Impeller Mayhem

We're often asked what we do all day, so here is a day's report:-

• Up at 05:00 in anticipation of Coast Guard vessel arriving to retrieve the jetski involved in the accident 2 days previously.
• Read the weather forecasts, news, emails etc.
• Invite neighbouring vessel over for morning tea and bake pumpkin scones.
• Socialize for 2 hours.
• Attend to some messages and paperwork
• Do some hand-washing related to jetski accident.
• 16:00 turn on motor for hot water and battery charging.
• 17:00 The Bloke has a shower and pours a drink for 5ers. My turn to shower but we hear a weird noise in the engine bay. Bloke sprints up companionway to turn off the motor before returning below to investigate engine bay.
• 17:00 - 12:30 Engine off. Mayhem's just arrived! Keystone Cops saga ensues sleuthing and repairing - what caused the impeller to chew itself up?

Ouch! the impeller casing is HOT, HOT, HOT!

Looks like a vein has sheered off and the rest look like they are about to GO....Noooooo!

The impeller sits in here and pumps cool sea water around the heat exchange/ cooling system

Scoured impeller casing indicating friction

Very deformed impeller. The broken bit thankfully wasn't swallowed up into the heat exchange

Impeller failure is a crisis on a boat. Not only does it mean there is no possibility of propulsion by motor, there is the concern of shreds of neoprene/rubber finding their way through the entire cooling system. Engine overheating could lead to ....... Oh, let's not even go there! If there would be a need to deploy or retrieve anchor chain it could only be achieved manually. We had 40m of chain deployed and had no reason to think our holding was poor seeing as only 48hours before our anchor had secured Zofia, plus Tender Marilyn, plus jetski, plus the Water Police RIB, plus the Coast Guard. Yup, we think we were well dug in! The prospect of a wind shift that would put us on a lee shore filled us with dread. Luckily there were no predictions for this but noone wants to flirt with Murphy's Law.

So, one minute everything is fine and relaxed; a lovely anchorage, prospects of a warm shower, a drink and a lovely sunset etc and in an instant the moment is GONE. Time to haul out tool boxes and the Sh*t Box is definitely on standby. Stupid o'clock or dusk seem to stand out as the most dangerous of times.

By now we are working in the dark

Replacing the impeller didn't actually take long. We had 2 replacements on hand and it was just a matter of ensuring that all of the damaged one could be accounted for before lubricating the new one, and popping it in, then check if it all worked. If only it were that simple. We also needed to know if there was a reason for the impeller to be starved of water causing it to disintegrate. This is the first impeller to 'go' in 8 years and normally there would be some water in the housing. Instead it was dry.

Wine cork improvisations

 

A blockage in the seawater intake system was the likely culprit but we had a problem: The Bloke had over-tightened the lid (tighter better right? NO) to the skimmer bowl meaning the only way we could check and clear it, assuming the blockage was there, was to remove the whole housing and flush it in a bucket. Priming the system again would normally entail removing the lid and pouring water in. Unable to do this, we turned it upside down, filled it, then we put our wine drinking habits and my propensity to hoard 'potentially useful' bits and pieces to good use. A wine cork acted as a bung while we tried to shove the water hoses back on as quickly as possible, hoping that the skimmer bowl would not be completely emptied in the process.

  The Bloke holding the engine bay cover:also the companionway stairs.   Testing the various solutions meant turning on the engine to see if water was pumping from the exhaust. We were in the cabin. Engine controls and exhaust outside.  How many times did the stairs come off and get re-fitted? Too many times, that's how many!

The skimmer box wasn't especially full of 'stuff' and clearing it didn't make any difference. Was the below-water intake blocked? By this time it may have been 22:00 and diving below not a prospect. Perhaps we could push our mousing rod through the hose and out the ball valve? To attempt that, it was necessary to cut all the cable-ties holding the hoses, pull the intake hose through a bulkhead to try and straighten it etc, etc..... This was only marginally successful. Water flow was still restricted but only by about 80%. We'd learned a lot in the process but now it was 12:30 am and we'd missed dinner altogether. Time for a calming drink and we called it a day.

In the morning we gave the motor one more go. Encouragingly it spewed out a few cups of water before the delay ahead of the next mean splutter of water was unacceptable. When we checked the water level in the filter bowl, it was all gone. Empty! Another race to shut off the motor.

Going Down

 

Nothing for it, it was time for the 'inevitable'. Time to dive! Luckily it was a clear morning with good water clarity. The Bloke checked with the skipper of a nearby vessel who's day-job had been a Navy Clearance Diver what his most likely dangers would be. The Bloke was thinking 'sharks', given that prawning trawlers, little more than 500m away,  were attracting a lot of pelicans and other scavenging sea birds. Surprisingly, the answer was 'Jellyfish'!  A moments delay occurred at this point for a costume change. Board shorts were switched for a wetsuit.

 

Bottoms UP!

Our suspicions were confirmed immediately.  The Seawater scoop on the underside of the boat was entirely caked with a fine slimy weed and it was sucked in and on. It was the cause of the water starvation that shredded the impeller! To clean it all off, The Bloke called for a knife to clear the vents. This stuff was not going to let go without encouragement, so our improvised tool was a dinner knife. 

Confident that our troubles were over, we fired up the engine with both of us straining our necks around the side of the stern praying that we'd see the exhaust water gushing like it should. What we saw, followed by an inspection of the water strainer bowl made our hearts sing......YAY, we'd nailed it! Repair effected. Panic over.

  

Happy Days are here again!

Exhaust water 'gushing' and water strainer bowl 'bubbling'.

So that's an example of how we fill our day. One of them anyway. Can you top it?