A Plumbing Weekend

It all started with a new water pump and a new galley faucet.

We wanted a faucet with a pullout sprayer to help rinse the dishes. And the old water pump was leaking. Sounds simple, right?

But like most boat repairs, it started a cascade of problems that took way longer and cost way more than expected.

The faucet went in easily enough and we discovered why the little sprayer wasn't working. It was connected to the seawater washdown pump, so it only works when you turn on that pump. It's handy to have seawater at the galley sink; it can help save fresh water. Then the new water pump went in easily too, so Saturday was a successful day.

However, when we got up Sunday morning and turned on the water pump, the pressure tank failed. So we chased down a new one, tore out some more unused stuff, repositioned the bilge pump, brought a hose down through the forward hatch to wash down the bilges, rebuilt the bilge pump, cleaned the strainers, pumped out the bilges, tidied up more wires, rinsed the bilges some more, pumped them out again, installed the new pressure tank, put all the floorboards back, and finally at 5:00 pm we were done. 

The good thing about all this is that we can fix these things ourselves, and we're fixing them here where parts are readily available instead of some remote anchorage in Mexico.