We heard the high pressure pump go off unexpectedly, and the last time that happened we had lots of water in the bilge, so it was time to investigate.

You can tell that Beverley and I do not take ourselves too seriously when she mentions in our blog one of the older seaman jokes about leeks on boats.

We had arrived in Carrickfergus and the weather was lovely, there was sunshine and we could actually do stuff up on deck. Beverley thought it was rather ironic that we had nice weather when we had been in Bangor for months and we had storm after storm. However, seeing as we did have nice weather then we might as well get on with stuff because, it is better to be busy than board. So one of the things that I had to do was sort out the washing. When you choose to start living on a boat like we do, you know that one day you will be is some remote location with the sun on your back and you will have to do the washing by hand. Well the day of having to do the washing by hand had finally arrived and we were no where near a remote location, we were actually in Carrickfergus marina. Its just that the laundry services were in the marina building and that was closed apart from the toilet block. So I tried to keep my fantasy alive as much as possible with a sun kissed deck and our pink bucket. There was however no way that I would be wearing a swimming costume, it was far too cold for that. So all in all two out of three wasn't bad so I will just have to cope. While, I was doing the washing Beverley joked about doing my grandmother proud, as she too used a tub and a wringer. It made me remember my grandma who was born in 1887, so if there was washing to be done then she would send anybody she could to do it, just so she wouldn't have to do it herself and personally I don't blame her, because I would be thinking the same way.

Two days later, the weather took a turn for the worse, and a storm was on its way, so Beverley and I checked the lines together and added another spring line for good measure, We pulled Salty Lass away from the main pontoon as the wind would be on our nose and we would be pushed back. When the storm hit we hadn't got it right on the back as we were actually pushed back into the main pontoon. Our rear fenders did help, but we still bent our training wheels that are on our swim platform. Beverley filmed me while I was out on deck ans I could see waves coming over the sea wall. When you are quite happy up on deck in a force 9, just checking on Salty Lass and our tender Salty Sausage then you know you are a sea girl. In fact I really enjoy the difficult weather, I find it quite invigorating.

The next day it was quite blowy, so we were going to sort out a little job, but while we were discussing the job, the high pressure pump turned on quite unexpectedly, so we set out to investigate. We found quite a lot of water in the bilge, so the first task of the day was to pump that out. Once it was all pumped out, it was time to get a sponge and soak up the excess water then wring out the excess. Even the middle bilge had a tiny bit of water in, but because we have the tins a little bit raised they were still dry.

Once the bilge was dry, we looked at our last repair, which looked fine. So we decided to look at our fridge and see if any water was coming from there. There was quite a lot of water near the fridge compressor, which is usually a dry area. So Beverley touched the insulation that we had on the pipe and she could see that there was water in the lagging. I'm glad to say that I managed to film that bit and there was quite a lot of water in the lagging. We then used the camera to look at the hard to reach areas and quite a lot of lagging had come away from the pipe so water was condensing on the pipe.

So Beverley poured water around the compressor to see where it turned up. Well the water from the compressor area turned up in the pot locker, so at least we knew where that water was coming from. She also found that water coming from the fridge area was running along the beans and making the wood along the bottom of the furniture damp. Beverley joked that we had a watermaker on board. Yachties would love us, as we had a really cheap watermaker. Yachties would love us and we would become rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

So we had not found what was causing our high pressure pump to go off, but we had found one source of water, so we were going to sort that as best as we could and at least try and remove that out of the where are we getting water from. So I wrapped cable ties around the insulation, this then allowed me to push that insulation up the pipe, so that I could add a little bit more insulation where I could reach it.

So the insulation around the compression pipe was better, but not perfect, but Beverley and I believe in good solutions, not necessary perfect.

We never did find what was causing the high pressure pump to go off, but we had found one issue and we were happy enough to call it a day at that.