New Raw Water Pump

Fall has arrived and with it has come a procession of low-pressure systems that track across Canada’s west coast every few days. For us, it doesn’t mean we stop cruising but it does change how often we go out and how far we go from a protected anchorage.

We do not live on Cambria–yet–but during the warmer months we do try to spend more time on Cambria than we spend on land. The balance between time on Cambria verses time spent on land naturally shifts as the weather turns colder. We had planned to be predominantly Cambria-based until the end of October, expecting that we’d naturally gravitate to being more shore based once the winter winds and rain started. The transition happened earlier than we had expected. The main reason for this was that the raw water pump on our engine began to leak–again.

The pump was rebuilt in July. We were in Comox at the time. We knew that the rebuild was not going to be permanent. The mechanic who did the work made this clear. He warned us that it wasn’t a permanent solution but it got us back on our way. Replacing the water pump was on our list of projects to do this winter. We planned to install a new pump and keep the rebuilt one as a spare. Unfortunately, this did not go as planned.

While we were in Ladysmith a few weeks ago, we noticed that the pump was leaking again. We made our way back to our home marina and ordered a new pump. While waiting for the new pump to arrive, we busied ourselves with other projects on and off the boat. It’s been good but it’s meant that we haven’t been out on the boat for a while.

We have now installed the new pump and our calendar is relatively clear so we should be able to get out on the water again soon. We’ll have to keep a close eye on the weather but we look forward to some off-season sailing in the near future.