Leak Findings

Yesterday morning we did some water testing in the cockpit area.  Water is dripping through the emergency steering access plate onto the steering gear below.  Raising the level of water on the cockpit floor to just below the lip of the access to the lazarette did not result in any water passing through.  However, when I poured cupfuls of water onto the back of the seat and let it run over the doors to the lazarette much of that water found its way into the lazarette.  From there it literally poured through several holes at the floor of the lazarette into the bilge.  There are 7 of these holes through which hoses of various sizes pass. 

Emergency Steering and Lazarette Doors

Putting a drain in the lazarette might be of some help, but isn't feasible because access difficulties in retrofitting one.  Besides, the lazarette floor is so close to the water line that a check valve would be required to prevent water from passing up the drain due to following seas or pitching of the boat.  I'm not sure how reliable a small check valve would be in that setting.

I agree with Jak's opinion that access to the lazarette should be from a well designed lid at the top, forming part of the seat, and not on the side, where the flimsy and doors with no attempt at sealing are exposed to water pooling on the cockpit floor.   Gooping sealant around the hoses is no solution since water will eventually find its way down below, and even if the sealant held I don't want salt water swishing around that floor where my gas cylinders and other equipment is housed.  The only real solution is to prevent water from getting into the lazarette and our current plan is to remove the doors and replace them with a screwed-in sheet of fiberglass with water tight access portals for manipulating the exhaust and gas cylinder valves.  This is a clumsy workaround but may be the only way to staunch the enormous amount of water that the boat has been shipping when in very rough conditions.

We then turned our attention to the chain locker.  After emptying the chain locker and removing the upper level I plugged the four drain holes with paper and we filled it up almost to the top.  As I expected there was no leakage into the cabin.  However, after proceeding to fill the locker to the top we got a serious leak around the hawse pipe.  Serious water was pouring into the V-berth area.  I'll be doing a better job of fiberglassing that area and while I'm at it plug up the hole that carries the cable to the windlass foot switch. We won't need that cable because I will not install a new battery for the windlass until after my return to Australia.

This stilll leaves the problem of the chain locker filling up with sea water when beating in heavy seas.  The only proper solution is to re engineer the access to the locker with a watertight door - much too big a job to do in La Paz.  We're kicking around workaround ideas such as filling the area with foam or inflatable floatation bags to prevent too much water from invading the space.  I'm a bit more sanguine about the problem than Jak.  I figure that by lightening the bow in moving all chain and anchors aft and driving the boat less hard, much of that problem will disappear.  For example, there could be a rule that when the bow begins to plunge below the waves it is time to ease off.

This morning I fixed an embarrassing mistake that Jak had found.  I had complained in an earlier blog that the main halyard would no longer self tail on the winch, probably due thickening. In fact the halyard would not self tail because last time I serviced the winch I transposed two sets of clutches which reversed the motion of the drum.  I didn't notice the reversal and simply wound the halyard in the reverse direction, but that made the rope run counter to the direction of the self tailing jaws. 

We then turned our attention to the emergency steering plate on the cockpit sole.  Jak removed the plate, which was held down by screws, and saw that there was no sealant underneath.  We replaced the screws with thru bolts and bedded the plate down with 3M 4200 which I had in store.

28 year old fitting finally off.  Note cut nut.

I saw Joel at mid morning and asked him when he would get a chance to attend to our stubborn exhaust thru hull fitting.  He said that he'd try to come at around 1 PM.  Shortly after 1 PM he arrived and we got to work.  He couldn't get the nut to turn and deemed using a torch too dangerous around the fiberglass, so he decided to cut through the nut with a chisel.  He the asked for a drill and between the drilling and the chisel work he managed to sever the nut.  After that there was a hard hour of painstakingly hammering the nut off.  When the nut had been backed half way I launched the Zodiac and helped from below.  Soon I asked him for a stilson pipe wrench and was able to grip the flange.  Working across the barriers of language and hull we managed to coordinate our effort well enough to finish the job in 2 hours. 

With some fast work, luck, and good friends the 176 ft of rope, cheek block with pad, and thimble that are required to set up a dedicated halyard for the trysail and replace my main halyard have been purchased in San Diego by John and will be picked up and brought to La Paz by Rick at the end of the month.  Thanks, fellows.