One thing I’ve been noticing is a lot of water in the bilge. I thought this was just fresh water from rain/snow, but it’s been dry for several days and the bilge was still filling up, so I decided it was time I investigate.

Firstly, I stuck my finger in the bilge water and licked it to see if it was fresh or salt water – I DON’T KNOW WHY I DID THIS IT WAS A REALLY DAFT IDEA. In my defence I wasn’t making good decisions (getting to the marina took 50mins instead of the usual 20 after I took a shortcut and ended up on the highway going the wrong direction).

Next, I vacuumed out all the water and sprinkled talcum power all over the bilge, in an attempted to located the leak. I soon found it – highlighted with the red circle below.

bilge

 

It turned out that the weird plastic transducer thing to the right of the above picture was leaking, from the top where it screws on. Here is a picture

transducer

 

I tried coating the top with the left over epoxy I had but the water kept pushing it away. I think what I am going to do is use some wet-sealant to seal it, and then coat the entire thing in marine-tex. I’m not worried about sealing it in – the transducer I want to replace it with uses a bigger hole, so it will be cut out anyway. If only I had replaced it when I was hauled out earlier… If all else fails, I’ll have to use the bung.

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