Pumping Out! (or that sinking feeling!)


Extract from Captiva's log 25th May …..

1600 Cleared Crinan Sea Lock. Bound south towards Craighouse on Jura, a fine sunny afternoon; wind SW 3, full main, No 2 Jib. Vis. good, sea state slight.
Crew: John, Francis and Dr. John.

Narrative -

It was one of our Whisky tasting trips in May to visit Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Ardbeg during "Isla Fest". Lying well heeled on the port tack, Captiva was working to windward at just over 5 knots. I cooked up some mugs of cocoa to wash down the corned beef, mayo and onion sandwiches, our usual fare at sea on a short passage. "Ready about - ready - Lee ho!" and round we came onto Starboard tack and held the new course for some time.

At what point does the subconscious alarm reach the surface? I began to watch the helmsman very carefully, convinced that he was not doing so well on this tack. It was neither a foul tide nor a lee bow issue. The wind strength was the same but the boat was perceptively slower. It was the sound of water sloshing about on the inside that suddenly made me aware. I looked below and saw water pouring out from under the engine casing onto the saloon floor. I guessed what was wrong. We tacked the boat and the leak stopped!

Earlier in the week I had fitted an electric bilge pump and connected the discharge to a tee junction beyond the manual bilge pump in the cockpit locker (port side) and above the discharge point. I had NOT fitted a non-return valve or a float switch, those bits were still on order! I had NOT secured the hose to the bilge pump with a clip, as had cannibalised that clip for the "difficult to reach" tee piece and planned to complete the job when we returned from Islay. As you know "Murphy is an optimist" and so, under the pressure of fenders and lines stuffed into the locker as we left Crinan, the pipe had come loose and lowered itself, down to a point on the same level as the hull outlet. Well heeled on the starboard tack this is nicely submerged. So we were siphoning the Sound of Jura into the saloon.

A firm push reconnected the pipe to the manual bilge pump. With the strength of not so much a frightened man but one angry with himself, I stroked away at the Whale Titan Gusher (under deck pump model) at about 60 strokes per minute - sufficient to shift 20 gallons a minute according to the manufacturer's manual. But what was that about Murphy! "if something can go wrong it will". Two minutes into this pumping exercise the plastic elbow, into which the pump handle fits, broke apart. Fortunately when I switched on the electric pump, the Rule 360 quickly emptied the bilges and some sponging and squeezing got the odd places dry.

Five days later, back at the mooring, I sorted out non-return valve, float switch, jubilee clips and secure ties. I ordered up the plastic bit for the pump from the mail order chandlers but as the boat was bound for the Western Isles, I asked for the part to be posted to Griminish on Benbecula. So on a warm summer evening in August, I crouched in the cockpit, secure on a visitor's mooring in Loch Carran. As the pump went back together, it simply would not work. The part was for the standard pump and not the through-deck variety!

I phoned the manufacturer in Northern Ireland. "Is she single? Does she like sailing?" I asked myself as Vickie from customer services at Whale answered the phone with a delicious Irish accent. Within 48 hours, I had the right part delivered to me, free of charge. Thank you Munster Simms Engineering! It fits!, it works! And I have returned the "wrong" bit to be recycled. So what's the Moral in the story - stow a bucket, fit a good pump with a back up and finish the job properly before you put to sea.

Lee Ho! John Harris, Captiva