17 December, 2019 Tornado watches/warnings, water spouts, severe thunderstorms

Well secured in our well protected slip, tucked back off the main waterfront, multistory condos shielding us from the wind.

Impressive line of thunderstorms marched through mid-day.  No surprise, have been tracking for past 24-36 hours.  Small craft advisories, watches, warnings, blowing, lightening, just about everything this morning.  Hard sustained rain--good fresh water wash down for Serenity.  At times we wondered if we were back in the Ozarks with all of this severe weather.

I spent a big part of day when not listing to the weather radio going off, or looking at the weather radar, changing filters, belts and impellers.  Serenity has a separate, large RACOR fuel filter that receives the fuel into a swirl chamber where sediments and water settle out into a clear bowl and then the fuel is drawn into the 10 micron filter before heading to the Yanmar engine fuel filter. Daily check the sediment bowl for crud and water.  It has a screw drain if needed. Replaced the old with new. Then, removed the small canister engine fuel filter and replaced with a new Yanmar filter.  The engine driven fuel pump has a manual lever with bleed screws on the fuel injection system allows bleeding the air off of the system.  About 15 minutes of pumping, waiting and pumping got the air out and fresh fuel flowing.  Replaced the alternator/fresh water pump belt with a new Yanmar belt.  The old belt did not look too bad, but it was original when I bought the boat.  They are cheap and easy to change compared to having to change one at sea.

Yanmar raw water pump/impeller

Finally, the raw water pump impeller that sucks in raw water for cooing the fresh water, engine oil and transmission oil, which can only be assessed by standing on your head and viewing everything upside down. It is not crazy tight thank goodness, but due to fresh water tank and battery box you cannot get beside of it.  The old impeller looked good with no vanes missing or damaged.  However, it did not want to budge without persuasion.  One very skinned elbow, wipe up the blood and that sucker was free.  Double checked the manual on proper rotation/alignment of the impeller rubber blades, coated liberally with recommend lubricant and on to the fight to reinstall a new Yanmar impeller.  This was my first change of an inboard engine raw water impeller.  Of course the outside diameter of the impeller vanes are greater than the inside diameter of the pump housing.  So, slicker than a greased pig, standing on my head, multiple tries, encouraging words, and a couple of breaks, I finally got the vanes bent the correct direction of rotation, the shaft aligned with the star shaped drive shaft and whew...it was in place, flush with the housing.  A little lube to the o-ring that installs into a grove of the pump housing then aligning the cover plate while using my third hand to finger install 10mm bolts--bam it was back together.  Nothing lost into the narrow, skinny bilge below the engine.  Tighten/torque four nuts and everything looked good.

Just then the heavens opened with torrential rain and sharp, close lightening bolts, I paused an hour before starting the engine and inspecting for leaks.  Very happy to have the sailboat with the really tall lightening rod--i mean mast next slip over.  Once all the rain and lightening moved east, I fired up the Yanmar.  It started right up and quit.  Burnt residual fuel in the injector pump, but restarted easily, burped and ran a little rough for a couple of minutes while the residual air made its way to exhaust, then settled down nicely. No diesel leaks observed around either new filters. Pumping good sea water with no leaks around the impeller cover/pump assemble.  Good raw water flow out the back exhaust.  Good to go.  Cleaned up my mess, cleaned up tools and put all away back into respective cubby holes.

Thank God, no severe storms around the marina or little town.  I did not take a lightening strike. And most importantly, did not drop any tools down in the bilge.  Doh