Sunday 1 Dec, Charleston SC day 1: Snug onboard as rain front passes.
As expected, we wake to wind from the SW, 15-28kts. But at least it’s warm, 20degC. Maybe the heaters can take a rest today.
At first, it seems we have moved a bit. Did the anchor drag or is it the strong wind with tide? The bottom here is renowned for junk so we hope we haven’t dragged into old cables or anything. Diving down 10m in this murky water won’t be fun. But as the tide turns at midday we are back to exactly where we anchored yesterday. I guess we are not used to swinging with 35m of chain out (we are anchored in 9m water).
Before the rain arrives I do some tidying in the aft lockers and also get ready with 2 fuel cans and 2 different fuel lines to try to trouble shoot what is actually causing the fuel leak into the dinghy. When we go ashore tomorrow we will nail it!
The sky then darkens and rain comes. Time for inside jobs. First, a couple of loop splices to make a safety strop for the outboard. All that time I had struggled to remember how the rigger showed me to splice dyneema, and it was in my splicing book all the time!
Then to bow toilet… again. We had changed the toilet a couple of weeks ago but kept the same electrical conversion pump that has been on for 18 months. Which in the last 2 weeks sprung a minor leak. So out comes the new backup pump and gets installed pretty quickly. Then the tedious part: servicing the removed pump with a service kit from Jabsco. Very clear instructions but still tricky. Indeed, 2 of the lower seals had failed on the pump-out end. And the escaping seawater had subsequently etched into a stainless steel plate, which now needed sanding smooth before refitting. By the end of the afternoon it was finally back together again and no parts left on the table (always a good sign). Now ready to be the next replacement, it is boxed up and stowed away in the new bilge stowage area. Please, let it be at least another 18mths before we need it again.
Done with jobs we vote book reading this evening. I’m into a very interesting book: My old man and the sea, about a father and son who sail from New England to round Cape Horn, in a 25ft Laurent Gilles sloop. A fun read. While Oana is into a historical drama set in Romania, on the days the communism set in.
So nice to spend the evening together on the settee, toes to toes, while the wind whistles outside. And that is what we do till bedtime.