A Soppy Mess

The turbulent waters of the past two days were not the only rough part of the day. In the afternoon I noticed some rain clouds dumping their contents on the water upwind from us. They did not look fierce or ominous. As they approached they provided enough of a light spray that I thought it would be a great opportunity to have a shower outside. Dailin, Teyauna and I used the fine spray that collected on us to lather up with a bar of soap I brought outside and we went to work of lathering up in anticipation of some more serious water from the clouds. So we waited, and waited but the drizzle just continued and but not enough liquid sunshine to rinse the soap off. The torrential downpour that we so desperately were expecting did not materialize. Almost as fast as it came the misty water blew past and we were left standing there all lathered up in soap and shampoo. In the end we had to resort to spraying ourselves off with the outside cold water shower on the back deck of the boat which was definitely not what we had bargained for.

As I went inside to hang up my shorts and get a change of clothes I noticed something I did not want to see. Because Zakary’s bed takes up all of the cupboard space in our bedroom half of my clothes are in a cloth basket which is in front of the pontoon storage locker. This storage locker door has a vent in it right in front of my cloth clothes basket. As I looked at this cloth basket I noticed that it had a water line along the bottom and up the side. Upon immediately taking a closer look, my greatest fear was realized as I notice the basket was in a puddle of water that was soaking into the basket. I pulled out my clothes which were still mostly dry, thanks to a package of baby diapers that were at the bottom and sealed in plastic. I then went in search of the cause for this water leak. I soon discovered that the water was spraying in through the vent at the top of the door.

When I opened the door, and to my horror, I noticed that the top hatch to the pontoon storage locker was not latched completely shut. Prior to us leaving San Francisco I remember opening this hatch which was located under the kayak strapped to the railing of our boat. Because this kayak was there, we did not notice for the past few weeks, that this hatch lid was open and feeding our food storage a good daily dose of salt water as it splashed up the front of the boat.

Our year supply of freeze dried canned goods and other storage items were completely dripping! We had about 80 cans stacked nicely into boxes and these boxes were dripping with seawater and already starting to mold. Inside of the hatch was also some boxes of sanitary supplies, medicines and vitamins. Fortunately the medicine was sealed inside of ziplock bags, but some of the cans were also starting to rust already.

day11-DSC00572For the next hour we had everyone in the boat form a chain from this storage locker to the dining room in order to remove the sopping wet boxes of number 10 cans. We were pulling out cans of “Thrive” brand dehydrated sour cream, chicken, pineapple, banana chips, apricots, strawberries, corn and so much more. It was a disheartening site to see. We had to peel off colorful wet and moldy labels and write on the lids of the cans with a permanent marker what it contained, otherwise we would be having some surprise meals (we did miss one can and will have an adventure to see what that dinner will be. We also had to pile up the dripping cardboard boxes and ended up tossing them overboard. After the project was completed the entire boat was a disastrous mess of cans all over the place inside and out.

We went into the storage locker and mopped up the mess with some old towels. We then wiped it dry and ensured that the hatch cover was securely fastened. All this was done so that we could place all of the cans back into the pontoon locker in hopes that it would stay permanently dry from here on out. Orin was the lucky one to climb into the locker as the rest of us formed another human chain to pass the cans into the locker again.

It was sweltering hot in the bedroom and storage locker as all hatches were now shut and no breeze could blow through to help cool us down. So much for my outdoor shower earlier.

Once completed we draped a plastic shower curtain that I had stowed away for emergency use over top of all the cans just in case there was another leak. Now with no boxes there will be nothing to soak up the water but fortunately there are some drain holes in the bottom leading any moisture into the bilge of the boat which can then be pumped out by the on-board electric bilge pumps. It was definitely a long project that I don’t want to have to repeat, let’s hope for some smooth sailing tomorrow.

8:50 pm PDT, Lat: 12° 21.681′ N, Long: 123° 27.064′ W, Course 204° T, Speed: 7.2 K, Wind: NE 24K, Swell: N 12′ Rough, Cloud Cover: 60%, Barometer: 1008 hPa, Temp: 26°C

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Lorraine Meckay

    Ah, the joys! At least you are freshly reminded of what food stores you have. Sometimes we tend to forget what’s out of sight and end up limiting ourselves to what’s immediately in front of us. There are so many life lessons to learn “while sailing on life’s stormy seas.” We had sacrament meeting yesterday because stake conference is next Sunday. It was lovely, beautiful testimonies, no ‘rantimonies’ and only one ‘lecturemony’ which apparently carried over into priesthood meeting. If that happened on the boat, you could merely poke the offender and problem would disappear at once. Please let each member of your crew know how much we love and miss them (and how much we enjoy hearing about their part in this grand adventure.

  2. Rebecca

    Ohh kir- doesn’t that remind you of the time that we were sailing and the big 5 gallon buckets of peanut butter spilled all over the bilge? That was a sticky gross, stinky mess to clean up! BTW Do you guys have access to read the comments that we make on your blog out there in the deep blue sea?
    Love
    Becky

  3. Derek Burgess

    What a great adventure! And great photos (which we need more of … and videos when/if you can). Those spots on Orin’s legs aren’t scurvy are they? Maybe it’s just something on the camera lense.

  4. Tim Pelton

    Good you found it relatively early – and before any massive intake of water. Might want to air out that storage space regularly to ensure that mold doesn’t grow due to lingering moisture.

    Your blog entries are great – a window into an adventure most of us wouldn’t otherwise have an opportunity to experience. Thanks!

  5. Schwendingers

    Good to hear of your continuing saga on the open seas. Strange how we have to learn many of life’s lessons the hard way. Even a simple thing like a shower can be a learning experience. Hope your food storage survives the leak, and that you are able to continue on without further difficulty. We look forward to hearing further reports on your journey.
    Ron & Barb

  6. Dennis McKay

    Oh Kir and Norm that was hilarious and exciting. It brought a lot of concern from all of us. On the other hand it really does make for some very interesting reading. I think you should try for a good disaster for every second or third email report If you should report that one of the kids were lost for a couple of hours and then you found him/her alive and well but asleep in the crows nest that would be great. Mom, hopes that doesn’t happen but you get the idea. A disaster but not a real disaster. Oh we love your adventures. Dad

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