Thursday, July 19, 2012

July 19th Annette inlet, Prevost Island We left Montague and motored all of half hour to Annette Inlet and anchored in the back bay with Steve and Michelle. Crab louie for dinner and crab benedict for breakfast. Still using up the 8 crab steve caught outside of Roche. No one was catching in Garrison Bay apparently so they moved over to the small island across from the marina and caught 8 big ones before they came across the boarder. We ran into Ganges yesterday by dinghy for resupply, fresh raspberry and ice cream for dessert. I have had a vexing problem since we left, taking on water somewhere and I have tried everything to find it. Thought it was leaking shaft packing since that is where the water was accumulating but way too much for that, and when I tasted it it was fresh water, HMMMM! That is a clue. I finally found the source when Chris took her shower this morning. The hose from the shower pump was leaking around the fitting at the hull where it discharges and draining back into the bilge at the outer rib of the hull where I cannot see it. It then slowly works its way to the bilge pump under the back bedroom floor where I have no access and when underway it sloshes around until it drains into the engine room under the drive shaft and then into the bilge pump well. Of course it takes a skinny midget to get to the fitting, behind the fuel tank, above the exhaust system and of course the one at the back behind all the other plumbing fittings. I can just reach the fitting but have to work blind since I cannot raise my head enough to actually see the fitting at the same time I am working on it. I tried tightening the hose clamps, no luck, I changed hose clamps no luck, I had a spare fitting that was not in use so i swapped the hose to that one, no luck, not enough hose to reach. I spliced another hose onto the leaky one, (jury rigged) did not work. So another trip to Ganges by dinghy for the right parts and another trip into the cramped space and presto, no more leak. After pumping out several gallons of accumulated water from multiple showers, hopefully we have fixed the main problem. Fixed two other small leaks, one on the fresh water pump and one on the raw water pump and I am crossing my fingers that were back to a dry bilge. Picked up a Canadian fishing license at Ganges and dropped a couple pots with fish heads for bait and we will see how we do. Were staying put for another night here, too nice to leave, we have it all to ourselves. I did my good deed yesterday. At Montague the wind was blowing hard as it usually does there and I saw a shade umbrella pick up and blow off of the back of a sailboat anchored a few hundred feet away. The owners were not on deck so it appeared they were unaware they had lost it. I jumped into the dinghy and rescued it for them. They were unaware it had blown off but saw it drifting by but until i brought it to them they did not know it was their umbrella. They were most appreciative and brought us a bottle of wine, they are winemakers so hopefully its a good one.

No comments: