Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Sandwich and the Story of the Genset Water Pump


Another bright and sunny day and we got started around 9:00 or so. We sailed for the first couple of hours but then the wind died and we had to motor the rest of the way. As we motored south into the protection of the cape, the waters got even calmer – like a lake.


We had made reservations at Sandwich over the internet and took our dock immediately upon arrival. We’ve been here before so our first order of business was a trip to Joe’s Lobster Mart for fish. Ann selected halibut and we came back to the boat. That’s when the adventure with the genset started. I had noticed that the water was not coming out of the exhaust like it used to so I measured it with a bucket this afternoon and found that the flow was only ½ what it’s supposed to be. With that I replaced the impeller in the raw water pump and closed up shop thinking that the problem was solved only to find out that now there was no water coming out at all! Putting a hose directly on the input to the Panda genset I found that the pump would not draw water at all! After many hours and many reinstallations of the impeller and O-ring, the pump still would not work – arrrgh! All very frustrating! Ann served a late dinner (too late for her I think) and then I started working on the problem again but to no avail. I quit around 9:00 and plan on calling Panda for help Wednesday morning, wish me luck.

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