Where is That Water Coming From?

We are only 12 years into our ownership of Zofia and we continue to learn as we go. On the whole we’ve done a good job of maintenance, with The Bloke taking great pride in his ‘Mr Fussy’ title. Our recent boat survey confirmed what an excellent job he’s been doing. For one thing, we are a dry boat. Put aside the fact that there might be several cases of wine stored in the bilge, what we mean is there are generally no leaks. Sea water lives outside the hull but not inside the hull!

Our sense of equilibrium was upset recently while trying to trace the source of seawater in the bilge. Yikes. Our hot water heater generally puts some fresh water into the bilge by way of overflow if we’ve been motoring hard but this wasn’t the usual freshwater we were accustomed to. We do a taste test. It can eliminate 50% of possibilities. The bilge sump was full of brown looking salty water. Yuck. 

Initially, we questioned the saltwater tap/deckwash system. We checked all the forward bilge compartments and confirmed 50% of the boat was not involved. On checking the saltwater tap fittings under the galley sink however, we found a rusty connection and wondered if this could be the culprit. 

There had been a leak over time, that was for sure. Exhibit ‘A’ being the rock salt crust that had formed around the nut at the top of the saltwater hose. A replacement hose was sourced from a plumbing supply with the help of fellow cruiser, Warren from Phase 2. Cleveland/Raby Bay is his home port and with Wuhan Flu restrictions on boating and social gathering restrictions easing, Warren was keen to get involved in some ‘bloke stuff’, especially if it involved a boat.

This time we were not going to use plumbers tape since this clearly failed in the initial installation back in 2014. Instead, a liquid Locktite Sealant was used in the hope of an improved outcome. 

We decided that we had nailed it. Water pressure seemed to have improved at the deckwash and saltwater in the bilge sump seemed to be gone. But not for long.

The Vetus anti-syphon valve

 

This time we were finding about 1/2L of salt water in the sump below the engine. Was it the gasket on the Vetus muffler box leaking? Nope. Anything to do with the raw water intake or heat exchanger? Nope. The Bloke was quite out of ideas and immersed himself in Dr Google. The more you know, the more you know you don’t know! 

 

Of course there’s nothing that hasn’t happened to somebody before and the detective work pointed to the Vetus Anti-Syphon loop valve. Apparently they need to be cleaned from time to time - usually during an engine service. To our knowledge, it had never ever been inspected nor cleaned - by anyone. Luckily it was a simple job to service it and The Bloke was even happier to have resolved this 2nd saltwater leak without the need for special tools, spare parts or colourful language.

Top of housing removed revealing the valve AND salt encrustation