so much for relaxing! – 8 may 2014

so this morning i was actually feeling a bit guilty about our plan to take the day off and go out on a abaco tour with joe in his new boat. as it turned out this guilt would be very short lived.

as i was still waking up (did i mention not only are we doing sans meat this trip but also sans coffee) don announced that the starboard engine was overheating and he suspected another water pump failure. in my daze i recommended we press on to guana cay where we where to meet up with joe and i would fix it underway.

it turned out to be a bit rolly with all the morning barge/ferry traffic so i elected to postpone the water pump impeller swap out until on anchor. we got to guano key and of course as we where heading into the harbor the other engine overheated. don shut it down for a few minutes as we drifted towards settlement harbor and then fired it up and fortunately all was good.

we got anchored in settlement, not much room but don did a great job dropping the hook in the on spot of sand. it was still only 9am and i was wondering what we would do with all the extra time before we met up with joe at noon.

i got going on the water pump and don started working on the helm seat that had almost broken off a few days ago. it did not go well for either of us. i could not get the flywheel off and i heard don run the generator for a few minutes to drill and then a bunch of cursing and pulling.

as it turned out the generator carb was full of crap. while don was working on this i managed to get the front off the water pump behind the flywheel and attempted to get the impeller off. all i was abel to do was pull the blades off the brass hub that remained on the pump. after much pain i finally got vice grips on the center section and was able to get it off as well.

unfortunately when i attempted to put the new impeller in it would only go on 1/16 of an inch before hanging up. i alternated between feeling and taking pictures with the iphone and determined the shaft was afu. i attempted to sand it down behind the flywheel but this was all in vain.

amazingly i was able to loosen the bolts holding the water pump, one required pounding and undersized socket onto it but with only marginal pain i had the water pump out. it was obvious at this point the shaft was afu and i asked don about the last impeller change. “yes, i think it was difficult” he said “i remember having to get a board and pry the impeller onto the shaft and then silicone everything to stop the leaks” “great, glad for the info up front” i said.

fortunately don had another water pump he had rebuilt so after reorienting the gasket on this pump i replaced it. did i mention we had spare everything except gaskets? in any case i got the “new” pump in and we fired up the engine and of course there was water everywhere. no problem i thought we will just go back to the old pump with a new impeller, it took don about 30 min with a dremel (good thing we get the generator working) to get the new impeller on. surprise surprise water everywhere again.

at this point it was noon, we had not had anything to eat all day and don wisely recommended a beer. beer in hand i took a deep breath and again removed the water pump. now we had two water pumps both leaking. not clear where as once installed it was impossible to see them as they where behind the fly wheel.

i finally decided to hook them up to the hoses without attaching to the engine and was able to see the leak points. both where leaking at the face (did i mention the lack of new gaskets) and also at the intake. i put don to work siliconing the faces while i cut the hose and replaced the hose clamps. eventually we had the old pump not leaking and the don rebuilt pump leaking only a bit from the shaft seal.

i installed the old pump and we where good to go, it was not 2pm, we had been working for 5 hours we not heard from joe, i was covered in grease and starving. i suggested we go to shore for “lunch” which don was all in favor off. while i cleaned up don got our dingy launched and the bow pumped up. we headed to the nippers dock, managed to find a stern anchor (required) and got to shore.

after a bit of a hike we hit the other side of the island and an amazing beach, only 100 meters down we came to the legendary nippers. don got us some cold beers and ordered me a burger and him a fish sandwich. the lunch/dinner was amazing and after downing the burger i was completely stuffed. we headed back to cocnuz sent another email to joe who was stil a no show and got under way.

of course as we where pulling anchor our neighbor yelled at us that we did not have any water coming out the starboard engine. fortunately they where wrong and both engine’s where fully operational as we left the anchorage.

by 5pm we where outside the reef sail and one engine running making 5kts due north. now we just need to decide where to make landfall and how to get a flight back to the usvi for me and canada for don.

perhaps all our engine repairs are behind us and i can finally relax again! only time will tell!

cheers
roger