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Clean Bilge!
Rebuilding the Bilge pump system.The last couple days we have spent working on the bilge. Since the exhaust elbow was leaking we were spewing wet greasy diesel exhaust into the cabin and so everywhere under the floor is a black greasy mess... it's everywhere.
So we broke out the degreaser (Mango Sky suggested "Totally Awesome") and started spraying everything down. I think we dumped about 50 gal into the Bilge. Then the bilge pump clogged and I wasn't sure I could sleep with no bilge pumps operational. So at 11pm we finally got one pump working a little bit. This pushed me over the edge and I decided to get rid of the hoses sitting in the bilge and put in a more functional system.
Our boat has 2 bilges and one baby bilge (about a gallon) I think we could put about 200 gallons in the bilge. They are 3-4 feet deep and 1-2 feet wide. But the aft bilge is not as deep as the forward bilge and yet there is a lip between the two of them. Thus you can't ever pump both of the dry without two seperate intakes. We had a single pump with a y valve in the starboard lazzerette. It was a real pain to get to to switch so I decided to rebuild the whole system.
So Sam and I went to Home Depot and picked up a hundred dollars or so of pvc and starte building a new system. First I put a long flat piece of PVC under the floor with a T (which went to the pump) and two ball valves forward and aft. Then I put two vertical pieces heading down to each bilge with a strainer and one way valve right on the bottom. This way I could turn on or off each bilge and I could get all the water out without clogging and as well provide for disassembly for cleaning and maint. I'll have pictures to follow. Bottom line is it works now and we've got a dry bilge for the first time in over a year.
Tonight Hannah made bannana mango bread!!! Oh My!! This morning for breakfast we had eggs and home made corned beef hash from our corned beef and cabbage for saint pattys day. It had been in the freezer. We had home made bread yesterday too!
