Final Local Storm Begins

The final local storm began early this morning -- at least I hope it's "my" final local storm here in New York. It's not cold, but should rain all day, and turn really cold Monday night. With any luck, the strong winds will abate by Thursday and I can start my voyage south.

I've still got a few leaks, but the caulking around the companionway frame helped a lot. However, I'll need to make some modifications when I get to Houston, because there's no way it would keep out a wave. The boards fit way too loosely.

The other leak is near the starboard side splice I repaired this summer. It's not too bad, but I think I'll have to remove the bolts and fill the void with epoxy in order to fix it. It shouldn't take long, but I'll have to wait till I've got about a week of relatively warm and dry weather, which I won't find until I'm south of the Carolinas.

Aurora's nose is still a little low, which is exacerbating the leak since the water is pooling up against the toe rail a few feet forward of the deck drain. I'm going to move gear around today to see if I can rebalance her. I have a 35 pound anchor hanging off a bow roller and 200 feet of 5/16 chain in the chain locker that adds up to about 215 pounds right at the bow.

When I bought the boat, it had about 180 pounds of lead pigs up in the chain locker to help hold the nose down with the anchors mounted on the deck forward and aft of the mast, so I've got a good 30-40 more pounds up there right now. And since it so far forward of the fulcrum, it's tough to offset it. I did move 7 of the pigs (20 pounds each) to the lazarette and have both of the old anchors in the cockpit, but the nose is still heavy.

Most of my tools and the extra paint is up in the forecastle, mostly stacked well forward on the v-berth. That's also a lot of weight, so I going to try to move some of it aft today. I think that should help a lot. I can also move my outboard aft, but since I don't want it to interfere with the wind vane, I'm not sure if I'll be able to mount it on the stern pulpit.

I guess I'll play around with it over the next few days, but right now it's strapped to the coach roof between the sliding companionway hatch and the mast. I also have my inflatable rolled up and stowed on the coach roof on top of the sliding hatch sleeve. Both are aft of but really close to the fulcrum, so they aren't having much effect on the fore and aft balancing.

I'd prefer to keep my decks as clear as possible, but I'm not sure that's possible when cruising. There's so much gear you need to take, you'll almost always have to stack some of it on deck -- that includes additional fuel tanks as well -- don't want them in the cabin.