It was a beautiful day, sunny with a nice breeze. I sat reading in the salon, the kids continued schoolwork, and the captain sat up top in the cockpit driving us northward. After a few hours, we entered the southern area of New Smyrna Beach. It was really pretty (despite the hoards of fishing boats scattered about). We began to see dolphins. They were racing and playing in the wake of our boat. The kids and I all vacated our interior prone positions to relish in the sights of the sea life. Not long after the dolphins had dropped back, we began to see the manatees. The whole area is a manatee zone, so we were going fairly slow. The manatees were everywhere. We could see the swirl of water right before they would break the surface and show themselves. We even saw a whole family of them break the surface right next to us. We were fascinated, and having a great time. The captain even had to steer around one that popped up in front of the boat. As we exited New Smyrna Beach, the sea life went quiet, so the kids and I went back inside to continue our previous engagements.
I was enthralled in a book, as the kids did schoolwork, when our daughter dropped her pencil on the floor. As she reached down to pick it up, she exclaimed, "Mom, look!" I looked over and my eyes almost bulged out of my head. There was water everywhere! It appeared to just be bubbling up from the middle of the floor! There was at least four inches of water engulfing the floor of the galley, quickly on it's way to the salon! Several things then happened simultaneously. Our daughter yelled the water was flowing out from under the galley sink, I yelled to turn off the water pressure, and the bilge alarm finally sounded off as I yelled at the captain that we were flooding. Several thoughts went through my mind at once: the damn wakes from the power boaters have cracked us somewhere, a water tank has ruptured, what do I need to turn off to stop the water, which of the two freaking bilges is going off, and there is no way we are going to sink! Ensuring that the fresh water pressure pump was off, with my feet wet, I ran to the port hull to ensure the salt water pump was turned off as well. My mind warned me a fraction of second before I leapt, but I did it anyway. As my wet feet hit the hull floor, they slid right from under me. I landed hard on my rear and back. My daughter yelled at me to not hurt myself as the adrenaline pumping through my system jerked me off the floor and on to the salt water pump switch. I vaguely recalled thinking, "I'll pay for that later" as I began to lift the panels above the bilges to look for the source of water. Finding none, I grabbed a bucket and tore myself back up to the salon.
Not knowing what else to do, I began bailing water out to the cockpit drains (fortunately right outside the cockpit door, where the bulk of the water sat). My mind was racing as the captain looked down and asked, "Is it fresh water or salt water?" Without any hesitation, I cupped a bunch in my hand and tasted it. It was fresh water. I tasted it twice just to be sure! Interestingly, this actually made me feel much better. If it was fresh water, it would eventually stop as the fresh water tanks emptied. Had it been salt water....well, let's not go there. I handed the bucket to my daughter and told her to keep bailing. I yelled at our son to go and make sure it was the port bilge alarm I was hearing (versus the starboard one, or both for that matter).
I wrenched open the cabinet under the galley sink and started emptying it's contents onto the countertop. Everything on the bottom shelf was submerged. As I emptied the shelf, I saw the source of the problem. A cold water hose, that had been carelessly clamped by the previous owner, had popped off the main line. With the engines to the boat running, we had not heard the fresh water pump running, as it dumped fresh water out of the hose all under the cabinet. Once the cabinet bottom filled up, it then began spilling over onto the floor. It went through two more cabinets on it's way to the floor, so with every bottom cabinet I opened, I was greeted with a new four inch deep puddle of water. With the fresh water pump off, no more water was coming in, but there was still a heck of a lot of water to get out! As my daughter bailed the floor, I began bailing out from under the cabinets. Our son ran to get buckets and towels, helped empty the contents of the lower galley cabinets onto the table, and ran around checking for additional water.
It was all cleaned up ten minutes before the captain informed us to prepare to anchor. Once anchored, I stood looking at the contents of the galley spread out all over the table and counter. I left the doors to the cabinets open to ensure they would completely dry out. I had informed the captain of the problem prior to anchoring, so he immediately went and obtained tools to fix the hose. The kids and I started hanging towels and the cabinets carpets out on the lifelines to dry. Then we made dinner and sat around the contents of the galley enjoying our meal. We put everything back together, and took the opportunity to fix the leaking sinks while we were at it. It was midnight before we had finished our showers and crawled into our cabins to sleep.
As Bob Bitchin' says: "Attitude - The difference between an ordeal and an adventure." So, with that in mind, chalk this up to one of the many adventures that have occurred aboard Liliana. We look forward to the many more adventures yet to come (let's just hope future adventures involve less bailing). 😉
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