Welcome! Thought I share one of my first interesting experiences after moving aboard.
Christmas morning, one month after
buying the boat and moving aboard I woke up to the sound of my big
bilge running. I had over a foot of
water in my
bilge (normally about an inch), my stuffing box was leaking at a rate of 30 drops a minute. I had motored for about 3 hours the day before because the
wind died down. Once I woke up a little more and the panic subsided I made coffee(black) and opened a book by Don Casey. Armed with the new knowledge regarding my leak and a little caffine I went to
work. To my suprise tightening the bolts make the leak worse, a steady stream of
water was now coming in. With renewed panic I opened a Nigel Calder book to get a second opinion. Don Casey was right, the only obvious course of action was to continue tightening. After 15 minutes of cursing and skinning my knuckles I got it tight and the leak stopped. It was now 730 am on
Christmas, I was covered in sweat and bilge water. I cranked up Christmas
music and did a victory dance. A few weeks later during a
haul out I found out that the stuffing box was tightened almost all the way and it needed repacking.
Up until that morning I had focused on the little nuances of
living aboard. Since then I have thumbed through my now epxanded library more times than I can remember. Sometimes I've had non-boater guests aboard during a crisis, they were not impressed when I sat quietly reading a book while we were in the
fog with no
power to the
GPS. It's always an adventure and one that so far I love.
I do not want to discourage you at all, follow your dreams. I had a
small boat for about a year that I slept on over weekends to kind of ease into things. There are sacrifices to be made but I've found
living aboard to be a great experience.
This forum is an awesome place to get insight into all things
boating. You will get varying opinions on nearly every topic that will help you make your own decisions.
There are two things you should remember, the
Delta Anchor is the best
anchor ever made and you should always, always carry a machine gun or 2 with you when sailing....
If you've missed the
humor then you need to read more forums!