Sunday Morning Freshwater Blues

After having guests on the boat Saturday night, this morning was supposed to be a nice, relaxed morning prepping for a day sail on the boat with just us family.  However, for several late afternoons in a row we had spotty A/C power, so we called the electrician to come take a look Sunday morning,,,,cause we didn’t have A/C power and things seemed a bit wonky.  When he showed up and took a look into the engine room, he let us know that there was quite a bit of water,,,,and the float switches on the bilge pumps had malfunctioned,,,,,meaning there was quite a bit of water in the bilges.  See, I want to use this as a learning experience for you,,,,so you DON’T do the SAME THING.  Our fresh water tanks ran out Saturday night, so I was put up to filling them with the hose from the dock,,,,which I did.  Since I didn’t want an air bubble or vapor lock in the tanks, I usually fill them quite slowly and am used to the tanks overflowing when they’re full (like on the other boat).  DON’T make this bad and false assumption like I did.  Know your boat and ask questions,,,,,cause my boat’s fresh water tanks don’t overflow on deck,,,,,they have a relief line that overflows into the stern bilge,,,,right under the engine.  That’s what happened Saturday night and the water we found Sunday morning was a result of this overflow.  So, needless to say, we didn’t get out on our daysail and instead I worked with the electrician to get a few things done and I permanently and safely secured the new anchor to the boat,,,,making me feel better about moving her (never want to move a boat without a way to stop her in case the engine dies).