brentsmiley
06-10-2005, 12:46 AM
Had a scary moment at Lake Mead last summer. My packing nut was leaking a small but steady stream. We were houseboating and only had one day to go, the bilge was kicking on every 15 to 20 minutes or so. Saw a storm brewing in the distance and called it a day skiing back into our cove. Off-loaded everyone onto the houseboat and was anchoring down for the night when the storm hit. Big Monsoon type storm with huge drops and lots of them.
I decided to ride it out in the boat since swimming to the houseboat with lightning didn't sound all that appealing. The bilge light kicked on but no water came out the spout. Within 2 minutes, the engine compartment was full of water and still no stream coming out. I kept looking for debris next to the bilge but there was none. The line was clear of obstruction but there was no water in it.
For some reason the bilge just wasn't sucking water. Within 5 minutes there was standing water from bow to stern.
I finally came to the conclusion that there was an air-bubble trapped in the bilge and the impeller was cavitating, unable to generate suction. Now would probably be a good time to mention how hard it is to get a auto-bilge to turn off and reset when the hull is filling up with water.
The way I saw it I had two options. Pop the circuit breaker and hope it resets when I want it to, or detach the battery and hope that re-attaching it during a lightning storm, on a lake, during a monsoon wouldn't be just too dumb.
Decided to take one more shot at the bilge directly and started swiriling water around it as best I could in that little area.
A couple of short burps of water came out of the bilge exit before the steady stream started. Took 3 hours to finish emptying the boat.
Smiley
I decided to ride it out in the boat since swimming to the houseboat with lightning didn't sound all that appealing. The bilge light kicked on but no water came out the spout. Within 2 minutes, the engine compartment was full of water and still no stream coming out. I kept looking for debris next to the bilge but there was none. The line was clear of obstruction but there was no water in it.
For some reason the bilge just wasn't sucking water. Within 5 minutes there was standing water from bow to stern.
I finally came to the conclusion that there was an air-bubble trapped in the bilge and the impeller was cavitating, unable to generate suction. Now would probably be a good time to mention how hard it is to get a auto-bilge to turn off and reset when the hull is filling up with water.
The way I saw it I had two options. Pop the circuit breaker and hope it resets when I want it to, or detach the battery and hope that re-attaching it during a lightning storm, on a lake, during a monsoon wouldn't be just too dumb.
Decided to take one more shot at the bilge directly and started swiriling water around it as best I could in that little area.
A couple of short burps of water came out of the bilge exit before the steady stream started. Took 3 hours to finish emptying the boat.
Smiley