Aaaarrrgggghh 2

tillergirl

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Woke this morning at 3am to the thought that I could not remember passing the genny halliard through the deflector bush/pully thing when I rigged the mast in the second week of April! Aaahhh. Lay there and through about it and how to sort it - who to talk into pulling up the mast, who to help me pull whoever up the mast, could I get away with it without wrapping until the end of the season, etc,e tc. So no sleep there....

So out early to TG on a glorious morning intent of sorting a couple of things and checking the genny halliard. Got there, all fine, perfected fitted. Relief tinged with slight sadness that I can no longer remember things I have done properly.

On board and down below in a chirpy frame of mind intent on doing a few small jobs and then going for a sail. Sniff, sniff, that smells a bit diesely (despite being a MAB, TG does tend to smell ok). Lifted floorboard and bilge awash in diesel! Aaaaarrrggggggh.

Up with everything and traced to the return pipe through the bilge. One of the retaining clamps has broken and the return dropped until it is rubbing on the sharp edge of the keel bolt nut; obviously not recent - last Monday's spirited sail must have been the final straw and rubbed a hole and gently dripping finest red diesel into bilge. Telephone call to the yard at Heybridge and Adrian (bless him) is on his way with some copper pipe and compression fittings. I dash ashore in the launch and borrow an old 25 litre container and buy a cheap hand pump and Bilgex in the chandlery. 13 litres of diesel and salt water and crud later and the bilge is empty but 'orrid. Adrian arrives repairs pipe, few buckets of seawater into bilge and Bilgex in (15 squids a go!!). Off we go for a motor around to shake it about. Better but it's going to take a while before that's really clean again.

Just got to lug 13 litres of crud up the Causeway!

Init fun, this boating.......
 
Tis on days like these when one wonders why, in the name of all that is holy, you bought a boat in the first place :eek:

But then there's those other days ... ;)
 
When, when, do those other days come?

Also fired up the laptop on board to check that the data logger I use for surveys was still working. Yeap you got it, it wasn't. Checked all out and the driver for the simulated RS232 port has gone. Gone! Where? Who took it? How does something that was there last November become missing? So back home and reload the driver - except it won't, it's no longer compatible! So clearly an update of Windows 7 has done something to it. Downloaded a new driver now but all the messing about! Now I have to go back on board to check that whilst the Com port is open now on the laptop, the addition of a new DGPS aerial over the winter hasn't b*gger*red something else up.

Keep well clear of me, I am a personal walking disaster zone at the moment...... Best give me a London Array 500m exclusion zone.

Think I'll go and drink some beer......
 
On board and down below in a chirpy frame of mind intent on doing a few small jobs and then going for a sail. Sniff, sniff, that smells a bit diesely (despite being a MAB, TG does tend to smell ok). Lifted floorboard and bilge awash in diesel! Aaaaarrrggggggh.



Init fun, this boating.......

I can sympathise with you , I think I got of lightly then with just a burst water tank ! And not a fuel line :eek:
 
Yes, the curse hits us all.

My catastrophe this year has been water (salt) in the gearbox!

The Vire 12hp 2 stroke engine my boat is blessed with, has a few well known design faults. The worst of which is the raw water pump , which is mounted on the back end of the gearbox and driven by the gearbox main shaft. Even changing the pump impellor is a sod of a job.

Anyway its been engine out, remove pump and replace seal. Fingers crossed that the fix has been successful.
 
If the can of crud does not have bilgex mixed into it, leave for a couple of days then syphon the diesel off the top. If you then pour it through a coffee filter or similar and add a dash of biocide you could safely chuck it back in the tank.
 
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