Still not out of the woods yet

Still not out of the woods. We got the water pump installed and tested the alternator. It tested shot and a new rebuilt one was only 80 bucks since it was a Volkswagen/Bosch part from VW Diesel Truck engines. We got that installed and everything seemed good to go. We started motoring south which was actually NW and upriver against the current. Cranking @ 2900 rpm we were making 6.6 knts through the water but only 4.2-4.4 over the ground. About an hour later all hell broke loose. Liz said something did not sound right and yelled at me to stop the engine. At just that moment the new water pump blew apart.




We were in a narrow section of the river with limestone cliffs on one shore and a rocky levee on the other in 2.5 knt current and 1/4 mile from a bridge. The depth was in the 50 ft range and I did not have much option. I looked for shallower water but pretty soon I had no steerage and the current was dragging us who knows where so we dropped anchor. Even with almost all the chain out the anchor was bouncing off rock and we were moving at nearly the speed of the current. Liz wanted to drop the dinghy in the water and use it to guide the boat. We did that and she jumped in the dinghy and yelled for a life jacket "just in case." Just then the anchor caught and we came to a stop in the middle of the channel.
We made numerous calls to the Marina and the mechanic (Randy) on the radio, since we had no cell phone coverage and eventually the Randy and the marina owner (also named Mark) came out to help get us to the Marina to see what was up. When we tried to bring up the anchor it was nearly impossible to crank it in even with two of us working on the windlass. Finally it came to the surface and there was a towboat cable caught on the anchor. 4 loops of 1 inch steel cable were draped over the flukes of the anchor. We used the boat hook to drag them off the anchor with difficulty. When we pulled the final loop off, the anchor was freed up but we could not get the cable off the boat hook and had to let it go.

Then they towed us a mile or so to the  marina. It was still hard to get us stopped and moved to the dock. When we looked at the water pump, the shaft had backed out of the pump body and then the mounting plate had bent and shattered in two because the motion was erratic. We called the distributor and asked for a warranty replacement but they said that this pump needed an external retaining bracket to keep it from failing in this way and since we had not had one installed it was our fault.


I am talking to the Swedish manufacturer to verify whether this is true and whether they will cover the replacement, especially since the existing pump had no retaining bracket and ran properly for hundreds of hours.  Stefan from Johnson Sweden was very nice and said he would look into it if I sent him some more info so we will take pictures of the installation and the failed pump and send them to him today.



Meantime more delays and more costs and more rain but happily we are staying at a nice marina with good internet connectivity.



I'll let you know what happens.



At least its not snowing.