Hurricane Pass

[mawyatt]

Well after getting the manifolds done and fixing the design problem with the AC I was ready to watch the sunset last night. We left the dock about 6:30p heading out Hurricane Pass to the Gulf. I had created waypoints thru the pass a couple years ago because the charts are not even close and the depths are not correct. We hit an newly emerged small sand bar right next to one of my waypoints!! It was very small and not noticeable even at low tide!! I tuned south and anchored to get out of the channel. All strainers full of sand, stbd engine had no raw water flow, generator stopped, port engining sputtering raw water. Cleaned the strainers, and checked for inlet flow. Both engines started (haven't tried to start the generator yet), but stbd has no raw water flow, port has good raw water flow.

Dockmat with 44' Silverton bridge said Coast Guard told him to not use Hurricane Pass because of the constantly changing sand and bottom, he heads out from Clearwater Pass instead. Guess I have been lucky for the past 10 years, but my luck just ran out!!

I must assume the impellers will need replacing, and hope that there isn't a clog in the stbd engine (or generator). So I'll be looking at the raw water pumps and impellers later today and tomorrow. Now to go find the posts on changing the impellers.

Happy Memorial Day & God Bless the folks present & past defending our country!

Mike

 

[fwebster]

Unfortunately, when you ingest sand to the extent your strainers have a noticeable amount in them, you need to flush the cooling system completely. Sand settles in the engine block and just stays there blocking the water jackets. THe best way is to start with the heat exchanger and flush backward component to component until you get to the strainer, then vacuum the sand out of the strainer with a shopvac. It is a long and arduous process, but leaving sand in the system usually costs you money in the long run. If the engines will run, and pump water, you might get by with cleaning out the strainers and then running the boat for an hour or so to let it self flush the sand on thru the system. Any way you cut it, the impellors now have a much shorter life remaining, even though they may be pumping water now.

 

[hd12121]

Hey there: we tried running out of Hurricane Pass Sunday evening just after low tide. We were stuck inside the marked channel also. Maybe that's why there are no intermediate markers over such a wide span. Maybe some sort of warning would be in order. It makes you think about how many other traps exist if even the locals are getting stuck?

 

[kevin27]

I came in the pass about one month ago and found only 2.5' where there was good water before. That pass has always changed from time to time. When you go out you need to follow the beach somewhat to the northwest before turning west. I stopped using this pass much till we get a good storm and it gets deeper again. An option is the pass between Honeymoon and Three Rooker. I use to run my 300DA through there at times but have not taken the Tiara through yet. I am much more carefull with it as a grounding would be VERY bad with the inboards. I was in the dinghy there a couple of months ago and seemed ok.

 

[mawyatt]

Unfortunately, when you ingest sand to the extent your strainers have a noticeable amount in them, you need to flush the cooling system completely. Sand settles in the engine block and just stays there blocking the water jackets. THe best way is to start with the heat exchanger and flush backward component to component until you get to the strainer, then vacuum the sand out of the strainer with a shopvac. It is a long and arduous process, but leaving sand in the system usually costs you money in the long run. If the engines will run, and pump water, you might get by with cleaning out the strainers and then running the boat for an hour or so to let it self flush the sand on thru the system. Any way you cut it, the impellors now have a much shorter life remaining, even though they may be pumping water now.

Frank, I did use a shop vac to pull as much water as I could from the various open hoses after I removed the raw water pump. There was some sand but not too much. How hard is the water pump to rotate by hand without any water (I have it removed and cover plate off)? The impeller looks fine, no apparent wear or tear, no scaring of the pump walls...the impeller only has 50 hours on it. When I return to the boat I'll do a better job with the shop vac and check for additional ingested sand. I returned from the grounding on the port engine at idle, so it had a chance to clean itself. Didn't see any temp rise and water flow seemed good. I started the generator Sunday for about 10 minutes, it ran fine, pumped water and didn't overheat. I'll run it longer when I get back to the boat. Sorry for the format, it's my work computer and this site, they don't like each other!!