Ok so the departure was a couple of days late, but I really did not want to do the Fairly creek run in the middle of the day! Those that have taken a boat into the creek know about the tides, and the water running in that narrow inlet. So I spent a relaxing day away from the boat and departed on on Monday. It took help and all day sun day to get ready for leaving.
I replaced the water pump impeller on Thursday, and tested it several times. I also check the oil and the sea water strainers each morning. Well on Monday morning I check the seawater strainer and the oil. I had a small un-noticed air leak around the seal of the sea water strainer lid. The air leak allowed air to enter the system instead of pulling water from sea. So a short 15 minutes from leaving port I was without an engine. I sailed at 5 am, so I rode the jib north and worked on replacing the impeller again with a spare.
Now when sailing along you have to constantly be on the lookout for other boats and thins in the water. You have only a minute or two below decks before returning topside. So I set the helm on auto went below and got out my tools, go topside and check the course. I go below for 60 seconds and work, counting to sixty. I go topside, check course, waters ahead, vessels around, and sails. I then go below and work, counting to sixty. You just repeat this over and over until the job is done. It took 3 hours to be ready for the first test. I had removed the destroyed impeller, that what happens without water the impeller is rubber and heats up. It the fails and eats itself! To fix the problem you have to find al the little rubber chunks!
The pump was back together, and failed to pump water. I just continued to sail. I started isolating causes and finally started from scratch after getting hoses confused and not making progress. One of the sail fleet boats came out to meet me from where they were anchored and ran along side as my “Eyes” while I worked below. I finally figured out the system was dry and needed to be primed. I accomplished this and finally got water flow restored through the engine. The rest of the day I motor sailed north to bohemia river and the nights anchorage!and got out my tools and then