Day 198, Year 2: Of Leaks and Other Things
Date: Thursday, November 8, 2007
Weather: Totally Overcast with Some Rain
Location: Bundaberg Port Marina, Australia
Our day started out early and fine. The marine surveyor arrived shortly after 7 AM to do an insurance required survey. Everything was ship shape until we raise the floor board and saw that our center fuel tank had leaked a small amount of fuel out of the gasket on its topside. It was very little fuel, but a little fuel is too much and the surveyor will probably have to note this in this report. After he left, we immediately discovered the problem. The screws holding down the rubber seal on the
top of the tank were totally loose, and with a full tank, that spelled trouble. So now we at least know the source of the problem. Then it was on to the next problem–a very slow, drippy little leak in our aft head and another over the foot of our bed. We haven’t had enough rain this season for these things to be a problem until now. Mark thinks the leaks are coming from improperly installed winches that are letting a little water trickle in above the ceiling for the aft head, so he spent much
of his day removing and then reinstalling winches. I washed our king-sized sheets by hand but then decided to take them up to the laundromat to dry. Bad mistake. Everyone in the marina had clothes to be dried today and the wait look insurmountable. I left the wet clothes and promised to return in two hours to see if things had settled down any. You can really see the ugly side of people in a crowded laundromat, and when I returned two hours later, there was still a huge back-up and people squabbling
over who was up next for a dryer. I brought my computer with me and just sat and worked on naming pictures for a couple of hours while waiting to dry my laundry. The wait wasn’t bad and the people watching was most interesting.
The rain is supposed to last another couple of days, so all sightseeing activities have been brought to a standstill until we have nicer weather once again. I want to see turtles laying their eggs, but I’m not willing to wait on a wet beach all evening with pouring rain. It is very cool here at night right now, so I think I’ll wait until next week and hope the weather change brings warmer, dryer weather our way. In the meantime, I’ll continue to work on getting New Caledonia photos labeled and
posted and Mark will continue to try and find the source of our leaks.
