Salty crusty dried crystals in bilge?

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

Probiotic free range organic pan dried salt, perhaps?

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if you dissolved it in water then boiled off the liquid.....you would have......
Pasturised,Probiotic, free range, organic, pan dried, reconstituted salt....

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by atoll

if you dissolved it in water then boiled off the liquid.....you would have......
Pasturised,Probiotic, free range, organic, pan dried, reconstituted salt....

Is salt reconstituted? Or is simply deconstructed seawater?

[mrm]

Originally Posted by atoll

if you dissolved it in water then boiled off the liquid.....you would have......
Pasturised,Probiotic, free range, organic, pan dried, reconstituted salt....

If Pasteurised then probiotic is lost, how about:

Pasteurised, Postbiotic, Mineral-Rich, Macroelement-Enhanced, Organic, pan dried, reconstitued bilge salt? (maybe throw 'ancient recipe' in there, depending on boat age)?

[savoir]

Old spots of dried up oil will send the salt brown.

[deblen]

How do you get your bilge that clean??
Len

[Cheechako]

I dont think there is any issue with brown salt. I would not expect dried up salt water from a a bilge to look white. It could be many things rom diesel residue to rust from keel bolts or mast support, screws or nails used in the floor supports, etc, to a few drops of transmission fluid.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by jefndeb

When my bilge is dry, there is a layer of dried crystals left over.... anybody know why or how this is possible?

Attachment 156953

If you remove them do new ones appear?

Looking at the photo enlarged, that looks a bit like sawdust to me.

You have the advantage of actually seeing, feeling and smelling this stuff. Put this stuff in a glass of water. Does it dissolve? Does it float? Sink but not dissolve?

Look directly above where this stuff is. Can you see anything that is disintegrating or torn?

You have a better chance of solving this yourself than someone looking at a photo on the Internet.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I dont think there is any issue with brown salt. I would not expect dried up salt water from a a bilge to look white.

IMHO brown salt shares a lot of virtues with yellow snow.

Even if it is probiotic, free range, hypo allergenic, organic, pan dried, deconstructed seawater, fair trade salt.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

IMHO brown salt shares a lot of virtues with yellow snow.

Even if it is probiotic, free range, hypo allergenic, organic, pan dried, deconstructed seawater, fair trade salt.

There's only one thing for it: I think the OP might need to go for the 'taste test' .. clearly it's not pink "Himalayan salt".. more like "Mumbai salt"..

[atoll]

Originally Posted by Cavalier

There's only one thing for it: I think the OP might need to go for the 'taste test' .. clearly it's not pink "Himalayan salt".. more like "Mumbai salt"..

i always taste my bilge water....if there is a larger than normal amount.

if it is freshwater on a long passage this can indicate a serious problem IE leaking water tanks!

[DeepFrz]

If you can not solve the riddle yourself then send it out to a lab for testing but it just looks like dirt, sand and sawdust accumulation to me.

[zeehag]

that not salt.
salt looks edible.
this looks eaten.
might wanna treat bilges for insects that love wood as meals, or get a self cleaning bagged sander to minimize the stuff in bilges. also place a screen around your pump. mine is contained in a colander under my engine, so it has a crudpreventer to keep particles out of the works. lost too many pumps to careless workers leaving/tossing stuff in my bilges. it seems i need to place my switches in colanders as well.
helpful hint--get a dentist mirror or some mirror or take a pic with your cell fone of what exactly is directly above that pile of sawdust. use flash. you may learn a bit about wood framing in the marine environment. especially if history includes proximity to lumber yard or trees with nests.

[jefndeb]

This bilge area is covered only by a removable teak floorboards, so i dont think its coming from the wood, its not rotten or flaking,,,,they are all varnished...

[zeehag]

the pic i saw was a tiny pile of sawdust which is the sign of termites and carpenter ants. you might want to look at your framing. your framing is prolly lesser softer wood, as it was in the chris craft commander 38 i used to know--was my ex hubbys, first 18 built in fiberglass. there were termites in the works framing or stringers, which were phillipine mahogany.
there was a beautiful formosa 41 here ...i had seen for a few years of cruising, in various places--la cruz, zihuatenejo, mazatlan., barra de navidad... seems in one or more of our cruising venues he contracted a severe case of the termites and carpenter ants. yes our wood is all teak. but under the beautiful teak is framing. that framing is NOT teak. guaranteed.
so, ignore the pile of sawdust, which is the classic sign of termites, and have a great day. varnish does not keep termites away. nor does teak. my friend in a wetsnail 32 also had termites, in the bow, just under caprail. he fought his with wd40. swore by it. shooot that stuff right up the termite holes and done.
but you could not possibly have termites because you have varnish. sadly it does not work that way.
let us know what it was, once you call an exterminator for verification.

[Cavalier]

Originally Posted by zeehag

the pic i saw was a tiny pile of sawdust which is the sign of termites and carpenter ants. you might want to look at your framing. your framing is prolly lesser softer wood, as it was in the chris craft commander 38 i used to know--was my ex hubbys, first 18 built in fiberglass. there were termites in the works framing or stringers, which were phillipine mahogany.

there was a beautiful formosa 41 here ...i had seen for a few years of cruising, in various places--la cruz, zihuatenejo, mazatlan., barra de navidad... seems in one or more of our cruising venues he contracted a severe case of the termites and carpenter ants. yes our wood is all teak. but under the beautiful teak is framing. that framing is NOT teak. guaranteed.

so, ignore the pile of sawdust, which is the classic sign of termites, and have a great day. varnish does not keep termites away. nor does teak. my friend in a wetsnail 32 also had termites, in the bow, just under caprail. he fought his with wd40. swore by it. shooot that stuff right up the termite holes and done.

but you could not possibly have termites because you have varnish. sadly it does not work that way.

let us know what it was, once you call an exterminator for verification.

From what I could make.out from the OP's pic, it looked like they'd scraped up the material from the dried-out bilge to create a pile, rather than it already being in a pile.

Whenever I've seen termite "kick-out" it looks like tiny sand/black mottled rice grains. The hole on the underside of the board, if it's dry wood termites, would look no bigger than a pinhole.



Any chance of a close-up photo of the "salt" or has it been cleaned up already?

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