A few minutes ago (June 2, 1:30am) a bilge pump light came on and STAYED on. That is one of the scariest things that can happen out here! It means that water is coming into a bilge faster than the pump can remove it, a VERY serious problem. I had to wake everyone (at 1;30 am) and check the two engine bilges and the bilges in the port and stbd hulls. A quick look showed nothing serious.
Unfortunately we have one light for 4 bilge pumps, so we have to look at each one. As we are moving at 7 knots, there is enough noise that you have to get very close to each pump to hear if it’s running. After a closer examination, we found that the port hull bilge pump float switch had something stuck under it, keeping it on even though there was no water in the bilge.
So no panic, all OK. But this further motivates me to work on an upgrade I have been thinking about, changing from a single light to one for each bilge pump. Also, we have found that (ironically) the bilge pump and it’s plumbing has actually been guilty of letting water INTO the bilges. Each pump pushes water up a hose to an above-the-waterline through-hull where the water is ejected. But in heavy seas, water is continually slapping the through-hull and forcing its way into the hose. Each hose has a one-way valve, but these are imperfect and water leaks through, going right through the pump and into the bilge.
In Nuka Hiva I fixed this for the stbd hull by adding a big loop in the hose that goes above the through-hull so the slapping water will have to push quite a bit uphill. This seems to have fixed the problem for this one bilge. I probably I need to do something similar for the other 3 bilge pumps.
Back to my night watch, hoping the remainder will be boring.