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A day at sea
I had an interesting trip to Catalina Island for the weekend. I arrived at the slip around 7:30 am saturday morning and had the engine fired by 8:15. While tossing off the dock lines I noticed I only had one sandle on the dock and quickly spotted the other floating across the fairway. So into th Voladito I went to retrieve the wayward sandle. While rowing back to the boat I was watching the water batching do to the curiosity derived from Don's info pole. There didn't seem to be much water and I figured it is just idling and I'm being paranoid.
So off the dock lines went and away we were. By the time I was 10 minutes away I noticed the temp was rising
in my until now reliable A-4(sorry honey). Decision time and the decission was to proceed slowly out of Alimitos Bay and once under sail I could work on the temp diagnosis. I went below and exposed the engine so I could close off the bypass and force all the water I was pumping through the block. The temp came down a bit but I could only run at about 3.5 kts so slowly we went. Well I had 2 1/2 hours at that speed before I was a few miles out of the breakwater and under sail.
The first thing I checked was the intake side by removing the hose from the strainer holding it down in the bilge and re-opening the valve AH-HA found it just a dribble. So I tried blowing through the hose incase I just sucked something up. No good still just a dribble. So now I pullued up an inspection port in the floor near the valve and disassembled all back to the valve still no flow. Now I spent almost 2 hours poking everything through the valve I could find on the boat wire, tubing, tywraps and some small aluminum rod. Nada nothing still just a dribble, as I couldn't get around the elbow. So I decided to do what all good at sea mechanics do cuss a bit and have a beer
to get ready to go over the side and clear it from the bottom side. Didn't really want to go in the cool water so I had another beer while slowly sailing at 2.5 kts until I got a bit further out and into blue water. Well while I sitting inside and getting things ready to go over I spotted something. Eureka that just may work. So off to the ditty box for some fabricating material, duct tape a favorite of mine. Well after peeling off about 2 feet of tape and taping things together with a few rags around the outside I pulled the pin and gave the "fire extinguisher" a squeeze~kaflush. So I waited a few seconds to give her a second salvo~kaflush~ and this time my fabrication came apart and a bit of dust covered the work area fortunately it wasn't to bad as my face 
blocked where the fab failed. Water is now gushging from the hose, so I used it to rice the bilge a bit. It took longer to clear my nasal passages than to get the lil' beastie refired and now back up to speed. I was actually quite proud of using the extinguisher for an air hose.
It is amazing the things we think of when limited to what is on hand.
Dave Neptune
So off the dock lines went and away we were. By the time I was 10 minutes away I noticed the temp was rising
in my until now reliable A-4(sorry honey). Decision time and the decission was to proceed slowly out of Alimitos Bay and once under sail I could work on the temp diagnosis. I went below and exposed the engine so I could close off the bypass and force all the water I was pumping through the block. The temp came down a bit but I could only run at about 3.5 kts so slowly we went. Well I had 2 1/2 hours at that speed before I was a few miles out of the breakwater and under sail.The first thing I checked was the intake side by removing the hose from the strainer holding it down in the bilge and re-opening the valve AH-HA found it just a dribble. So I tried blowing through the hose incase I just sucked something up. No good still just a dribble. So now I pullued up an inspection port in the floor near the valve and disassembled all back to the valve still no flow. Now I spent almost 2 hours poking everything through the valve I could find on the boat wire, tubing, tywraps and some small aluminum rod. Nada nothing still just a dribble, as I couldn't get around the elbow. So I decided to do what all good at sea mechanics do cuss a bit and have a beer
to get ready to go over the side and clear it from the bottom side. Didn't really want to go in the cool water so I had another beer while slowly sailing at 2.5 kts until I got a bit further out and into blue water. Well while I sitting inside and getting things ready to go over I spotted something. Eureka that just may work. So off to the ditty box for some fabricating material, duct tape a favorite of mine. Well after peeling off about 2 feet of tape and taping things together with a few rags around the outside I pulled the pin and gave the "fire extinguisher" a squeeze~kaflush. So I waited a few seconds to give her a second salvo~kaflush~ and this time my fabrication came apart and a bit of dust covered the work area fortunately it wasn't to bad as my face blocked where the fab failed. Water is now gushging from the hose, so I used it to rice the bilge a bit. It took longer to clear my nasal passages than to get the lil' beastie refired and now back up to speed. I was actually quite proud of using the extinguisher for an air hose.It is amazing the things we think of when limited to what is on hand.
Dave Neptune
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