Chronicle of the PassageMaker Auriga 5/21/06

The size of the leak was increasing so we headed into Palm Beach dropping the hook at 2:00 am. The channel was very narrow being demarked only by unlit day markers. Kevin did an excellent job of keeping us in the channel until we could turn into the mooring field. After sunrise we started work on the problem.

As luck would have it, the problem was at the most inaccessible part of the boat behind two large gel batteries. Irina did an excellent job of crawling over the batteries to find the problem, the rest of us being to big to maneuver in the tight space. It seems to me that for effective cruising a couple must be composed of one large person for lifting heaving items and one small for crawling into tight spaces. A cooling water return hose had come off its stern port side through-hull fitting. The fitting had a short vertical connector that kept the open inlet above the waterline so water came in only intermittently keeping us from sinking. However, as the rocking increases when under way so does the amount of seawater entering the boat. Very little water was seen at the dock as the water was not being forced into by boat. The loose hose and fittings were behind two large gel batteries accessible through a small opening in the floor and one in the top of the bench. Ropes were attached to a battery and three of us heaved up a battery with difficulty, especially because it had to be turned 90 degrees during the extraction to clear the opening in the bench. The errant hose was reattached and batteries replaced. Soon the Auriga was underway again cursing out past the mega yachts in Palm Beach harbor.