I always buy several
cheap buckets before going on a trip; for when the
bilge pump fails or gets blocked, or the
head fails or gets blocked, and for rinsing underwear after such occasions.
Following is an extract from "Desperate Deliveries";
There was an annoying electronic
alarm beeping loudly from the
bilge pump "intelligent" mini-panel. There was a little
water in the
bilge, most likely coming from the
propeller shaft seal. Jeubis and I investigated. The mini-panel was wired up completely wrongly. The port
pump didn’t
work at all on "Manual", and worked all the time on "Auto" regardless of the float switch position. The float switch sounded the
alarm when it rose, which it did every time the
boat rolled and the
water sloshed back and forth.
I tied the float down to silence the alarm and left the
pump running on "Auto". The water level did not go down. Jeubis told me there was a second pump somewhere under the starboard
saloon floorboards. We couldn’t get the floorboards up to look at it as they were screwed and sealed down with
marine sealant! We managed to break one free with a lot of physical effort since we had no hammer or crowbar, but the pump was not there. It was under the next one, which was not only sealed but also trapped under the vertical
panels skirting it, and we couldn’t
lift it or break it in spite of herculean efforts.
I stopped the port pump and took it apart; it was blocked with
wood splinters and pieces of tie-wrap and short bits of wire dumped in the
bilge by house carpenters and unqualified electricians. All of these thin scraps can pass through the filter
screen of these
Rule pumps and block the impeller. I put it back and now it started draining the bilge. I fished out handfuls of some of the plentiful garbage in the water, especially
wood chips and shavings. However most of it was hidden under the stuck down floorboards, I could only get at what was near the pump...
...Later on Julian was sleeping while I steered and Jeubis came up and said the
engine temperature had dropped to 100degF. Very good news, maybe the
cooling system had been partially blocked and had now freed itself? I upped the revs to 1500 and the speed increased to about 4 knots. He said there was some water in the bilge and he was going to try and pump it out.
About half an hour later he hadn’t come back and I wondered what he was doing, had he gone back to
bed? I left the
wheel for a moment and looked in the companion-way. I saw him and Julian were working in there with buckets! The floorboard was up and I could see the bilge was full up to the level of the floorboards and sloshing over on the floor as the
boat rolled. Jesus!
I told Julian to take the
wheel. These guys had been trying to bail out the deluge with a bucket that they emptied into the sink without looking for the source of the incoming water, and without advising me! There must be a couple of tons of water in the bilge already.
I wanted to get a fast look at the
engine and
propeller shaft seal which could be the problem. If the bottom was holed, a likely prospect on an old
steel hulled boat repaired in a Venezuelan yard, we were f***ed anyway - the pumps were not keeping up and it would have been impossible to see where the water was coming in from with the bilge already full, even if we could get the floorboards up!
To access the engine at the back of the
saloon you had to remove the far too heavily built eight foot wooden ladder which led up to the
cockpit and then pull out a box-like structure covering the front of the engine, a difficult and dangerous job for two strong people even in daytime when the boat was not rolling and the floor not all wet and slippery. However there was a light
plywood panel above the box structure behind the ladder. I managed to get my fingers round the side of it and rip it open with the force of desperation enough to shine my headlamp in and see the engine behind. Immediately I saw a copious jet of water shooting out from the engine. I yelled -"Turn off the engine! "
Jeubis did so and the stream stopped. I was able to see that a
cooling water hose had detached from the back end of the Bowman
heat exchanger and allowed the cooling seawater to discharge directly into the boat instead of into the
exhaust.
There were several tons of water sloshing back and forth in the rolling boat and we had to get it out ASAFP. I reached into the water and felt the pump and it was vibrating, so it was presumably running. There was no manual bilge pump on this boat. We also bailed with a bucket emptying it into the
galley sink, but the sink filled quickly and drained very slowly, either it was blocked or had a deficient drain
installation.
The water level was not falling so I removed and disassembled the port pump again and it was once more completely blocked with carpenters and electrician’s waste. I cleaned it and put it back. We tried again to prize up the floorboards over the starboard pump or break them but couldn’t. I lay down and inserted my arm through the narrow open part and down the side of the
fuel tank and felt the pump, which was running. I managed to pull it out over the tank by yanking on the cable. We switched off all the breakers marked "bilge pump" but it still kept running! We switched off all the rest of the breakers and it STILL kept running!! There was an in-line
plug in its
wiring so I split it and it finally stopped. It was also blocked with waste; I took it apart, cleared it and put it back. The water was now noticeably dropping but it took a very long time to clear so much water. I had to clear both pumps several times more before we got it all out.
I saw that there was
electrical wiring and junction boxes installed BELOW the floorboards, they had now been submerged in
salt water. We had a potential
electrical short circuit problem. I was knackered and wanted some sleep, but Julian was unable to carry on
steering so I took the wheel while he slept.
"DESPERATE DELIVERIES" and
"A SMALL SLIP"
True sailing adventures by Cris Robinson available as ebooks and paperbacks on Amazon Kindle.