Leaks

It finally started to rain this afternoon, so I went ahead and cleaned off the decks and washed them down. Luckily, I only found 3 leaks, 2 of which were expected. They were due to bad seals on the corroded portholes that haven't been fixed yet. I had to caulk one of them shut to stop the leak, but the other seems to have stopped after I dogged it down tighter.

The other leak looked like it might be the toerail, but after I examined it from the outside and didn't find any problems, I noticed that the dorade box was directly over it, so I think that's what leaked. It had a bunch of garbage that had collected over the summer, and I had sprayed water in both of them for several minutes to clean them out when I washed down the decks. They drain on deck, but some water evidently splashed down the vent pipe inside. I verified this when I checked it from inside and found it was wet.

It's going to rain for a while, so I'll keep an eye on everything and see if anything else leaks. However, I still have some mysterious leaks under the cockpit. I'm not sure, but I think they're from one of the drains. The oil catch tray under the engine is full of water, so it's either a drain or a leak in the fresh water cooling system. I ran the engine for about an hour today, so there's really no way to tell which one caused the problem. I'll drain it tonight and see if it refills before I run the engine again.

I did find two other leaks when I ran the engine, but neither one should be a big deal. One was due to what appears to be a loose hose clamp going into the muffler, and the other was a drip off the fuel filter mounted on the engine. I think it just needs to be tightened as well. I'll take care off both of them before I run the engine again.

I also finished mounting all the cockpit hatches today. I got most of them in yesterday, but the wind was blowing so hard it made it difficult to work. The boat was jumping all around and after a few hours with my head down in the lockers, I got a little queasy. I took a break for lunch, but it took a really long time to eat -- I kept thinking I might not keep it down. I'm still at the dock, but with the wind blowing in at 25-30 mph, the water got pretty choppy, and the boat bobbed like a cork.

Things have calmed down now, but it's good to have a few nasty days before I leave. I can function when it's rough, but it still takes a few days to get used to it. Once I'm used to it, I can do almost anything, but the first few days can be a bit dicey.

I still have to mount my winches and glaze the large portlights. I might try to do the winches tomorrow, at least drill the holes, but will need to wait for a nice sunny day to glaze the portlights. After the winches and deck organizer are in, the only other thing I need to do before I can bend the sails is fix one of the turning blocks and put them both back together -- a couple of stainless steel flanges are bent and need to be straightened first.

At that point, I'll be ready to take her for a test sail. However, I'll probably wait until I've got my radios, lights, and wind vane working. I could probably have all that ready this weekend, but I think I'll wait until Monday so there will be someone around in case I have a problem. Coneys stopped working weekends a couple weeks ago, and other than fishermen across the bay, there's really no one around. There are only a few more boats left on the moorings, and they'll all be gone soon too.

So, assuming I don't run into any issues this weekend or when I take her for a sail, I plan to leave sometime next week. I just need to time my trip down the East River so I can go through Hell Gate at slack tide and ride it down to New York Harbor. I'm also planning on entering the ICW at Manasquan Inlet, so I may have to hang out at Sandy Hook for a while if the winds aren't favorable.

If I'm hung up for too long, I might put down the non-skid, but would rather get down to warmer weather sooner than later. I'm a day or two away from making all my decisions based on the winds and tides -- I can't wait.