November 7 2013 Demopolis, AL

Late yesterday I went to wash my hands and lo and behold, no water.  It took me a second to register this phenomenon.  There is always water, right?

After poking around for a few minutes my conclusion was the water pump died.  Usually one can hear it cycle on and off when using a faucet.  Not so tonight.  I was already late for a party and the prospect of hanging upside down in a bilge hadn't made my list of things to do on a Wednesday night in Alabama.  But duty called so into the depths of the bilge I plunged.

New pump!

Actually it wasn't all that hard since I had a spare pump.  It only took about thirty minutes to get the old one out and the new one in.  But that would be too easy or so my subconscious seemed to think.    I wired the damn thing backwards.  Not even an inkling or one of those fleeting shadowy thoughts suggesting something wasn't correct.

 So back into the bilge I plunged where, I might add, I kept dropping my two work lights into the  bilge water more often than I'm comfortable admitting.  But I got it all hooked up again and threw the breaker which produced that satisfying pump whirring sound.

 Except the pump whirring went on for an oddly long time before stopping.  In  my mildly odoriferous state I was more focused on a nice hot shower and only heard the whirring when it started.  Luckily I just happen to notice the pump breaker on my way to the shower. Odd.  So  I flipped it on and was immediately rewarded with whirring again.   And then silence.  I suddenly realized the pump was pressurizing the water system but not shutting down because the pressure switch wasn't sensing the pressure in the water lines.  And it was throwing the breaker because of excessive current draw.

Note to self.  New doesn't necessarily mean operational.

We decided to deal with it in Mobile and for now we simply throw the pump breaker when we need water pressure.  My dish washing task is to do just that:  throw the breaker when the dish water starts to trickle instead of stream.  I do my part!

And I cant wait to shower on board when we're anchored out over the next few days... "oh dear, can you give me a little more water please ...".  Yeah ...

One issue would be fine, but why have one when two is so much more satisfying!   Our bilge pumps, when they cycle on, sometimes cause a chattering in the swing check valves.  It's not a bird like chatter either but a loud heavy-metal like sound which can wake a napper at  a hundred paces.  I replaced one assuming the old one was too corroded to seal properly.

Oh were it so easy.

As it turns out the bilge pump hose exit points lay under the water line meaning when they expel bilge water, they pump it out under water.  Best we can deduce is that this is playing havoc with the pressures in the bilge hoses which in turn is causing the chattering but more seriously also allowing a siphon to set up which is sucking sea water back into the bilge.

And so every few hours I check the bilges and then, if the chattering swing valves are chattering I squish myself into a cabinet under the trash bin and crack a bleed cap on the check valve which silences the damn things for another few hours.  And in the morning I utter apologies to anyone tied or anchored near us.

Tell me.  Can life get any more interesting?

Visitors, even those who've left us months ago, have their very own, one of a kind, red plasticized drinking glass embossed with their name.  These fine rum cups are re-usable and disposable.  We do try and save them.  And no its not (entirely) because we have an issue with lack of dish water at the moment.






We are ready for a 6:15 am departure tomorrow and if the lock is free and there is no fog we just might make Bashi Creek before it gets dark.   I think we'll be breezing down the water way at a blistering 9 mph tomorrow!