25th July 2012 - Afloat Again, Living Aboard On The Dart

Jeff's blog of his life living aboard a yacht, at anchor, in the UK, with his wife, a dog and a baby.

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Jeff
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25th July 2012 - Afloat Again, Living Aboard On The Dart

Post by Jeff »

Just time for a quick update - lots to do here.

We launched on Monday (it is now Wednesday (I had to look that up)). I'd told the yard I was concerned we might immediately need to be pulled out again as I felt the chances of finding some issue were high.

We had to remove the forestay to fit into the hoist, and we had the engineers who'd serviced our stern gland aboard checking it was dripping at the correct rate (it's meant to drip when running, about one drip per second). This all took a little time and all the time it took, the tide was going out. We had less than 20cm under the keel as we left!

While still in the hoist, but in the water, the bilge alarm I'd installed started to sound. Something was leaking. Decision time. Abort? I checked the bilges and saw that there was a little fluid, but not a vast amount - it was dripping in somewhere - no idea where. I checked all the seacocks again - nothing.

Then I noticed that the electric auto bilge pump was running, but not pumping out anything. So I operated the manual one. This cleared out the bilge content halfway and then seemed to get blocked by something - but would operate very very very slowly - like one pump every 30 seconds.

Convinced the fluid was coming from something fixable as it didn't seem to be coming from a through hull (I had checked them all) we gave the thumbs up and the hoist was lowered out from under us. On reflection I think I'd have been re-lifted out but in the panic I chose to continue with our departure, with a leak, and no effective bilge pump in the deepest part of the bilge (we do have 2 other manual hand pumps, but they're not quick to use)... I feel daft saying this now, we should have come back out really.

We put the engine into astern and Towser promptly kicked out slowly to starboard as we made accelerated very very slowly backwards along the narrow channel leading out to the river. Another high stress moment. I knew that if I slowed down we'd have no steerage at all, so I had no choice but to keep the power on, but this kept us moving closer and closer to the edge of the channel, and some old tractor tyres. Scary! With just 2 or 3 meters to spare the speed became enough that I had steerage. We were out! But with ~20cm under the keel!

All went well though and we made it to the deep water without a hitch. It felt odd being at the helm. Our first boat with a wheel. And so much more slow to respond than Isabella was. It'll take some time to get used to this!

Then the bilge alarm started to sound again. Nothing I could do and Rose was tied up looking after Nina and Lunar.

We made it to Dittisham and I picked up a buoy using our "Moorfast" buoy grabbing pole. I'm very glad we had that!

I then took the engine bay apart to get in to see where this fluid was coming from. I found that the log wheel fitting was dripping, so I fiddled around with it and tightened it up a touch and it stopped. Since then we've not had a significant increase in bilge water level, and no more soundings of the alarm! Phew! But I will be sorting out these pumps with a matter of some urgency.

We overnighted on the buoy and celebrated our massive first voyage (about 1 mile) with dinner at the Ferrboat Inn. Always an experience. To get to the Inn however we had to make our first family dinghy trip. Apart from Nina hating her lifejacket (she'll get used to it) it went without a hitch.

Next morning we fired up the engine with the intention of motoring the 3 miles down to Dartmouth in order to anchor off the town so we could see if anything else was leaking and sort out these bilge pumps.

Just as we got level with the Royal Navy quay, just about the chain ferry, and in a very busy river, the engine slowly died and then stopped. And so did my heart.

I grabbed the radio and informed the Dart Harbour authorities of our situation and asked if they wanted me to put our anchor out. They said no, "we'll be with you in a moment". And in his RIB, and with a few ropes, the nice man from DH parked us up alongside a visitors pontoon - which is where we are now.

Later that day I managed to flag down some passing marine engineers (seriously, I recognised their company name on the side of their launch) and they came aboard and have decided it's a blockage in the fuel system at the filter.

That was yesterday. New filter should arrive today. But I have a feeling the problem is that our old fuel in the tanks fuel is chocka with microscopic particles. It's the only way the filter could be so effectively blocked I think. So we'll have to find some way of emptying it all out.

So, lots to do!!

Here's some pics...


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Discus
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Post by Discus »

Now you know what its like to drive a tank! Sounds like you might need the fuel polished. DH are always pretty helpful. Congrats on the launch, first good weather week for months too.
Rob
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Post by Jeff »

Cheers Rob :)

Engine now running again. Primary fuel filter changed and that was that. Engineers seemed pretty confident that with a load of new fuel in the tank on top of the old, and some biocide, we'd be OK. Time will tell.
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Post by Jeff »

PS. Manual and electric primary bilge pumps now operational again. Both had blockages in the pipe. The manual one had sucked up a marker pen lid! I was lucky to find that I think!
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Post by Discus »

Sounds like the best resolution. New boat looks superb in the pictures by the way. Bet its lovely in Dartmouth this week. Hope your marker pen didn't dry out without its lid :P
Jeff
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Post by Jeff »

Cheers Rob :)
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hibernopithecus
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Post by hibernopithecus »

Great to see you guys back in the water. Inspirational

I'm inching towards my plan of having a boat in the water for spring, with the intention of living on it for a year. In the meantime, I'm getting as much Sailing in as possible (bit of a novice, but less so every week). I'll be picking your collective brains over the next 6 months.

Looking forward to further updates.

Keith
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Post by Jeff »

Cheers Keith. You can pick our brains but I'm not sure you'll find very much hehe :)

Good luck with your plans!!
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