Yes, It Has Been Awhile

SHIP'S LOG:


     When you are out sailing every day, it is hard to do other things. The weather, for the most part, has been wonderful for sailing and I have been using it to full advantage.

     With the Sail Fest celebration and Fireworks this past weekend, we really lucked out. Last year low clouds and fog obscured the fireworks even from the people in Shaw's Cove outside of which the firework barges were moored. Nobody saw nothin' - except for some glowing colored lights. This year the weather was perfect and the fireworks were grand.

      The day before, Friday, I sailed up to the city pier to see VIRGINIA. She is schooner of 110 feet and she came in under sail for the weekend festivities. She plied up and down the river with passengers aboard and all under sail. The crew can really maneuver the ship very well. At one point she got to dodge two regular ferries, the SEAJET ferry, plus a submarine with its gunboat escorts, and all under sail. It was quite remarkable as I would have found the whole situation rather difficult and I know the river.  But the crew of the VIRGINIA -  no muss, no fuss.

      The first three days of this week were awful. No wind, no sun, lots of rain and fog and humidity. The so much no wind that we bobbed around at the starting line for the Wednesday night races until they finally called them off at 6:45. No wind and no prospects of any. That hasn't happened in years.

     Every boat has leaks somewhere. It is a consequence of being in the water.  I have found and eliminated most but one just defied locating. Fred came down to give me a hand locating and fixing same. This particular leak was sneaky because its source looked like it belong. Behind the aft cabin bulkhead, there is a small bilge area that would collect whatever water might drip from the rudder shaft or wherever else at the stern of the boat. Water collecting there would flow through the bulkhead by means of "limber holes" drilled through the bulkhead, and from there on down into the sump of the main bilge. My main concern was the main bilge which filled slowly over a day or so and then when the water tripped the sensor switch, the bilge pump would pump out a sufficient amount to bring the water level down below the sensor. I was trying to find out where that water came from and started with Fred at the bilge in the stern of the boat. Fred declared this was the source of all the water.  He found that pressing on the bilge floor, water would appear. I drilled a 1/2" hole in the bilge floor and it filled with water. I vacuumed it out and it slowly began to fill again.  Evidently, as Fred deduced, this area had been a void that the builders filled with foam and glassed over. Over the years, the tube for the prop shaft that ran through, developed some leaks, allowing water to infiltrate the foam. One of the previous owner was unhappy with the limber hole builder put in and drilled two of his own. Unfortunately in doing sow, he cracked the fiberglass seal at the bulkhead and this allowed the water, by means of "hydrostatic pressure" according to Fred,  to pump into the bilge. It took an hours of probing to find the first leak and two to find the second. The first leak and the hole I drilled are filled and sealed. The second will be done today and then I see if there are anymore leaks. AH! The Joy Of Boat Ownership!