On our last Gulf crossing while leaving the Steinhattche enterance channel to cross to Appalachacola we heard a knocking sound somewhere in the back of the boat. I couldn't look into it right away since I was trying to navigate the narrow channel.
After leaving the channel and heading out to sea the sound seemed to go away. It was a beautiful day and a Porpois joined us riding in our bow wave. After an hour or so JoAnn went down to the galley to russtle up some lunch. When she came back up to the flybridge helm, she said she could hear that knocking noise again. She said it sounded like it was coming from the cockpit area. I gave her the wheel and went down to check. When I opened the hatch in the cockpit floor I was greeted by a foot of water in our aft bilge area!This was not good!
I told JoAnn to hold our present course but decreased the speed to idle. I crawled into the engine room between those two 370 horse power Cummins diesels. The noise was deafening even at idle speed. I noticed at the reduced speed the bilge pumps seemed to be getting ahead of the water and the level was dropping. When I went back topside JoAnn was teary eyed and said the porpoises were surrounding our boat to help us. I must admit at that point we were both a little nervous having been out of sight of land for an hour at 19 mph.
She was right. They came from everywhere. She said that they were with us to help us if the boat sank!
I needed to figure out where the water was coming from. Was is related to that noise we heard? How fast was it coming in? I turned on our extra manual bildge pumps and we stayed ahead of the water. I returned to the engine room after calling Paul at "Port Charles harbor" to try again to see where the water was comming from.
We were 20 miles out to sea bobing around like a cork and the porpoises were surrounding us. After determining that the pumps could stay ahead of the water build up while running at speed we did a 180 and headed back to Steinhattche. By then I had figured that the water must be coming from a loose hose connection on the engine (with the help of our phone consultation with Port Charles)
We called "Sea Hag" marina and told them we were coming back and needed a mechanic. We were happy to see land again as we neared the eastern shore of the Gulf.
The porpoises stayed with us until we got in.
We hired a diver to check out the noise we had heard and a mechanic to tighten the port engine's water intake hose clamp. The diver was an interesting fellow who had been a missionary in "the islands". He came up following an explosion of bubbles holding a long rope that had been attached to someones crab trap and became caught up on our port prop. We picked it up some where between Tarpon Springs and Steinhattche. The mechanic gave us his car to drive to the Dollar General store and a resturant that night. We treated him and his wife to dinner. Our luck was good in that we didn"t have to wait long for a weather window to cross the Gulf in a day or two. You cant get a cell phone to work in Steinhattche but it worked 20 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico? Go Figure! Good thing the noise from the rope made me look in the bilge or we wouldnt have known about the water. With a hundred more miles to go it could have gotten deep down in the bilge and caused problems.
On our last Gulf crossing while leaving the Steinhattche enterance channel to cross to Appalachacola we heard a knocking sound somewhere in the back of the boat. I couldn't look into it right away since I was trying to navigate the narrow channel.
After leaving the channel and heading out to sea the sound seemed to go away. It was a beautiful day and a Porpois joined us riding in our bow wave. After an hour or so JoAnn went down to the galley to russtle up some lunch. When she came back up to the flybridge helm, she said she could hear that knocking noise again. She said it sounded like it was coming from the cockpit area. I gave her the wheel and went down to check. When I opened the hatch in the cockpit floor I was greeted by a foot of water in our aft bilge area!This was not good!
I told JoAnn to hold our present course but decreased the speed to idle. I crawled into the engine room between those two 370 horse power Cummins diesels. The noise was deafening even at idle speed. I noticed at the reduced speed the bilge pumps seemed to be getting ahead of the water and the level was dropping. When I went back topside JoAnn was teary eyed and said the porpoises were surrounding our boat to help us. I must admit at that point we were both a little nervous having been out of sight of land for an hour at 19 mph.
I needed to figure out where the water was coming from. Was is related to that noise we heard? How fast was it coming in? I turned on our extra manual bildge pumps and we stayed ahead of the water. I returned to the engine room after calling Paul at "Port Charles harbor" to try again to see where the water was comming from. 
We were 20 miles out to sea bobing around like a cork and the porpoises were surrounding us. After determining that the pumps could stay ahead of the water build up while running at speed we did a 180 and headed back to Steinhattche. By then I had figured that the water must be coming from a loose hose connection on the engine (with the help of our phone consultation with Port Charles) 
We called "Sea Hag" marina and told them we were coming back and needed a mechanic. We were happy to see land again as we neared the eastern shore of the Gulf.
The porpoises stayed with us until we got in.
We hired a diver to check out the noise we had heard and a mechanic to tighten the port engine's water intake hose clamp. The diver was an interesting fellow who had been a missionary in "the islands". He came up following an explosion of bubbles holding a long rope that had been attached to someones crab trap and became caught up on our port prop. We picked it up some where between Tarpon Springs and Steinhattche. The mechanic gave us his car to drive to the Dollar General store and a resturant that night. We treated him and his wife to dinner. Our luck was good in that we didn"t have to wait long for a weather window to cross the Gulf in a day or two. You cant get a cell phone to work in Steinhattche but it worked 20 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico? Go Figure! Good thing the noise from the rope made me look in the bilge or we wouldnt have known about the water. With a hundred more miles to go it could have gotten deep down in the bilge and caused problems.
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