Thursday, July 10, 2008

Day 71 Just don't know


We went after the leak in  the bow today--just about all day.  We had been getting water down in the bilge for a while and we wanted to find out where it was coming from.  Tracy saw water in the bow under the boards so today we went in search of the elusive leak. 

First, I took everything out of the storage area in the bow we call the "garage".  I went down to floor boards and checked all the plumbing I had worked on and fixed a month ago.  No leaks in any pipes, nor in the fiberglass tank.  The macerator was fine too.  No leaks in the "garage".  That's a good thing.  If there was a leak there, that would mean we were putting sewage back into the boat all over again.  Everything went back into the "garage". 

Next, check the thru hull.  That's where water enters the boat so that you can flush the toilet.  Some water there.  A slight leak in the valve.  A drip here, a drip there.  Nothing to be concerned about but it will have to be addressed at the haul out at Port Townsend.  Off to lunch.

Upon our return, we found more water under the toilet.  Out came everything from the garage again.  right down to the hull.  I had to take out the floor board that I had been standing on so I could get all the way to the hull.  Nothing!!  I had put some water down tubes that help to drain a channel around the hatches that lead to the storage area but we felt most of that had been mopped up when we started under the toilet.  Still nothing!! No water at all!!  Everything went back into the garage again.  

Found more water under the toilet again.  I'd put a sheet of paper towel under there--nice and dry.  Come back ten minutes later--it was soaked!!  Everything had been nice and dry a few minutes before.  We hadn't flushed the toilet.  We have no idea where the water is coming from.  Tonight, the paper I put in a few hours ago is dry.  I plan on closing the thru hull tonight and see if the water is coming in and leaking from the hose that goes to the toilet.  The hunt begins again tomorrow.

The refrigerator specialist came by today and put in the new thermostat.  So far so good.  It's nice and cold.  He did a temporary installation just incase it didn't work as planned.  If it does, he'll come back and install it permanently.  Meanwhile, he left the original thermostat in the refrigerator so I if something should go wrong, I can reconnect it.  It's holding at a nice 35 degrees.

It's been blowing all day from 25 to 30 knots with gusts to 37. The wave are 13 to 15 feet.  Gail force winds and small craft warnings are up for the coast.  We had white cap waves in the marina.  We keep hoping for a Sunday/Monday cast off.  Mother Nature may have another idea.  It's midnight and the wind is still howling. 

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