Posted by Monty
In celebration of me successfully riding this rock another trip around the sun, we decided to drive to Oriental to see Sea Bird.
We have had a few challenges lately with family members. One in particular has had major health issues, forcing her to spend a pretty serious amount of time in a major teaching hospital, where she was the subject of at least two papers. While this is impressive, it's not really the kind of thing you would wish on anyone. She is nowhere near out of the woods yet, but we thought we could get away for a couple of days safely.
Upon our arrival, we found Sea Bird in decent shape, but very dirty. As I'm not really into nasty girls, I decided to wash the decks while Carol got things straightened out below.
It took two hours.
I was exhausted. (Evidently, I need to get back into the gym.) Also, someone had stolen our spray nozzle off the end of our hose. Who does that? Once finished, I left the still running hose on the foredeck and went below to have a drink of water and cool off.
Carol was in the v berth, mopping up some water from the freshwater leaks that have developed from us not useing (living on) the boat. When you live on a boat, maintence is ongoing. When you don't, it just piles up into major projects. Suddenly, she started yelling. "We have a leak!"
As someone whose boat sank, at this particular marina, those words struck a nerve. Imagine my confusion when the hole she had her finger on, stemming the influx of water, was near deck level.
I sprang onto deck, to see nothing out of the ordinary. Except the still running hose, harmlessly washing over the fore peak, across the anchor locker, over the rail and into the ocean.
Wait. Across the anchor locker?
Sweeping the hose away, I yanked open the locker. The drain that is supposed to empty the water that makes its way into the locker was plugged and the locker was full, draining into the hawse pipe and into the bilge instead. And also, through a superfluous hole in the bulkhead, into the storage in the v berth, then onto the sheets and mattress where my lovely bride was planning on sleeping. In a few hours. Tonight.
Readers of of this blog can harken back to a trip where we had a little weather and buried the bow in some waves, which had the same effect on my wife. Don't mess with her bed. It will not work for everyone.
After unplugging the drain to the anchor locker and some emergency bailing on my part, as well as a trip to the clubhouse dryer and some hauling of mattresses and pads, bringing them into the sun to dry, things returned to normal. (And I turned the hose off.).
The rest of the time here has been lovely. I have purposely overlooked the many things we need to do. We went out to eat. We spent the day on the beach. We talked. We laughed. We reconnected.
We decided we still like each other. Not that there was any doubt.
Except when the bed is wet...
In celebration of me successfully riding this rock another trip around the sun, we decided to drive to Oriental to see Sea Bird.
We have had a few challenges lately with family members. One in particular has had major health issues, forcing her to spend a pretty serious amount of time in a major teaching hospital, where she was the subject of at least two papers. While this is impressive, it's not really the kind of thing you would wish on anyone. She is nowhere near out of the woods yet, but we thought we could get away for a couple of days safely.
Upon our arrival, we found Sea Bird in decent shape, but very dirty. As I'm not really into nasty girls, I decided to wash the decks while Carol got things straightened out below.
It took two hours.
I was exhausted. (Evidently, I need to get back into the gym.) Also, someone had stolen our spray nozzle off the end of our hose. Who does that? Once finished, I left the still running hose on the foredeck and went below to have a drink of water and cool off.
Carol was in the v berth, mopping up some water from the freshwater leaks that have developed from us not useing (living on) the boat. When you live on a boat, maintence is ongoing. When you don't, it just piles up into major projects. Suddenly, she started yelling. "We have a leak!"
As someone whose boat sank, at this particular marina, those words struck a nerve. Imagine my confusion when the hole she had her finger on, stemming the influx of water, was near deck level.
I sprang onto deck, to see nothing out of the ordinary. Except the still running hose, harmlessly washing over the fore peak, across the anchor locker, over the rail and into the ocean.
Wait. Across the anchor locker?
Sweeping the hose away, I yanked open the locker. The drain that is supposed to empty the water that makes its way into the locker was plugged and the locker was full, draining into the hawse pipe and into the bilge instead. And also, through a superfluous hole in the bulkhead, into the storage in the v berth, then onto the sheets and mattress where my lovely bride was planning on sleeping. In a few hours. Tonight.
Readers of of this blog can harken back to a trip where we had a little weather and buried the bow in some waves, which had the same effect on my wife. Don't mess with her bed. It will not work for everyone.
After unplugging the drain to the anchor locker and some emergency bailing on my part, as well as a trip to the clubhouse dryer and some hauling of mattresses and pads, bringing them into the sun to dry, things returned to normal. (And I turned the hose off.).
The rest of the time here has been lovely. I have purposely overlooked the many things we need to do. We went out to eat. We spent the day on the beach. We talked. We laughed. We reconnected.
We decided we still like each other. Not that there was any doubt.
Except when the bed is wet...