A lesson in jumping to conclusions!

[ThePostMan]

I was out cruising the Ohio River, watching the sunset, and was heading for the docks. . .I flipped on my bilge pump, out of habit, expecting the usual NOTHING to come out. Instead, I was treated with GALLONS and GALLONS and GALLONS of very clean, recently-ingested water blowing out of my boat!

I amost flipped out. Did I hit something? Gash a hole in my hull? Rip my exhaust bellows? I figured this was the end of my boat.

After shutting down the engine and searching for the hole in my boat for 20 minutes, and finding nothing, I fired the engine back up with the cover off. Guess who hadn't properly tightened the cap on the fresh water cooling pump when he cleaned out the strainer?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I felt like I won the lottery after I put the cap on correctly.

Sometimes it's the little things. Check your caps!

 

[dingbat]

Re: A lesson in jumping to conclusions!

I had a similar experience several years back.

It was the end of November and I ran out to take one more stab at fishing before the season ended. About 7 miles out of port I noticed the boat was slowing down a bit. I didn't think much about and just bumped the throttle the first couple of times. Then I noticed that I was running low in the water.

I looked around and noticed water coming out from under the motor cover. I opened the cover and the water was flush with the floor and was pouring out of the drain **** on the side of the block. Apparently I forgot to close it when I drained the block a few days earlier to prevent it from freezing. :redface:

By this time the motor is stumbling and the starter is under 6" of water. No way would it start should it stall. To top it off the water had gotten high enough to short out my bilge pump so I had nothing left to do but bump up the revs on the motor, lock the wheel in a circle and go at the water is a small plastic bucket I keep on board.

The next Spring I permanently resolved the issue. I bought an outboard