As some of you already know, 'Drummer' has a water-cooled fridge. What this means is that seawater is pumped from below the waterline to the fridge compressor (thus cooling it) and then overboard. To avoid any blockages in the system, a water filter collects weed and debris and needs to be cleared out occasionally. This week was one of those occassions, so taking the usual spanners I removed the filter cap and removed the debris and then replaced it. Unlike previous occasions this time the filter cap just wouldn't seal properly and seawater kept weeping into the bilge. Cleaning the filter housing and cap, checking the washer all had little effect and the weeping continued. Something was wrong but I couldn't figure out what! Having slept on the problem I decided to check the filter housing again but this time I was looking for a hairline fracture - I couldn't see one! I decided to replace the cap and tighten it again just in case the pressure would force any fracture to expand such that I could see it.

Well...you could say this had the desired affect because what it revealed was that corrosion had taken place in the cap itself - the threaded part of the cap parted company with the rest of the cap. We had found our problem and it was easily rectified (we carried a spare :-)) and I'm pleased to say we've now cured our leak.

But this was a narrow escape! We hate to think of the consequences if it had parted company whilst we were out socialising or shopping! Whilst we have automatic bilge pumps on 'Drummer' I really don't think they would have been able to cope with the constant inflow of seawater! Perhaps now is the time to consider an air-cooled fridge even though it's less efficient in warmer climates?