It’s gotta be Friday the 13th. Talk about an unlucky morning — everything went wrong with every project, so we give up & we’re going for our walk!
First the pull cord on the dinghy broke getting ready to fresh water flush. But David decides to forge ahead and fresh water flush the diesel as well … after all, the hose is already at the back of the boat for the outboard. To see more specifics on what we do to leave the diesel, click here on “What To Do With The Diesel?”.
Our normal routine is David removes the strainer and closes the seacock, placing the hose in the opening so we’ll run fresh water through when I start the diesel. But first I have to turn on the hose – no problem, David holds it kinked until I get back into the cockpit to start the diesel.
Except this time he’s yelling “more water, turn it ON” …. ummmm… I already turned it on. When I finally convince him (felt like forever, but was probably a second), he decides there’s a kink in the hose and pushing the hose farther into the hole, he runs out on deck — after all the diesel is running and there’s no cooling water going through. But when he grabs the hose, it unkinked immediately and the force from the water starts the hose spraying all over the quarterberth and nav station areas– luckily I’d already removed electronics … just in case.
But the quarterberth mattress was SOAKED, as was everything else in sight and water running down the middle of the salon sole – needless to say the rugs were soaked as well.
But all’s well that ends well. The diesel got fresh water flushed and put to bed for the summer, the floor got mopped, I took the upholstery off the quarterberth, washed it & dried it in the sun and the mattress finally dried as well. Good thing for lots of sun and low humidity!
Ah, the joys of getting the boat ready to leave for hurricane season. Surely no one else does anything as stupid as we do … and the ironic thing is we’ve been at it for years and every year we come up with something new! Leave a comment if you dare, but please be nice. 🙂
Ya just have to sing the old song “That’s Life” and then move on to the next challenge.
Cathy from s/v Free Spirit just e-mailed me this idea — I’ve been having some issues with comments not posting on the website, but FB seems fine: THANKS CATHY!!! “We just recently installed a fresh water engine flush between the seacock and the strainer. It allows you to shut the seacock, attach a garden hose to a new fitting, and open up the supply line from the garden hose through the strainer and into the engine. This would eliminate any “lively hose” like you experienced and is very easy to build and operate. Contemplated plumbing into the aft water tank, but decided that added too many complications. I also have a habit of keeping the engine key on a rope that loops around the seacock handle – so that you can’t mistakenly start the engine without remembering to open the seacock.”