A Busy Couple of Weeks

So the last couple of weeks have been extremely event filled. None of which included any sailing (at least on my boat). I have officially moved everything out of my house and am living aboard officially. So far, I haven't really missed anything in the slightest. I actually enjoy the smaller space as I can keep it clean with ease. I'll go through the events of the last couple of weeks in chronological order.

I've picked up racing,I am crewing for a boat by the name of "figaro", a 25 foot tiller driven boat. A week ago, was my first race aboard one of "figaro's" owner's friend. I was hooked, and it was a lot of fun. I found out a new series started the next week and I was there. Having a race that takes place on a Thursday is extremely good for me, as weekends are often tied up. Well the first eventful thing happened after that, and this was a bad event. Coming home from the race, it was dark in my boat, and I had forgotten that I had been working on my engine (trying to get the water flow problem fixed as mentioned in a previous post), and as I stepped into the cabin, completely forgot that my floor panel was up and stepped on the thru hull valve. Being a 1975, and not sure when exactly the shut off valve had been replaced, it was quite corroded and broke off. So here I am, in the dark, and now I here water rushing in. I immediately duck taped the heck out of what remained of the elbow on the thru hull valve (actually elbow was ok, it was the shut off valve that broke. I called some sailing friends and they suggested to get a stick to help stop the water, or at least slow it til morning.

My MacGyver job of slowing the leak.

After slowing the leak, I got no sleep that night. In the morning, I just happened to find some old plugs and managed to plug the elbow while I waited for my friend Larry to arrive and help fix this fiasco.

Finally a more effective way!

After Larry arrived he assessed the situation, we removed the elbow, plugged the thru hull and he went to the marine store and got a new shutoff valve and elbow. Boat saved and no sinking! In reality, it was probably a blessing that I stepped on it, it was quite corroded.

Thru Hull plugged.

Corroded Shut off valve

Corroded Thru Hull Elbow

That Monday, my friend Mike came by and took a look at my engine cooling problem. It was what I expected, the exhaust mixing elbow was clogged. I am glad that people are willing to walk me through and help me out with various things when regarding sailing and boating in general. So now, I can actually venture out and explore some of the Chesapeake Bay via sail.

A couple days ago (Thursday) was another race, the start of the series. I had a lot of fun, and am learning a lot crewing on a racing sailboat. We started off with 4 knot winds, and then a storm was coming in, and really started to blow, almost causing me to go overboard (next time I'll know how to hang on a little better. I'm excited for more races to come, and something to do on Thursday nights. Sailing on my friend's boat "Figaro", was an absolute blast!

Getting ready to start with Figaro, 4 knot winds at this point

Storm coming in

Wind really starting to pick up

Between all that I also managed to install my over the hatch air conditioner (for when I am at the dock and actually will manage to freeze me ou), and see some wild life in the area. Everything is slowly coming together, and I hope to set sail soon for an adventure of some sort!