Well guess what happened. It didn't go well.
About 2hrs into the run... did you hear that?!?! That sounded like a high level bilge alarm. Where is that water coming from. The rear bilge has water in it, but why is the bilge pump not pumping it out?!?! It mustn't be working. That's not good. We got to change course. We are some 45 nm offshore.
Also, why is the port side saddle tank showing it is down to 3/4 full already. That is not right! That's 2x as much fuel as should be missing.
Neat little fact about the 48' Ocean. Two saddle tanks (270 gallons each) gravity feed forward into a centre tank (145 gallons) where the engines draw their fuel. Well, in order to save money, Ocean only put gauges on one saddle tank and the centre tank. So, the whole time the saddle tanks are feeding forward the centre tank indicates full. In fact, as of yet, I have never seen the full low enough to see the centre tank off full. Does that gauge work? Who knows???
What we did know was this... the emergency bilge alarm was going off. We need to get off the ocean. What we didn't know was where all that fuel was going.
New course... Hilton Head, SC.
Not long after changing course there are no more bilge alarms. Hey, did you see that? It appears the normal bilge is working on this new angle. But, why are we at 1/2 full on the saddle tanks? We should only have burned half that. Something is still not right. Keep making way for Hilton Head.
By the time we reach Hilton Head the boat is really starting to list, even becoming difficult to handle in the surf. What is going on?
First, let's fuel up. Let's find out what those gauges are telling us. 220 gallons from the port side, only 70 gallons from starboard. That's the right amount, just not the right ratio. Why so much out of the port side? A quick look at the Ocean Owner's Manual show check valves coming from each saddle tank before feeding the centre tank. Could one be stuck? Well it wasn't stuck by the time we opened it for inspection. But, that has to be it! We will know more tomorrow. 60nm north to by Charleston should let us know if we are still only delivering fuel from one saddle tank.
Tomorrow's weather:
Overnight: ESE wind 9 to 12 kt. Mostly clear. Seas around 2 ft.
Tuesday: E wind 9 to 13 kt becoming SE in the afternoon. Mostly sunny. Seas around 2 ft.
Tuesday Night: SSE wind 9 to 12 kt decreasing to 6 to 9 kt after midnight. Mostly clear. Seas around 2 ft.
Today's route:
View from our slip:
Putting the south behind us:
No comments:
Post a Comment