update...... last weekend we launched to spend a quick half-day on the water. unfortunately with the lunar cycle, it was low tide..... about 6" below charted depth. the preferred boat ramp is near the house, however is up in skinny water territory.
in the pic below, the boat ramp is where the star is. the river there is 12+ feet deep, so once you get out of the no wake zone, you can open it up to the 25mph limit
the issue is that about half a mile down stream, the channel does a hard zig-zag (where the white and yellow arrows are) normally that area is about 3.5 feet deep. however the channel moved a bit recently, and we found ourselves in 1.5 feet of water along with other boats (yellow arrow)....... polished the props good, however more importantly as we got back up to speed, noticed zero water pressure and the temp gauge just starting to move.
instead of risking any damage, tossed anchor and called for a tow. watched a few other boats (both I/O and outboard) spit a shower of muck as they went thru the pass. at the end of the hour, there were 4 of us sitting anchored by the time Captain John showed up. He managed to get stuck on the way to us as well as pick up a crab trap in the props...
I thought I completely fried the impeller on the new pump. turns out I just shoved about 10# of muck up the raw water plumbing. I did notice a bit of water and debris in the bilge, I may have taken out a seal on the pump. will need to keep an eye on it.
spent a few hours yesterday getting muck out of the plumbing between the raw water pump and outdrive pickup. spent an hour today getting muck out after the HX. after everything was back together, ran the motor on the hose for 20 minutes prior to the water coming out clear.
