Boat repairs and maintenance are excellent opportunities to really learn about the boat, where things are located and how they work. It takes much of the mystery out of it, and for every repair there is a sense of satisfaction that a problem has been addressed.
Once we arrived in Cocoa, Florida we ordered a new bilge pump and went through the process of replacing the old one that didn’t seem to be automatically shutting off.
Bob located the pump at the bottom of the companionway, disconnected and uninstalled the old one.
When it was time to connect and install the new one, the big question arose of how was the old one attached? Did it go on this way….. or that way?
Was it pointed forward or aft?
Yeap, it took a couple of tries before getting it right.
Lesson learned — take a photo BEFORE uninstalling the old one so we know how to replace it more easily without so much guesswork.
After figuring that out we tested the pump and it seemed to work in that it pumped out a small amount of water from the bilge.
Now to figure out why and where water is getting into the bilge. To date – where the water is coming from is still a mystery and the new bilge pump has not come on automatically – and most importantly the boat is still afloat.