The other day, Al removed some floorboards to inspect and tighten the stuffing box. Our stuffing box sump pump, our very LOUD (by choice) sump pump, has been kicking on more and more often. Al suspected that things needed to be tightened.
Good news, Bad news. The stuffing box did need a bit of tightening, but there is also evidence that the hull is leaking slightly. Not at all unexpected in a 50+ year old wooden boat. At this time, it is hard to determine if the seams Al worked on at the last haul out is failing at the point he worked on it, or a continuation of that seam. Or if it is somewhere else. He is anxious to haul the boat this fall and have a closer look. At that point, we will have been on saltwater for just over a year, and he is getting very curious to see what's been going on down there!
We also confirmed again a phenomenon we have observed many times. No matter what you do, any object dropped on a boat will do its best to get to the bilge.
This time with just a couple of floorboards removed, a couple of things found were a nickel and a marble. The nickel is understandable. But the marble? Neither Al nor I can remember losing any of our marbles....
Perhaps one of the grandkids brought this precious globe aboard. We don't recall. But it HAS been found, and brought once more to the light. Perhaps it will rest here comfortably for a time, before diving for the bilge again.
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