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Mysterious Potable Water Leaks

Tom Plummer

Member III
:esad: When I arrived at the NW Ericson Rendezvous my bilge was full of water. Since I had motored all of the way I assumed that it was from my shaft log I pumped it checked the log for drips while the shaft was not turning and found it was not leaking. It being late at night and not wanting to disturb others I deferred further investigation until the morning.

When I got up my bilge was again full, knowing that the shaft log was not leaking I became alarmed inspected the boat and could find no leaks so I did the finger dip taste test and found that the water was not salt water. I was lined up to the forward potable water tank and had not used any water since filling it. I checked the tank and sure enough it was empty.

Weeks later I finaly removed the interference so that I could inspect the tank filled the tank and could find no leaks. :confused: What to do? What to do? The valve line up was exactly the same as on my trip to the Rendezvous but now there were no leaks. Thinking back to last year there were a couple of time that we ran out of water in the forward tank a lot sooner than expected.

Hunt was on. I pulled up the bilge hatch by the mast and the bilge was bone dry. Then I turned on the pressure pump pressurized the system and let it sit. The fact that it held pressure for 30 min with out the pump cycling told me that the leak was not in the pressure system. Rechecked the Forward bilge it was still bone dry. Hand over handed all of the non pressurized water piping and found no leaks. Where could the leak be? :confused:

Then I remember a thread on the Ericson list at Sailnet on leaking foot pumps, got out my inspection mirror and looked at the bottom of the foot pump for the galley sink. No Joy there. And the water level in the mid bilge was not rising. It apeared that I had the worst kind of problem an intermitant one. :esad:

Sudenly the water level in the mid bilge started to rise I quickly rechecked the forward bilge it was still bone dry. Then it hit me the :wife: Admiral had just used the foot pump to wash her hands and that was the only thing that had changed.

Once again I got out my trusty inspection mirror and looked at the bottom of the foot pump for the galley sink. There it was the source of my problem. The pump was now leaking, life is good because it will be much easer to R&R the pump that to deal with a leaking water tank. :egrin:
 
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