Murphy's Law

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.........

We got a call on Saturday April 26 that the boat had been launched. The service tech was trying to figure out why the fresh water pump was not working. He had all of the DC switches on, or so we thought. After a bunch of head scratching and looking around, he found a switch on the back of the pump motor. It had been turned off when some of the maintenance was being performed on the fresh water hoses and filter housing. Switch on and it came alive. Now we have pressure water in our fresh water system. We can flush the toilet etc....

The weather on Saturday was not nice. Cold, Windy and some rain. Sunday looked nice. Cool, sunny and light/variable wind. We would run up there and motor the boat out the West Harbor inlet and into the East Harbor inlet and to our slip at the marina. Sunday arrived and so did the nice weather. We got ready and drove BOTH vehicles so that we could do the "Vehicle Do-Si-Do". This was issue number one. Clear communications were lacking and the keys for the car ended up in the glove box of the truck, which we left at the storage facility. So the car was at the marina and the keys to the car were in the truck at the storage facility 3 miles away. We did not realize this until we had been towed in from the lake to the marina.

Yes..... We had to call Tow Boat. As we left the dock at the storage facility we went through our pre-flight checks. Everything seemed in working order so we fired the engine and it looked like it was pumping water but I could not really tell. The exhaust outlet is partially under water so the splashing caused by the gases coming out masked the fact that the seawater pump on the engine was not primed and drawing water.

We motored over to the fuel dock, about 1000 feet away and that was at 800rpm. we got tied up and took on 300 gallons. That should last the entire season and then some. We paid and then got going. We were in a no wake zone so we were running at 800rpm until we cleared the inlet. Throttled up to 1000, then 1200 then 1500. I was watching the coolant temp and it was coming up slowly. It passed 185 and then up to 190. This was concerning as the water temp is about 55 and when we ran the boat last year, the engine temp was 181 and the lake water was 74. So something was not right.

Traffic was non-existent and there were no real waves so we slowed to idle and put it in neutral. I went back to the cockpit and still could not figure if it was flowing water. So we continued on slowly, 1000rpm, yet the temp still was not coming down. So we shut down and I went into the engine compartment and moved the seacocks closed then open and cycled them a few times. I had a flash light and looked at the strainer and there was water in there.

Since we shut down the coolant system had a chance to cool a bit. We were now down in the 185 range. So we fired back up and made more progress until the temps were back up to 195. We shut down and called Tom Hill of T-Diesel but that did not help. We ended up calling Tow Boat and used our on the water Unlimited Gold towing policy to get a tow back to the marina which gave the engine time to cool into the mid 160's. We fired the engine and were able to get into our slip under our own power.

After looking at the whole system and thinking about it for a while I think I have figured it out. The hose that connects the strainer and the on engine water pump is routed up and over the engine and most likely needs to be primed with water since it has been sitting in the shed all winter and dried up. So I have called the Service Department so that they can fix the situation and look at the new impeller so see if that needs to be replaced since I ran it dry for about 30minutes total. I will go out to the boat and get the strainer make and model and size and get the hose diameter between the strainer and the sea water pump and buy one of the garden hose T fittings that Seaboard Marine makes and sells. We can also buy the strainer cap flush fitting. This is probably the least intrusive.

Once we had gotten plugged in and the lines tied how we wanted them we turned our attention to going to get the truck which was 3 miles away at the storage facility. We have the truck keys but we need the car keys since the car was at the marina and the truck was at the storage facility. The car keys were left in the glove box of the truck. Don't ask.......

Turns out our neighbor was over on his boat, dry dock outside, charging his batteries. So I told him the story and he offered to drive the short distance and drop me off. I drove the truck back and we assessed the situation. I wanted to take one more look down below. So I opened the hatch in the salon floor and went down the ladder, 3 steps, and looked around. Nothing obvious. I climbed out and went to look outside at the lines to see if we needed to reset anything. I left he engine hatch open to let cool air down there and our dog was a little too curious for his own good and he appeared to fall down into the engine room. It is not that far so he did not get hurt but I had go down and lift him up and out.

Time to go before anything else goes wrong.

I will follow up with the marina to make sure they get it all sorted since they guarantee parts and labor. I will work on getting the correct fittings to be able to prime the water pump on the engine in the future.

If this all gets done by next weekend we might head out to Middle Bass Island Yacht Club and help open the club house. We still need to put the mast up. Maybe we should just do that.......