powerskipper
Well-known member
There are always some things that you know you should do on your boat every time you go out and I know when taking the family boat out that I do not. I know I am not alone in this. /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif
But when teaching you have to do it by the book!!!
I was at a marina some miles from home to do a Day skipper course. The boat had been brought back from Germany by sea by a skipper I know. There was nothing on the boat except 3 mugs, tea, coffee sugar and 1 tea towel, 1 tea spoon, washing up liquid. Bog roll, a plastic bag they and carried said items to the boat in, an old ice cream container with no lid that was there tool box. So I said we must do the engine check before setting off. So after them reluctantly digging out the spanner needed, we lifted the floor of the salon, Feeling guilty as I knew they just wanted to fire her up and go, I said I will do the checks today. Now I am not a squeamish person, I can take most thing in my stride [except earwigs and centipedes] so this was not like me!!!
I climbed/squeezed into the engine room and did oil check, Fine
Checked for Leeks/ drips. Fine.
Went to the sea water filters to check them. They are like a large coffee tin with a hole in the bottom that has a large tube that goes to a sea cock valve and then threw the hull, this is the feed for the sea water cooling system for the engine, and this coffee type tin thing had a glass top with 6 bolts and a metal pressure ring. So I turned the sea cock to closed, otherwise I get wet face and feet, and started to undo the nuts, talking to the students as is my way, when I heard a thump, I put it down to hull noises. And carried on undoing nuts. I had loosened them all a bit when there was another thump and the glass moved, To my utter shame I let out a small scream and fell backward into the narrow space at the top of the engine, now a little stuck and all the while this glass plate seemed to be trying to jump of the top of the filter.
So the owner came down and hauled me out of my jam. I then creaped up to the filter, which had now gone quiet again. And peered in the top, it started to try and jump off again. I was ready for it now, Looking in the top I saw an eel, it was about a foot and a half long and must have come up the pipe and been trapped when I closed the sea cock. Have you got a plastic bag I ask, thinking I can catch it in that and remove it? So I retrieved the bag from the owner and advance once more to the filter, I tried I really did but I just could not put my hand in and catch this thing. So the owner being such a wonderful Gentleman said he used to go eel fishing and he would remove it. So up I go and down he goes. Off comes the top and out jumps the eel strait into the bilges. 10 minuets later it is still on the loose, so out the tools are tipped from the ice cream container and it is used to scoop up the eel, in the container with no lid and then it is handed to me, I did not know until then that I could run so nibblely over the support struts that were all that covered the engines now the floor was up and over the back cockpit to the water and throw an eel with such grace and speed. I have said before you learn something new each day. Once sanity had returned which required a strong cup of tea or two, we continued the day.
I have now added to my list of not likening eels, as well as earwig’s and centipedes. I told another skipper I know this tale and was told he once found a baby octopus in a filter, still alive./forums/images/icons/smile.gif
<hr width=100% size=1>Julie ,
But when teaching you have to do it by the book!!!
I was at a marina some miles from home to do a Day skipper course. The boat had been brought back from Germany by sea by a skipper I know. There was nothing on the boat except 3 mugs, tea, coffee sugar and 1 tea towel, 1 tea spoon, washing up liquid. Bog roll, a plastic bag they and carried said items to the boat in, an old ice cream container with no lid that was there tool box. So I said we must do the engine check before setting off. So after them reluctantly digging out the spanner needed, we lifted the floor of the salon, Feeling guilty as I knew they just wanted to fire her up and go, I said I will do the checks today. Now I am not a squeamish person, I can take most thing in my stride [except earwigs and centipedes] so this was not like me!!!
I climbed/squeezed into the engine room and did oil check, Fine
Checked for Leeks/ drips. Fine.
Went to the sea water filters to check them. They are like a large coffee tin with a hole in the bottom that has a large tube that goes to a sea cock valve and then threw the hull, this is the feed for the sea water cooling system for the engine, and this coffee type tin thing had a glass top with 6 bolts and a metal pressure ring. So I turned the sea cock to closed, otherwise I get wet face and feet, and started to undo the nuts, talking to the students as is my way, when I heard a thump, I put it down to hull noises. And carried on undoing nuts. I had loosened them all a bit when there was another thump and the glass moved, To my utter shame I let out a small scream and fell backward into the narrow space at the top of the engine, now a little stuck and all the while this glass plate seemed to be trying to jump of the top of the filter.
So the owner came down and hauled me out of my jam. I then creaped up to the filter, which had now gone quiet again. And peered in the top, it started to try and jump off again. I was ready for it now, Looking in the top I saw an eel, it was about a foot and a half long and must have come up the pipe and been trapped when I closed the sea cock. Have you got a plastic bag I ask, thinking I can catch it in that and remove it? So I retrieved the bag from the owner and advance once more to the filter, I tried I really did but I just could not put my hand in and catch this thing. So the owner being such a wonderful Gentleman said he used to go eel fishing and he would remove it. So up I go and down he goes. Off comes the top and out jumps the eel strait into the bilges. 10 minuets later it is still on the loose, so out the tools are tipped from the ice cream container and it is used to scoop up the eel, in the container with no lid and then it is handed to me, I did not know until then that I could run so nibblely over the support struts that were all that covered the engines now the floor was up and over the back cockpit to the water and throw an eel with such grace and speed. I have said before you learn something new each day. Once sanity had returned which required a strong cup of tea or two, we continued the day.
I have now added to my list of not likening eels, as well as earwig’s and centipedes. I told another skipper I know this tale and was told he once found a baby octopus in a filter, still alive./forums/images/icons/smile.gif
<hr width=100% size=1>Julie ,
