April 29, 2016 Installing a Whale sump pump

Ok, today we finally found some energy to get things done.  We started some laundry.  That is an all day affair.  We only did bedding today, but that filled our buckets and lines since we had bedding for company, too.

I worked on cleaning our forward head and making bread with Pam’s recipe.  That was between moving laundry.

Dave worked on the shower drain/sump pump for our aft head.  We have had some issues with it draining over the past month or so.  Usually a pump with a plunger takes care of it.  But this time it wasn’t going anywhere.  It goes directly overboard below the waterline.  So it needs a sump pump to remove the water. 

After checking the pump, he realized the diaphragm needed replacing.   We had another pump, so he removed the old Jabsco pump to install the new Whale pump.  We have that in our forward head and we had a spare along with us.  It’s nice because you don’t have to clean a filter.  You really take things for granted living in a house or being able to run to the hardware store.

Of course the new pump can’t go directly back into the space of the old pump.  I heard lots of grunts and cussing coming from Dave.  He was having trouble placing a hose clamp on the new pump.  The space to mount the new pump put the hose in a tight spot.  There wasn’t much room to get both hands under the sink and behind the holding tank to fasten the hose clamp.  Once he had the hose clamp in place, he realized it was a bad clamp and had to start over. 

"Damn, we're in a tight spot"

But he was actually pretty calm when he told me how he put a hole in the boat with a drill bit.  He thought he found the perfect place to mount the pump.  But the first screw went right though the hull.  He needed my help to pull out the plug when he placed a temporary patch on the outside of the boat.  I couldn’t get mad at him when he looked so sad.  Accidents happen and we were still floating.  He tried to tape it on the outside so he could fill it with epoxy, but the tape wouldn’t stick.  It was too close to the water line.  So he put butyl rubber in the hole from the inside and taped over it from the inside.  Right now it is like a temporary crown on a tooth.  It’s working, so you are tempted to let it go as long as possible.  But once it goes, you will be in an emergency situation. 

there shouldn't be light shining through there

Dave called it quits for the day and changed gears to grill dinner.  We are still eating fillets of wahoo that we caught in the Abacos back in February.