The sea chest sounds so nautical and “yo-heave-ho,” but it isn’t. It’s also called a water box; it’s the manifold where sea water comes in for the various systems that use it. Once upon a time, we had air conditioners, a fridge, and two heads that flushed with sea water, plus, of course raw water for the engine. And. Bonus. A fancy deck wash down system that pulled sea chest water.
Now we have the engine, the forward head, and the wash down. CA likes things simple.
The system is below the water line and requires double hose clamps, with annual inspection and no tolerance for rust. CA has a socket driver with the hose-clamp socket on it. She likes to check things carefully. And independently from my casual, shrugging acceptance of rusty things.
CA didn’t like the vent line. It’s about 10′ of heavy-duty ⅝″ hose that snakes up to the tippy-top of the wet locker to allow air into (and out of) the sea chest. The hose clamps were rusty and the hose was sketchy-looking. It has been mashed out of shape around a too-small hose barb.
She shut off the water. Cleaned the strainer. And then took a utility knife down into the bilge to cut away the old hose.
And.
Broke the sketchy, rusty fitting.
Clean off.
That lead a big “Oh, crap, what did I do?” question.
The visions of doom arise when you break something like that.
Followed by my response.
“You broke that which could not be broken.”
After dodging the utility knife she was still holding, I had to thank her profusely for breaking something that was probably only a few years from catastrophic failure.
The picture may not reveal the essence of the problem. The original fitting was a reducer and a pipe nipple threaded into a ½” elbow. Not a hose barb.
Here it is in it’s shiny goodness. The picture’s awkward. But.
The bottom left is the top of the sea chest. A sheet of ¼” polycarbonate. Working from left to right, at the edge of the photo is a thick black hose that’s input.
Below it is a hard-to-see elbow that’s solid.
To the right, the blue circle, is the top of a valve that lets to the copper circle cap. This is where we put in antifreeze to winterize the raw water system.
Then the new copper fitting for the vent hose.
Down below the new fitting is an old, greenish elbow that’s rock solid. Maybe next year.
At the very bottom is a loop of hose that needs to be shortened. I’m a fan of leaving some slack, that hose is way too long.
The weather was almost nice enough to try out the new sails. The tide, however, was uncooperative.
We’re not sure we could get past he sea wall out into the Bay.
