It’s sort of interesting that the more problems we solve, and not-problems we spend time thinking are problems but turn out to be fine, the more we become thoroughly versed in very very specific aspects of this boat. Today we spend 2.5 hours learning every single thing you could want to know about the Jabsco Hydro-Air pressure switch in the inverted cup. Are you sleeping yet? Yesterday we became experts in bilge water and the AC system. The day before we became experts in Hallberg-Rassy prop shaft tubes. Tomorrow we will probably become experts on the Force 10 propane stove since tonight the ignitor stopped working…. and that’s just off the top of my head.

For those of you who picked up on it in our last blog post, we have a new leak. And it’s not the run-of-the-mill;, everyone-has-them port light leak either. Its mystery water in the engine room. Well, semi-mystery. We’ve been spending a few days now channeling a Sherlock Holmes vibe and using logic and deductive reasoning to come up with the murderer…of our sanity. Hahaha…(yes I am laughing at my own joke here).

We were thinking it was the shaft tube which would have required a haul out to fix (haul out alone is $800USD and then the work would be $??)…and we were pretty much not impressed. The prop shaft tube is literally the tube the prop shaft travels through from the steering mechanism, down through our engine room, then out the bottom of the boat into the great blue sea. Hallberg Rassy puts a bronze tube within the fibreglass, within which the prop shaft spins. We thought we were getting water seeping from between the fibreglass and the bronze tube. But further and further exploration into the IMPOSSIBLE to reach places in the engine room, including some very skilled picture taking by Greg (see below for three photos taken blind at acrobatic angles) we traced the leak aft and above and starboard then the shaft tube. As in, it was coming from somewhere else, and probably on starboard aft. So after we realized it wasn’t the shaft tube and we MIGHT not have to haul the boat out and live on the hard for a week., Greg and I remembered a lovely older gentleman in Oakville, Peter Lowes, who said to always taste the water when you have a leak so you know how serious it is. Fresh water = a leak from one of your water systems within your boat (could be serious if you are on passage and have no way of making fresh water, or could just be annoying). Salt water = a leak from outside of your boat, and under your boat, to the inside of your boat (bad news depending on the flow rate).

Can’t tell what you are looking at in those photos? Well we took the pics and it’s even hard for us to tell! 1) is the hose from the AC coming into the aft end of the engine room, below it is wet 2) a closer look at that space, this time without the blue paper towel in the shot 3) the space under our head, under the cabin sole and over a bulkhead in the hull looking at the bottom of the shower drain.

Let me set the scene:

We both exclaimed at the same time “we should taste it!” as we realized it would be important information. Then you could see the reality set in….we have to TASTE it. Greg handed me a rag soaked with water from the engine room floor (on it’s way to the bilge) and as I wrung the rag out into a cup (we aren’t animals after all…) he looked at me with a gleam of hope in his eyes. Those blue eyes said “Megan, I love you, please taste it for me”….I looked back at him with an intense gaze meaning “I will do this but you will owe me”….to which he realized he didn’t want to owe me so we both took a sip…sharing our first communion of bilge water. How romantic….bahahaha!

The result??

it was fresh not salt and that meant it was something from within. And remember, starboard and aft as well. Two possibilities:

1. Air conditioner hose that takes the condensed, distilled water from the system down to the bilge is leaking somewhere close to the source (and in a place we aren’t sure how to get to yet), or

2. There is some leak in a fresh water hose (shower or sink?) that is constant which could be possible when the system is pressurized.

Sooooo what does this mean? Two tests will be run in the next few days:

Test #1:

• Dry up all water in engine room

• Turn off AC in aft cabin (there is another unit in salon) and try not to sweat to death at night

• Check engine room for water after 24 hours

Test #2

• Dry up all water in engine room

• Turn off freshwater pump

• Depressurize system (run taps until nothing comes out, we can use the very handy foot pump in the galley in the meantime)

• Check engine room for water after 24 hours

We’ll see what the outcomes of these tests are and from there either have the answer, or have eliminated two more possibilities.

(Totally channeling my Benedict Cumberbatch right now….Greg is kind of Watson-y after all)

Cheers! (no I am not toasting with bilge water)

M