Work clothes on...work clothes off...

We really want to be on the move. But, with the wind out on the big lake being directly on the beam at near 20 knots, we elected to stay put for today. Tucked in where we are there is just a slight breeze. Except for the waves and wakes that work their way in from the little lake, the water is pretty still. Yet the boat is still doing a slow pendulum swing around the anchor. I have no idea what is making it move around.

With a thick overcast the solar panels are just loafing along at barely 2 amps. Doing much of anything (like Deb baking cookies, yeah!) requires running the generator. Which is why we lug the thing around. Other than that, we read, practice music, and watch the boat swing.

Since there wasn't anything pressing to do, the mystery of the wash down pump failure got my attention. Why “mystery” you ask? The pump just stopped working. No grinding noises, no "something is too hot" smell, no smoke, no burned wiring. It didn't start loading up or running slow. It didn't blow the fuse. With the switch on, I measured 12+ volts at the power block at the motor where both the wires were solidly attached. But the pump didn't hum, buzz, or make any of the kinds of noises I used to associate with a motor failing. Odd. But it still no workie. We switched it out with a plain water pump even though it produced way less water pressure than the wash down pump since some water at the bow when pulling up an anchor is better than no water at the bow. But the whole thing with the not working pump wasn't adding up and my mechanic's sub-conscience likely chewed on it for most of the night while the rest of my brain was asleep. Come morning, with nothing much else demanding my attention, the questions got to be down right irritating. Why didn't it make some noise? Why didn't it fry the fuse? 

My mechanic brothers and I share a "get it done" attitude that I think we learned from Gramps, our life-long truck mechanic grandfather. Broke is broke. Taking it apart to see what is what can't make it work any worse than it already isn't. If, per chance, you manage to break it a bit more by taking it apart, it isn't likely anyone else is going to notice. Besides, good mechanics actually fix things whenever they get the chance.

So, just like yesterday, boat clothes off, work clothes on. Later, work clothes off, boat clothes on.

I put a cover over the salon table, grabbed the pump, and started unscrewing screws and taking off parts. One of the parts that came apart was a little switch that is activated by a diaphragm in the water chamber. It keeps the pump from burning itself out trying to push water through a hose that isn't open. The failure of that little switch would (obviously) explain the mystery. Even a perfectly sound pump can't run if there is a switch in the "off" position.

None of the parts of the switch appeared to have failed in any way. But it wouldn't take much to jam it. So I wiped off all the bits, put it back together, and touched the leads to one of the ship's batteries. The pump spun. It wasn't hooked up to any water or bolted to anything solid so I didn't run it for long. But it was turning while not making any nasty, grinding, noises or throwing any sparks.

An aside...My aforementioned grandfather and one of my brothers sacrificed the end of a thumb to Eligius. (If you get the reference you are way more Catholic than me. I had to go online to see if there was a patron saint of mechanics.)  All of the Akey clan mechanics have a scar or two from doing things like holding a pump with one hand while playing around a hot battery with the other. Nobody ever said fixing things is a perfectly safe way to make a living.

So the pump might be working?  What else to do but take the wrong but working pump back off and put the correct, but not sure if it's working pump back on? We are not going anywhere today anyway.

At first the correct but not working pump was still not working correctly. I had to tap the pressure switch to make it start pumping again after filling the hose and shutting off. A slight tap and it was running. After two or three taps it kept working like it is supposed to, starting back up without a tap. Will it last? No clue. But for now the worst we will have to do is reach in the hole, give it a tap, and just let the water run until the anchor is aboard. Not perfect, but still better than not having a wash down hose available. Been there. Done that. Don't want to do it again.

What is that?

I came tumbling out of the berth at 0400 this morning. I don't think it was the rain that woke me up. We were expecting rain. I don't remember hearing any thunder or seeing any lightning. What I was hearing and what had likely woken me up was the sound of a boat engine running nearby. At 0400 in the morning in rain and some wind? That is a sure signal that something is going very wrong for someone. It was really dark and I had no good idea how to interpret the confusion of lights I was seeing as I headed out on deck. What I could figure out was that there was a sailboat motoring past our stern with someone on the foredeck clearly stowing an anchor. He did not sound happy when I asked him if all was well. They motored off into the darkness and I didn't see them again. Come morning all of other boats that were anchored with us were still around.

The rain didn't last long but there was no going back to sleep after that. The first light showed in a sky that had a tinge of red. Mmm...red sky in the morning, sailors take warning. But the winds were calm and behind the tinge of red was a blue sky with small puffy clouds. A review of the current forecasts suggested a weather window that looked good enough to move to our next planned stop. So we moved. At least one other boat made the same call and we followed them out into the Lake. There was some rolling motion but it wasn't bad, though it was too much for the auto pilot. Given the short night and hand helming in rolling seas for nearly 5 hours, it felt like a long day.

We are not on the big lake tonight. We motored down a canal into Lake Charlevoix and up into an anchorage recommended to us by good friends who have already been this way. We are about 3 miles inland from the Lake Michigan. This time it looks a pretty sure bet that tomorrow is a stay-put kind of day. The forecasted winds for right now, out in the big lake, are showing just shy of 24 knots. (I didn't say it was a big weather window.) Tomorrow is more of the same. When our friends stopped here they sat for several days before the big lake was quiet enough to tangle with. We hope to be gone after just two nights here. But what we hope has nothing to do with what will happen. We just have to wait and see. 

A boat bit; our wash down pump croaked this morning while pulling up the hook. We don't have the right spare on board but we did have an extra pump for the tank water. It doesn't have near the oomph of a wash down pump, but it is better than nothing. A bit of boat maintenance after a short night and a longish day. It comes with the territory.