26th July 2025 – Grenada
Now that the main work of the welding and painting is all done, we are trying to get the boat ready to go back in the water!
Why is the bilge wet?
When we first arrived to the boat, there was watery stuff in the bilge.. all good we thought, just remains from the work and we cleaned it up. But, after lunch, we realized the bilge had liquid in it again which led us on a hunt for the source. Ryan got right to it and discovered a significant coolant leak pooled in the lazarette which runs down into the bilge.
After discussing with the repair crew, it seems that during repairs to some of the hull sections near there a slight hole had been made into the coolant tank… they thought they had fixed it at the time – apparently not!
This sparked a bit of a dilemma: if they had to re-weld the coolant tank, they might need to drain all the coolant. Because this is a keel-cooled engine, that’s a huge volume! Getting that much coolant on the island could be a real challenge and we definitely don’t want to contaminate our existing coolant! More to come as we figure this one out…!
More Water, More Mysteries!
Even after addressing the coolant leak, we still had water in the bilge, but this time it was on the starboard side of the boat and looked brown, not like coolant. That sent Ryan on another investigative mission! He ruled out diesel (thank goodness!) which would have been a whole different headache.
The plot thickened when we suspected the hot water system might be the culprit. While trying to get a peek underneath it, I spotted another silver tank dripping, and with a gentle tap from Ryan, it started really leaking! This was it – one of our four fresh water tanks is leaking. This explained the brown water (rust!) and the general dampness on that side of the boat. It also likely explained why that side of the boat needed so much re-welding; fresh water sitting on steel for a long time isn’t exactly a recipe for rust prevention!
Siphoning for Success!
We really don’t want any more leaks inside the boat – so we needed to figure out which tank was the issue! We rigged up a siphon and started with the first tank. The water was surprisingly clean. Then we moved to the plastic tank on the aft starboard side, and that water was clean too.
The real discovery came when we siphoned the front port side tank. It started out rusty, then ran clear after a while. We realized this tank is also used for the refrigerator’s coolant loop. Our current theory is that the refrigerator coolant loop is introducing all that rust into the tank. That’s a task for another day – figuring out if it’s the loop itself or just the manifold causing the rust.
Finally, we siphoned the aft port tank. This one had some “floaties” and was rusty for a bit before clearing up, though little clear flakes kept coming out. We’re thinking a descaler might be in order for that one!
Taming the Interior (and Battling Bleach Fumes!)
While Ryan was tackling the leaks, I was busy with my own projects. I dove into sorting out the V-berth (bedroom). I cleaned the entire space – the roof, sides, bed frame, and inside the compartments. I distinctly remember thinking, why would you paint this room yellow? Turns out, it wasn’t yellow – just really dirty. 🤮
After the V-berth, I moved on to the head (the boat name for toilet), cleaning the roof and the sections above the sink and toilet. Scrub, scrub, scrub with the bleach all day.
My last task of the day involved the lazarette floor. The floorboards were pulled up with loose screws everywhere and some even poking out! I took all the screws out and put the floorboards back in place adding a bracing bars to the floor to stop stuff from sliding around when we are underway.
And that pretty much sums up our productive (and very watery!) day at the boatyard. We’re draining all the tanks overnight and hoping they’ll be empty by morning.
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