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Wednesday 8 January 2014

Bilge pump failure on Christina

About two months ago our car broke down while I was at the marina, this meant I didn't get a chance to do some jobs I had lined up.
I had to go away on tour and the car took 7 or 8 weeks to get fixed, when we returned to the boats on Boxing Day, Freyja had run out of electric and, as it had been very wet weather and the heaters we'd left hadn't been working, she was a tad damp inside.
We'd both noticed that Christina's bilge pump had not been heard working recently, when I finally found it's location, it was lifeless. I traced the wiring and found where it was still live, fitted a new automatic bilge pump, that I'd bought as a spare, and a new three position switch. It's only a small and shallow bilge, so the water was about a quarter of an inch from overflowing into the boatman's cabin. Phew!
A few days with the three woodburners warming and drying things and we were back to normal. Amazing how things can go wrong so quickly, and at the most inopportune time.