The penny drops!

They always say a good night's sleep solves many a problem.

I pondered our water loss problem last night and spoke with Andy Munro at Fernwoods this morning. During our conversation the penny suddenly dropped. Our loss had been occuring since launch.

After AmyJo was launched, and up until Crick boat show we had been getting water in the engine bay and loosing pressure on the heating system. Chris from Fernwoods came aboard and found a couple of leaks on the hose joints around the calorifier and tightened them up. To be fair to Fernwoods the leaks would not have been visible at commissioning time nor may have been present at that time, nor were they easily seen.

Thinking on it now that would account for most of the water loss. Over the 6 months since launch water would have drained via the leaks so slowly as to be un noticable. Even when I checked the level appeared to be OK without realising it was actually getting lower each time. We only visit AmyJo at every other weekend. We just assumed the water in the bilge was rain water, after all we've had a lot of heavy downpours over the last few months Now its clear it was not the case. 

Finally on Saturday the level must have dropped below a point where it could not sustain engine temperature and hence the alarm.

You may recall I posted about the rolled up news paper being good for soaking up water? Clearly that and what I got out over the last few months was actually coolant water. Over time I reckon must have removed a good amount though each time it would have only seemed small quantities. The yellow tinge I put down to rust was actually antifreeze. Sometimes I can be really so dense!

I've learnt to check levels much more closely from now on. Lesson learnt and slapped wrist for me!  Such are the joys of being a newbie boat owner.  Clearly I have much to learn yet!