Well, the last 24 hours have been interesting. And I don't like interesting or exciting when I am sailing. I like boring and repetitive. Exciting generally means something terrible is about to happen if you're not careful.
It turned out the water pump we replaced yesterday isn’t an exact drop-in replacement as they said it was, which was actually a good thing in a way. We can now confirm that we do have a plumbing issue and we are losing water somewhere.
The intermittent cycling of the original pump had largely been put down to a faulty diaphragm, and the new pump worked perfectly, which of course reinforced the original diagnosis. And the original diagnosis was correct. But we now know there is a faulty diaphragm in addition to the plumbing issue.
We had already investigated the suspected leak and didn’t find anything. It’s extremely hard to find dripping water in a wet bilge, and you can’t hear it because we are surrounded by splashing water.
So it was with some horror that we discovered yesterday afternoon that the last water tank was almost empty.
And this is actually part of the reason it is a good thing that the replacement pump is smaller. It pumps about 25% less water, so if it had been pumping at the same rate as the original, the tank would probably be completely empty by now. Of course, it is also quieter, so we didn’t hear it cycling on and off, and perhaps if it had been larger we would have heard it.
We have enough bottled water to drink, so we are fine on that front, and we are now having extremely economical washes using the water that makes milk curdle and tank water.
As the boat’s plumbing can no longer be trusted, we disconnected the outlet from the pressure-water pump and replaced it with five metres of 12mm hose that I bought in Raiatea. The same hose I was complaining about the cost of in an earlier blog.
It’s worth its weight in gold now.
We then put an extension on one of the water tank pick-ups and pumped what was left in that tank into the other tank, which had around 40 litres in it. So we now have about 70 litres in total in the tank.
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| Our new water solution |
We left the 12mm hose connected to the pump, so the boat’s plumbing is completely isolated because clearly, every time the pump runs, it is also pumping water overboard somewhere.
We are now filling empty 5-litre drinking water containers from the pump and keeping them in the bathrooms for washing.
One of the things I always buy a lot of when stocking up is kitchen roll (in this case, not enough) and paper plates. Paper plates are fantastic. No washing up, no water, and you can throw them overboard so no garbage. Saving water is very high on my list of priorities, particularly when you have just discovered that your water tank has mysteriously emptied itself.
It’s a mystery where the water is going. It must be going overboard somehow, but we can’t find any leaks. The bilge pumps aren’t running, so it isn’t going into the bilge, and it has to be somewhere after the pressure side of the pump.
I suspect two minutes on the dock will solve the mystery.
On the sailing front, we have around 15 knots from 120 degrees apparent and are running with the full main and headsail. We’re making good miles, which is exactly what we need at this stage. It’s a little over 500 nm to the dock in Mackay, so we are definitely getting there.
The other problem was that the bird came back.
I am sure it’s the same one because I recognise the SQUAAAAAAK, and this time it brought two friends with it.
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| Shifty horrible bird. Even giving me a bit of side eye. |
They all received a stern “SHOOO!”, but that didn’t help. They then each got a whack on the head with the boat hook, but they didn’t really care about that either.
One of them even tried to bite me. And they all left substantial 'deposits' behind.
So we have now established that the birds are not only 'messy' but also considerably more determined than I had hoped.