My first trip to see the boats in this new year, my stuffing box had leaked too much, but not enough to turn the bilge pump on. This arrangement of float valve placement is not adequate for the deep bilge slot. A lot of water can come in before the pump is activated. I have never liked the situation, but there are few solutions. The water backs up into the main cabin, but for some strange reason that I have never been able to track, the water does not retreat from the cabin sub flooring area even though there is drain pipe going under the engine compartment bed.
After that mess was cleaned up and the heater placed to dry the area, I tighten the stuffing box.
My next mission is to check out the anchor light. This seems simple, but to my dismay, I am not able to open the light casing to see what kind of bulb it is. I return to the cabin, find the anchor light and brand in an old catalog, go on line and email the company to ask for instructions to open the fixture or if they can tell me about the bulb. I want to see if this is replaceable with an LED light. I also find it interesting that there are few, if any anchor lights available in the listings of several manufacturers. Has the boating community stopped anchoring?
On my way home I stopped off at the Hawaiian Island Cafe in ST. Helens, OR to have some lunch, and to donate a new Waikiki Yacht Club Burgee for their flag collection. They were happy to get it and hopefully it will be
hanging on my next visit.
