An education in diesel

By Alexander

Sadly I'm beginning to feel that our education is going on a downhill slide. You see, yesterday instead of school we learned how to service a Volvo Penta MD2030 diesel engine.

Dad squeezing into the engine compartment.  Not a lot of room to work in there.

We had to get out a lot of parts and tools. Once everything was out dad went into the engine hatch with me right next to him to pass him things and give him paper towel when he needed to get the gunk off of his hands.

We pulled out a lot of tools and cleaning stuff to work on the engines.

We had to change the fuel pre-filter, the primary filter and the impeller, and clean the raw sea water strainer.  We didn’t even get around to changing the oil. It was kind of a hassle. We had to do both engines and things got a bit messy down there, especially on the first engine.  Things went a lot more smoothly on the second engine, since by then we knew what we were doing.

The fuel pre-filter.

The raw water sea strainer on the starboard side probably should have been cleaned a while ago. It had some small mussels in it.  The rest of the strainers and filters weren’t too bad, but we changed them all anyway, since it was time, and we wanted to make sure we knew how to do it right.

Mussels in the raw water sea strainer.  Good thing this was there to keep them from getting into our engine.

Christopher was charged with taking the pictures which you see in this blog and mom was getting tools and filling jugs with diesel that dad was using to flush out the filter bowls. It was all a very cool process.

After all that was finished with we went to the beach and ran around in the waves. A real monster took Christopher and me out like bowling pins. After being smashed into the sea floor by that wave we went for a walk along the beach.

Christopher enjoying the waves.

By the time we got back to the boat iwas time to start making dinner. Hence my delicious clam chowder. Sadly I didn’t get to take any pictures of it but trust me it was great. You, too, can make it at your home.

Start by sautéing a diced onion in oil on low. While it’s slowly cooking Dice three small potatoes and a red pepper. Add the other diced vegetables to the onions and let them sizzle. Meanwhile pop open a can of clam and evaporated milk. Add all the vegetables to a pot along with the milk, clam and a bay leaf. Oh and some pepper. Let that come to a boil for about two minutes and then put the lid on and let it simmer on low. After about ten to fifteen minutes the soup is ready to eat. You can add some salt if you like but not too much. I made that mistake. It was just a tiny bit too salty. Serve with buns and it feeds the whole family! Seriously it’s a good soup.

Have a nice rest of the day and look up the WestJet Christmas video. It’s hilarious.