After the Storm

 It was calm today so we rowed over to check on Robinetta. She looked Ok and the cockpit cover was only partially pulled away. The crutches had come away too but they weren't broken.

When we examined the cover, it was badly ripped along the edges. It's old and not a great loss. Alison took it off completely which allowed me to look at the crutches.

The bolt was gone. An easy fix. I got some threaded rod and the hacksaw and cut it to length and put on some nylock nuts. The rod was a bit undersized but some tape fixed that and we had operational crutches.

Meanwhile, Alison checked below. The bilge pump had been doing its job. The bilges were reasonably empty and clean and a manual press of the electric pump worked normally. Hurrah!

The next step was to check the engine. It wouldn't start. Not a thing.

I assumed it was the battery switch, as I hadn't got around to replacing the springs and a bad connection was likely. But it wasn't that. I checked it and tried both batteries and bypassed the switch. Nothing.

Time to get the trouble shooting guide out.

It said if the engine doesn't turn at all, either the solenoid is stuck or the ignition switch or the wiring is bad. You can bypass the switch by holding a screwdriver between the battery and the solenoid.

Looking at the engine, there was a lot of salt around the impellor. Not good.

The screwdriver worked and the engine started. So either the switch has got damaged or worn out, or the plug to the switch has come loose. That could have happened in the storm, but at least we had a way of starting the engine to get her ashore next Monday.

We let the engine warm up and charge the battery a bit and turned it off.

Alison went down to close the raw water inlet and saw oil in the bilges. That wasn't there 10 minutes before. I felt the external oil pipe. It was corroded and oily. ****!

That pipe was new last winter and should be copper alloy. They are not supposed to corrode.

Alison called the yard and arranged for them to tow her to the slip.

That's not what we wanted.