This morning Steve and Susan were up a while before me. So, when I got up they were rarin’ to go. It took me a few cups of coffee and some toast to catch up. Steve got started on the cockpit lockers that were suspects in the leaks we have in the cabin. Susan started in on the mizen mast leak. I finally jumped in and got going on a stantion that looked suspicious for leaks too. We took off more ceiling panels in the aft cabin and started playing with the hose to find the leaks. Finally we found a leak near one of the main traveller block and around the cockpit coaming cap. That’s the nice varnished teak on top of the cockpit lockers. The water flowed fast into the aft cabin as she sprayed the hose.
As Steve progressed we filled the holes with a magic compound called 5200. It’s an adhesive and a wonder of the marine world. Steve dug out all the grunge in the corner of the cockpit lockers, finding a hole in the bottom near the drain in the aft port locker. It leads directly into the head. It looks like should have had a drain hose on it, but it doesn’t. The deep corners of the lockers actually looked good and Steve filled them with 5200. We don’t think that the forward locker has been leaking into the cabin.
At some time during all this I decided to cook lunch. I made an omlette with salad and fried potatoes. However, as I cooked my fire got lower and lower. So, I said to Susan that something was wrong. She looked around and wandered into the aft cabin to a strong smell of propane. Apparently when we took the cabin ceiling off we pushed the propane hose up into a screw that was sticking down. This caused a big hissing noise. Fortunately lunch was about ready. I finished it up in the microwave, using tons of precious electricity in the 45 seconds I used it. We turned off the propane and ate.
After lunch Susan and I wandered into Uturoa to look for a solution. We ended up at 4 stores and came back probably an hour and a half later with a few parts. Threading the hose back in took the longest. Finally, we had propane again. Whew. I had let Susan know that I wouldn’t go on without propane. Steve too said he couldn’t do without morning coffee. Good thing we got it working again. We’re proud of ourselves.
Steve finished up the lockers and took care of some adjustments to Oscar, the prop generator. I also installed a breaker on the house electric system that Gerard sent down.
We’re off soon to the roulattes (food trucks) to have pizza. The sunset is glorious. Red and lovely.