The water was just lapping up to the sills of the doors into the boat... gulp.
It quickly became obvious that the drains had blocked with a combination of early autumn leaves, and other detritus... quite a lot of hair!
I unblocked them, and the water was gone in less than a minute.
However, the engine room was a different matter... a quick inspection showed that the water sitting in the cockpit had also found its way past the steering pedestal, and the engine was pretty wet... nothing that will do any harm, but enough that the plan to pull the injector pump apart was a non starter... I therefore had a quick change of plan...
The cockpit tent was put up sharpish as it was still raining... or put up as much as I can... the sides still need pop studs fitting to the boat... they are onboard... I can't find them!... and yes, I did check in the place that the GPS appeared from!
Nevertheless, it was enough for me to get the cockpit dry, and I detached the steering cables, and undid the bolts holding the pedestal in place. Resealing the pedestal has been on my list for a long while... It had just zoomed to the top of the list!
Removing the pedestal was easy, and I set to reinstall it with a good dose of sealant. The previous owner for some reason, had ignored the nice set of new aluminium bolts when reinstalling the pedetal when we bought her... so I decided to use them... a good call, as the old ones were a poor quality metal, possibly just plated, and were corroding pretty badly... one had lost half its diameter in the 3 years it had been in place.
A few minutes later, I discovered why the bolts had remained in their wrapper. They were 12mm diameter shafts, and the removed ones were 9mm... not an issue for the wood plinth upon which the pedestal sat, or the deck that the bolts carried on through... 2 minutes with a drill had that dealt with.... however, the 4mm thick stainless steel backing plates were a bit tougher... I ended up spending 3 hours with a round file adding the extra 3mm of diameter such that the bolts would go through... but it was eventually done... lots and lots of sealant, and the pedestal was remounted.
I set about reconnecting the steering cable... and I grabbed it, it was very very hot!.... crikey... it had rested in the positive terminal of the battery when I had disconnected it... and had been merrily conducting away for the last few hours!!!!!.... fortunately, no harm done... it is a heavy wire, and had just got hot, rather than causing any serious damage... a lesson though... I need terminal covers on the batteries untik such time as I mount them properky, probably in a box with a vented lid.
So now, the engine room is water tight again... the heater is in there drying everything out, and I should be OK to get on with the engine tomorrow.
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