Water pumps, plumbing, irritating PC's and nasty accidents

Well, sorry girls but when John and Tina joined us in Cowes, it was far too cold and soggy for the famous shorts to come out. No pictures this time - just keep dreaming.

After a couple of days on the Isle of Wight, we returned to Hamble Point (again) as Roland the MDS man was going to plumb in the backup fresh water pump for us. This he duly did with some trickery in routing lots of hoses and new valves. Here is his handiwork:

 We've mentioned before that the Jabsco diaphragm type pumps just don't survive the kind of use we give them - 3 have already packed up in 6 years of owning the boat. Being without fresh water is a bit difficult to say the least. Especially if anchored somewhere nice and remote (remember that the heads (toilets for the non boaters) use fresh water to flush as well....) So, having two pumps plumbed in with one as a "hot standby" is a good idea.

A nice new 240v pump is a stupid price (£1,200 plus import costs from the USA for a Headhunter pump!) so we gave up on that idea. Instead we are going to try an Italian 24v pump (Marco) that is gear driven, not a diaphragm device. The diaphragm pump heads seem to fail quickly and an overhaul with new seals etc is never totally successful. Of course, Italian pumps are a bit of an unknown to us - at least this one is nice and shiny so it will be pretty even if it is useless:

The feeble Jabsco units are funereal black - perhaps all prepared for an early burial:

At present we have the functioning (just over 1 year old so not long to go!) Jabsco and a rebuilt old one plumbed in. As soon as the shiny Italian offering arrives, it will be pressed into service. Let's see...

Whilst the captain was enjoying this fun and making copious quantities of coffee to sustain Roland, the crew went off with Anne (you've met her in here before) to see the puppy that she will have soon. The captain thinks the crew got a better job:

Sadly, back on the boat, it was one step forward and one back - Paul from Maricom and the people that make the new navigation PC came to try and stop it from hanging / rebooting. After a frustrating afternoon for everybody (who on earth designed PCs with drivers than can conflict, incompatibility between windows versions etc etc) the end result was:

Yes, the PC was so unhappy that they took it away and are going to build another one. fingers are firmly crossed that this one decides to work a little better - it should arrive shortly.....

On Wednesday, we heard a VERY noisy raceboat type thing go past and out into Southampton Water. Then we saw lots of activity - ambulances, lifeboats, two helicopters. The boat seems to have had a major issue (maybe mechanical as apparently one engine seizing up would cause it to become totally unstable!!). It then hit the cardinal marker buoy just off the Hamble river and flipped into the air at high speed with serious consequences for the people on board. Here is an eyewitness set of images from the BBC news, you can see that it was upside down when it hit the marker:

The upturned boat was recovered to a mid-river pontoon about 50 yards away from us. The injured people were taken to Warsash, on the other side of the river to the marina, where 4 ambulances were deployed:

The rescue helicopter and the air ambulance landed nearby. All very sad. Here is the local rescue helicopter heading off:

Our boat was then in the background for a few pictures and the BBC TV news coverage. Spot our satellite domes through the sprayhood of the yacht in this BBC picture of the capsized craft:

The TV footage had a little more Nordhavn shown. No royalties though. More seriously, we hope the badly injured crew member recovers OK  The skipper was a well know powerboat race man and so this isn't a case of someone buying a boat beyond their capabilities.