Dealing with a leak

The bilge pump went on as we stepped aboard after going out for dinner last night. If the float switch is near its activation point, rocking the boat can cause it to trigger. There was no good reason I could think of for that much water being in the bilge. I checked the counter and it indicated the pump had gone off 3 times since we had docked. Pulling up the floorboards, Neil helped identify that there seemed to be water entering from the aft part of the boat. I lifted the engine cover and saw a slow trickle of water coming down the intake hose of the raw water pump.

We had been discussing our departure plans for Block Island and expected winds at dinner. Now we had an issue to address before any of that mattered. Very frustrating!

Tightening hose clamps didn't help. On removing the hose, we saw that the ridge on the metal intake of the pump to secure the hose did not encircle the entire pipe...very poor construction.

This is the fitting for the hose.

Neil thought to reverse the hose to see if the other part of the hose might clamp better. That seemed to work, except now seemed to leak much more slowly and the water was following a different path. The drip was now coming off the underside of the pump. It seems to be coming from the pump, probably the shaft seal in the back of the impeller housing. The only way to fix that is to rebuild or replace the pump.

Drip is visible on the pump housing. 

I ran the engine to observe what would happen to the engine running. The leak seemed to stop when the engine was running and only existed when the engine was off. It would have been more likely to be worse with the engine running...very odd. That's a mystery yet to be solved.

Atlantic City is not a place where we wanted to hang out waiting for a pump to be delivered and the pump seemed fully operational. So, we decided to stick with our plan to head to Block Island. A drop of water every 3-4 seconds is not a concern.  We will monitor the pump and hose connection during our travel.