Another Day in Orwell

 Not a lot to report. Got the final coat of paint on the mast this morning. Had nice visit with Bruce on Timshel, who I had met in the Exumas with his wife Karen on the last trip. Gonna be a hot day. Need to finish the macerator installation and reinstall some hardware on the mast.

And now, back in time. The storm died down the next day and we found ourselves moving steadily along in pleasant conditions. But we noticed that the bilge pump had come on and was staying on for a disconsertingly long time. It would shut off, and then start running again. We had developed a leak, probably as a result of the storm. The Sea Song was a wooden vessel, and though stoutly constructed and relatively new, was not immune to seawater intent on making its way inside. Attempting to discover the source of the leak we removed the floorboards and peered into the dank recesses of the bilge. The problem was that most deep areas of the bilge had massive iron pigs fitted in that provided ballast. These pigs weighed around 60 #'s apiece and were well nigh impossible to move around without resulting in smashed fingers. And the pump kept running. The interval between run cycles was getting shorter. Fred realized that we had been putting quite a strain on the batteries what with running the navigation lights and the bilge pump so he decided to fire up the engine for some battery charging time. As he pushed the starter button there was a very feeble sound as the engine turned about a quarter of a revolution, then silence. The batteries were dead.

To be continued.