Well, That didn't Work!

SHIP'S LOG:

It is not that I minded the work. well, actually I did, but if it had paid off, that is if it had fixed the problem, I wouldn't have minded a bit. Actually, I would have been very full of myself for having done the job correctly. In reality, I did do the job correctly . . . re-bedding the two ports to stop the leaks. The problem was that was not where the leaks were coming from!

Last night, TYC was rocked for 45 minutes with a great thunder-n-lightning storm which also included a heck of a lot of rain. I was asleep in the aft cabin when a drip landed right in the middle of my back. Not the way one wishes to be awakened from a dead sleep.On went the flash light and the drip was leaking in the same spot. I went to the nav station and the leak there was still leaking as well. I was not happy.

Staring at the leak in the aft cabin port, I slowly began to realize that the source of the leak was the gasket that was holding the Plexiglas in the aluminum frame. The gaskets in all of the ports are 34 years old and they just are no longer completely up to the task. The rubber, or whatever the material is that they are made out of, has just seen too many years of sun and salt and no longer really have the flexibility to keep a tight seal. The water in migrating in through the gaskets and hence the leaks. Rather than pop the ports again right now, I will cover the gaskets with silicon and see if that will seal them short term. If so, their replacement can await the spring. If not, I will be very unhappy.

I also had the joy this day of getting a filling replaced. I cracked it a couple of months ago down in Georgia and while it wasn't a major pain, every now and then , if I chewed the right way, it became a major pain. Today was the first day the dentist could fix it and he did and when I got back to the boat, it was too beautiful a day to do anything other than go sailing. So I went. There was great wind out of the SW and, even with her dirty bottom, ABISHAG was doing over 6 knots, which is pretty good for an 11 ton ketch! And if I get over the side and clean her bottom, she will do even better!The best part was I really didn't have to go anywhere. I just had to sail and enjoy the fact that I was sailing. She heeled quite abit and so everything that was not properly stored got tossed about the cabin and pretty much everything was not properly stored. It comes from living on a boat in one place for almost a month and then going out sailing in some real wind.. Even with the clean-up that it entailed at journey's end, it was more than worth it. Weather permitting, I will do the same tomorrow, post siliconing the ports.