We waited for slack high tide to leave our anchorage. We backed out and there was a fair amount of wind. David was able to get the bow around to head out with a standing turn where you throttle in short bursts between forward and reverse which turns the boat in a tighter circle. Our boat does best with a starboard standing turn.
We exited the anchorage despite another boat owner yelling that we might be nearing shallow water. We knew our depth was good because it was high tide. We are learning to trust ourselves a tiny bit.
We went to check out the south anchorage in the city harbor, just past the southern mooring field. We found a spot and anchored. We watched carefully as we switched currents through the tide cycle and set our anchor alarm in navionics.
Since we did not feel comfortable leaving the boat, we set about troubleshooting our heat pump mud issue. We disconnected the hoses and cleaned them out one by one. We then disassembled the pump that pulls water into the system. We found mud. We removed the impeller and cleaned everything.
Next was the hose from the pump to the actual heat pump and coils, again mud.
Then on to the heat pump coils, again… mud.
As mentioned previously, our salt water wash down and our heat pump share a thru hull. There is a valve that diverts water from one to the other. After we cleaned the hose to the wash down pump, we were able to use the wash down to flush water through the out put thru hull, around the coils and through the hose connecting the coils and pump; a back flush kind of thing. David had done this to winterize the boat previously so he knew it would work if the mud was not too tightly packed. So he stood on the ladder on the side of the boat, feet in the water, with the hose for the salt water wash down while I caught mud in a double garbage bag in the bilge. It worked like a charm and we were able to clear our lines. And the garbage bag system held and was successfully transferred to the bucket. Note to list, collapsible bucket would be nice for bilge work.
We will not know if our two pump, water pump to heat pump and heat pump itself will work until we plug back in to shore power, but at least the lines are clear before the mud could dry and cake. We are hoping that if we destroyed a pump, it was the water one which would be cheaper and easier to replace. We do not need the heat/ac but it was nice, especially ac in Cape Charles in the summer.
We enjoyed the sights from our anchorage. We thought we had gotten the last spot until 3 other boats came and anchored next to us. One anchored very close to our bow and we hope not on top or our anchor chain. We are both leaving to go to a mooring ball tomorrow and they will have to leave before we can try to pull up our anchor. Quiet evening, with no action from the festivities to the north. Josie swung nicely with the other boats.
