Sunday, January 8, 2012

Oh No, a water pump failure!

There is a local racing club here, out in the bay you may see a half dozen or so racing along together
Popular in Manatee Pocket
We didn't have far to go today so we took our time in the morning, confident of resuming our southward trek in peaceful enjoyment. Ann backed out of our slip with me handling the lines and we headed out full of good cheer. After all, the weather was warm with a full sun and calm seas, what could go wrong? Just before it was my turn at the helm, I thought it was a good idea to check the engine as I usually do several times during the day. This time however it was not so dull, there was water dripping out of the shaft on the raw water pump! Since we were still in Stuart, there was a Hinckley service marina nearby in Manatee Pocket so we headed there. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday and there were no service technicians working.

Our first good sunset on our return to Florida
So now we're docked at Hinckley Marina and we hope to get the water pump fixed on Monday. Well, we're not due in Key West until February 1st so we have plenty of time to get there. Hopefully, the water pump problem is not any more serious than just replacing the pump (and there was no intrusion of water into the engine along the pump shaft!)

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