That sinking feeling...
Starcharger
Mon 15 Aug 2016 02:34
Well the overnight crossing was not without incident.
The Manleys' morning whale-watching trip was postponed to the afternoon. They saw humpback and pilot whales along with rough toothed dolphins so an excellent trip. Dr Michael Poole who ran the trip is the local expert. He gave an excellent talk one evening about the research that he has been carrying out since 1987. He is clearly still very enthusiastic about his subject!
We set off late afternoon with a very light breeze, motoring. All seemed well....
About 23.00 hrs Gill woke me to say there was water in the bilges. I opened the engine compartment to find the engine half under water. I immediately shut it down and checked out the main saloon bilge, the watermaker was completely submerged!
The problem was as always two fold. Water coming in and not going out...
Somehow the bilge pumps had both been switched off. We must fit the high water alarm!
The ingress turned out to be the third pipe from the anti-syphon loop. I don't know quite what it is supposed to do or how it ended up pumping water...it is before the water pump in the raw water system therefore in the suck part of the circuit. Also it has been installed to discharge into the aft cabin. Two problems with that, first it is not an area we often look in and second the water then has to come back through the bulkhead to reach the bilge pumps.
We arrived safely under twin poled headsails, having seen the most awesome display of shooting stars that I have ever seen.
Now, day two of the clean up and the watermaker is not looking good. I think we will need to replace at least one of the pumps and one solenoid. The rest of our spare electrical stuff is also highly suspect!
Still it is only stuff and no one was hurt....
Love Alasdair, Gill and the Manleys
+870776 764870
+447710 197949
Sent from Alasdair's iPad
+870776 764870
+447710 197949
Sent from Alasdair's iPad