Hero to Zero in no time flat ...

Well that was an adventure in draining an overfilled bilge and tracking down a massive fresh water system leak.

My guess turned out to be right. There was a leak forward. Fortunately, a fitting had let go due to an undertightened hose clamp.

I am a bit tired. There was hours of swuattting and unnatural movements. I'll be sore tomorrow.

The new pump is installed but it is still not pressuring up. The water tank is 55% full sonit "should" prime. I noticed a correlation between pump experiments and the bilge tramsfer pump starting to run a lot. I asked if maybe we busted a line somewhere.

First we're filling thentank to 100% and trying it. If that doesn't work it's time to see if wencan determine if there is a leak. So maybe the other pump had not actually failed.

Back at the boat. Everything is loaded aboard. As I was walking back from the boat with the cart it started to rain in earnest and I got wet once again.

I hung up my coat to dry. Mark is now installing the new pump while we are on standby to hand him tools and supplies.

The rain has started again. There's that distinctive sound of windy rain on canvas.

Got pump, wire, fuses, and fuse holder along with wine and groceries. Heading back now.

App crashed again.

Waiting on the Uber. Wayne's back is really bothering him.

Calling it. Off to get a 12V pump at West Marine and some provisions.

The wind is still howling.

One last attempt at a tepair before punting and getting a 12V pump. West Marine has a 4gpm 60psi pump in stock:

258 New Rd Route 9, Somers Point, NJ 08244

Now trying to bypass the pressure seitchbtonuse the external one before we go in search of a replacement.

Winds are building again. It's howling outside.

Fresh water pump failure due to bad instructions from tech support. Mow we have no way of getting to the fresh water on the boat. We're scrambling.

18916-1060 pressure switch (60psi)

18916-1040 (40psi)

replacement pump :
jabsco 24v 60psi 6gpm p602j-218s-3a

Correction ... once again into the bilge dear friends.

Wayne hurt his back pretty badly the other day. He's hurting. Mark's knees are really bothering him and of course I've got my shoulder issues although I'm not hurting from yesterday's large force activity.

It's a day of maintenance working on the sauna, water pump, and general fluid top uos.

Slept pretty well as is the case for me on boats. It seems like the winds have died down a little bit. We're delaying for a day but the wave heights tomorrow will still be pretty high off shore.

For a change, I'm not down in the bilge.

It is nuts how much the boat leans in this wind at the dock. Wind howling.

I messaged Wayne as soon as I arrived but heard nothing back. I waited and over the next 45 minutes sent another two messages but heard nothing. Because the wind and the rain were so intense I had already put on all my foul weather gear. after what seemed like too long I found a place to hide my gear and made the long trek to the end of one dock with the thought that maybe I could see where Tabasco was. Once I got to the end I saw Tabasco with Wayne on the bow raising the anchor and deploying fenders. I immediately knew they were coming in but the only place I could see where they might be able to dock was a serious haul from where I was. I hoofed it over with gusts of wind that nearly knocked me off the dock.

As I finally got to the dock, Mark and Wayne were fighting against the wind to get close to the dock. Then they recognized me.

Wayne threw me a line once close enough which started an hour long fight to finally get the boat tied up. The forces involved were nuts. Eventually, Mark ended up using the winch.

So much more to say.

"No good story starts with 'I was eating my salad ..'", said Captain Mark.

Huh. Apparently this is thirty knots of wind.

Arrived at the marina. It's windy and here under a canopy the wind is making a lot of noise.

In an Uber on my way over.

It turns out Ceasar's is not far from the Marina so I disembarked here