a loud alarm. The Ray Marine system has a built-in running behind the alternator. It was salt water. In order to find
alarm, emitting the same sound for all warnings. the leak, I had to remove the salt encrusted Balmar alternator
I know it well, whether for an approaching ship and bracket.
on radar, AIS, engine overheating or reaching a It looked like a stream of salt water was coming up out of
waypoint. At first I thought I was reaching my the cooling water impeller housing, about the strength of a
waypoint off Ascension, but that couldn’t be. I little boy taking a pee. But where was the water coming from?
was still 200 miles away. And this alarm sounded I had closed the sea-cock that enabled salt water to enter
different; I had not heard this alarm before. through the hull of the boat and pumped into the intercooler to
I followed the bearing of the sound around the cool the hot, self-contained cooling system of the Yanmar. Yet
cockpit until I reached the port wheel where I saw, salt water was still streaming out of a hole in the bronze pump
down by the ignition key, a red light and a loud housing, not the connecting tubing or hose clamps where you
alarm buzzing continuously. I knelt down to read the would normally expect a weakness.
label on the small panel. Then I noticed something above the impeller pump. The
It read: “High Water Alarm” intercooler was probably still full of sea water and gravity was
High water? forcing it through the hole in the pump housing. I got out the
I was sinking! Yanmar book and looked up “intercooler”. Sure enough there
I rushed down the was a drain plug at the other end of the intercooler. As I was
companionway stairs about to get a wrench and unscrew the plug, I thought that I
and lifted the board better get something to catch the draining salt water. You don’t
above the deep bilge. want salt water getting on the outside of the engine. But as I
Water had completely looked again I realised the entire engine had already a crust of
filled the bilge up to the floorboards. I tasted the salt sticking to everything. The salt water had been streaming
water. SALT! oh my God, I WAS sinking! out of the leak directly into the spinning Balmar alternator. I
What was I to do?! I remembered where all the through- just unscrewed the drain plug and let the water run over the
hull sea-cocks were located and went around the entire boat engine and finally back down into the bilge.
lifting the sole boards and reaching down into salt water to shut The leak stopped! That was it, a hole in the bronze impeller
off the sea-cocks. I went back on deck to shut off the Yanmar, pump housing.
collected the two buckets tied to lanyards and the extra hand I carry tools and spares to fix just about anything: an extra
pump. I dipped the bucket down into the bilge and just tossed bilge pump, freshwater pump, connectors, pipes and tubing, an
the water up above the stairs out onto the cockpit floor knowing “offshore repair kit” for the Panda generator and many extra
it would drain out the stern of the yacht. I noticed that the extra impellers, but noT a spare pump.
“High-Water Bilge Pump” located just below the floorboard What was I to do? How could I get my engine working again
above the bilge was also pumping water overboard. When the out in the middle of the South Atlantic ocean 1,200 miles west
water was finally below this pump, it automatically shut off and of Africa, 1,400 miles east of South America and over 4,000
the alarm stopped confirming that I was getting more water out miles to the nearest Caribbean island?
of the bilge than was coming in. I was making headway. That How would YoU fix the leak?
fact made me feel good – more water out than in. You can’t just glue something over a hole on the impeller
After what felt like hours, but was probably just only housing. When the engine starts, the impeller spins and
minutes, the water was far enough down the bilge that I began pumps salt water up into the intercooler under pressure. That
using the hand pump. Finally the level of the water was near pressure would surely blow anything glued onto the outside of
the bottom but the small pump at the base of the bilge was the bronze housing. I needed something stronger that would
noT pumping. I reached down and removed it from its fastener hold up against the constant water pressure until I could get a
finding a piece of paper clogging the hole. once I had fastened replacement pump, probably for the next month or so.
the pump back onto its bracket it began pumping the water I needed to fill the hole but I could not get to the impeller
back out. housing bolts as they were blocked by the engine mounting
But there was still salt water coming into the bilge from bracket. I would need to lift up the entire engine about an inch
somewhere. I went around all the bulkheads and looked for or so to get the bolts out to remove the impeller housing.
leaks. no leaks anywhere in the hull. next I removed the Alternatives?
engine cover and looked into the engine area, including all How about getting the proper size stainless self-threading
the hoses and connections. no leaks. Then I discovered water screw. I had plenty of those. I could take an oversize one and
MARCH 2009 YACHTWORLD.COM 47
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