San Diego Wednesday moning hoping to make the 6 day passage to Bahia Magdelena and for the first time on our trip had a nice fair sailing breeze (probably our first mistake )

We sailed off the wind and into the night with a double reefed main prevented and ran at around 4 knots most of the night. a couple hours shy of the dawn our wind dropped and our speed with it. When dawn came I woke Kristina and shook both of the reefs out of the main but found our speed still well below 3 knots. we were eager to get to Mag bay because a friend of ours was flying in to Cabo on the 17th to take a bus up to Mag bay and join us for 3 weeks.

I fired up the engine and put her in gear to find that we couldnt make more than 2 knots under power. I checked the transmission and found that it had gotten very hot and the oil inside of it was burnt. The shaft was turning slowly but I could now get the engine rpms up to 3400. previously under load I couold never exceed 2800. I concluded that the transmission was probably slipping. we had it rebuilt before we left portland just a few months ago but it seems to be suffering a serious failure. I put on my snorkel and dove on the prop. we had wrapped it twice on kelp in Catalina island and san diego respectively but I knew the engine RPMS would have lowered, if anything, from the prop being wrapped, still I jumped in the cold water and found a nice clean prop. I had a decision to make. we were now 30 miles south of Ensenada which is the largest city on the west coast of the baja peninsula and the last place for 800 miles or so witih a boat yard where we could possibly find a mechanic and/or parts to do it ourselves. being 20 miles offshore meant we could close/beam reach the whole way back which would be faster than the run we were making.

Fortunately the wind picked up in the afternoon and I was able to push her hard heeled over around 6.5 knots for most of the afternoon. Once we approached Bahia Todos Santos (about 10miles out from Ensenada) the sun began to set and with it the wind began to die. we were miraculously able to make 3 knots in around 6 but I decided we needed to get there and hoisted our biggest "go faster" spinnaker. At this time we were doing less than 2 knots and when I got the sock up the spinnaker just sollapsed.

if my 1000 sq ft 3/4 oz spinnaker wont fill there really is ZERO wind.

Anyway I fired up the engine despite the heat of the transmission and we limped along at a speed that fluctuated with the swell from .5 to 1.5 knots. it took us 8 hours to motor the last 9 miles into Ensenada and we are currently tied to an expensive marina.

Okay i've bored you with a long story just to ask my question.

Anyone think my transmission isnt totally hosed? I had the transmission rebuilt 4 months ago prior to setting off on our cruise and am loathe to jack up our recently remounted realigned engine and pull our recently rebuilt transmission to have it rebuilt all over again (if it isnt totally destroyed that is).

Anyway, I would love to hear some expert opinions. I am going to go see a mechanic tomorrow about it, on the bright side they are much cheaper here than in the states, but I really dont want to have to lift the engine and realign it.

Anyway, sorry for the long post.

Thanks in advance.