An unwelcome return to the UK

Looking back, we think there was a problem ever since we bought Juna. It eventually came down to the gearbox.

A few months earlier, on our first attempt to cross the Channel from Portland, we’d turned back because of a very uncomfortable vibration from the engine. What Transpired was that the two rearmost engine mounts had completely failed, putting strain on the gearbox, prop shaft, cutlass bearing, the whole shooting match.

I replaced all the engine mounts, realigned everything then worked through the couplings and various other bits on the BorgWarner Velvet Drive gearbox. Despite all that, it kept leaking oil and seemingly eating its way through rubber seals.

It had a curious habit of behaving perfectly well for a couple of hours, then losing what appeared to be all its oil. My suspicion was that once the oil got hot and thin enough, it could find its way out. Going hard astern would produce much the same result, without the wait.

Hard astern also came with another feature: rapid prop shaft evacuation.

The previous owner had fitted a shaft anode to the shaft to stop it shooting backwards to far and into the rudder. That limited how far it could go, but didn’t solve the underlying problem.

By the time we were at Île de Batz, I’d done pretty much everything I could do to the gearbox with it still in the boat. It was time to find somebody who knew these gearboxes properly.

There was a specialist about three hours south of us in France. Unfortunately, my French is still somewhere around late-1990s GCSE level, and I couldn’t explain the symptoms well enough to find a satisfactory way forward.

The other place I knew with the expertise was Lancing Marine, back in the UK. Which was inconvenient, given the effort we’d put into leaving the country.

In the end, with a heavy heart, we decided to go back. Portland was the nearest practical place for us to get the work sorted, so we left Katisha and her crew, Tom and James, behind and set off on the roughly 100-mile passage across the Channel.

It was a beautiful evening and naturally, there was no wind.

We spent most of the passage motoring, keeping a very close eye on the gearbox. Having left in the evening, we travelled through the night and arrived back in Portland at half past two the following afternoon.

It wasn’t a passage we’d wanted or planned, but it did give the children more opportunities to take a watch. We’re trying to involve them in that more often. As we get to know the boat and its