June 11, 2015

Although I ended up with quite a few bloody knuckles this week, things went pretty well until literally the last hour.  The big accomplishment was getting the mounting bracket for the high pressure pump welded together.  Fortunately I decided to check the fit one last time just before my friend Jonathan was to start welding.   Turned out I needed to trim off an entire inch from the shelf that holds the high pressure pump.  Other than needing to shim it up a bit, the finished bracket fit perfectly.  I also got the pump mounted and it seems to be lined up fine, although the big test will be when the belt arrives.

I also did a bit more plumbing for the watermaker and reconfigured some existing plumbing.  In order to work on the fresh water system, I emptied the water tank and depressurized the system.  Not a problem.  The disaster came when I refilled the tank and an old problem reared its very ugly head.  There is a leak in the fill line somewhere near the tank in a place totally inaccessible and buried in foam.  I was so busy working on this post that I failed to notice right away that the floorboards were wet.  I had to stop everything and empty out all the lockers that had gotten soaked.  Wet stuff is strewn everywhere.  I spent two hours getting the water out by hand and small shop vac.  In the process I learned that two of my manual pumps didn’t work.   At least the electric one in the bilge did.  I’m tired and frustrated.  But it’s time to tackle this very difficult problem.  I may have to saw up the floor to gain access.  At the least I’ll need to remove the inspection plate in the tank and saw out the floor in a locker.  As if all this weren’t enough, the freshwater pump now doesn’t shut off, which most likely means air is trapped in the waterheater and/or elsewhere in the new plumbing.  Sigh.  Next week doesn’t look like much fun…