My new-to-me old
boat, on my first sail across the
Sea of Cortez, she began filling the
bilge about the 3rd day out of
San Carlos enroute to
La Paz. The
bilge pump hummed but didn't reduce the
water in the
bilge. I located an
emergency bilge pump in the next bilge section and pumped into a bucket a dozen or more times and tossed
overboard at
anchor. At the suggestion of my crewman, an old sailing buddy and architect and
builder, I reattached the main bilge
pump to the long hose used by the
emergency electric pump, and the main
pump worked like a champ and had much more
head, so we could pump it into the
cockpit drains instead of a bucket a few feet higher than the pump.
Ok, so my bilge pump works like a champ, so either the hose is clogged or one of the 10 or so valves on the bilge
exhaust plumbing is closed, right?
Anyway, I decided today was bilge pump day. Tried tracing all the hoses once before so had an idea of where they ran but still didn't have the schema straight. One
electric pump, another unattached emergency
electric pump, one whale gusher and one wall-mounted manual pump.
My new slip neighbors pulled in day before yesterday, a S. African
Seattle dweller, Brian, sailing a 50' steelie he built, his second, and his crew, Arn. Brian offers help and I gratefully took it. We (he mostly) figured out how the manual pumps were plumbed and we disconnected the hose from the
electric pump and pumped into a bucket. So fine, the pump is good, the hose isn't clogged, so that left the ball valve. The handle moved normally but with screwdriver into the hole a few inches below waterline on the outside, we found it was frozen shut. Great, I'll have to haul to replace. Naw, says sage old Brian, there's ways to do it. Pull the
mast over, or place a
plug in the thru-hull on the outside. Off to the
chandlery I go, bought a packet of various sized plugs and we began taking apart the
plumbing. Got it done in about 3 hours, diagnosis to fix. There is still backflow through the bilge pump from the hoses when it shuts off, so we figure I need a check valve or flapper downstream from the pump. Brian says they are common so that's on the list.
Cruisers really are very generous folk. Barely know this guy and he was my plumber and teacher in a valuable
project. I look forward to knowing enough to pay it forward.