An odd occurrence today- It made me wonder about the idea that all things are connected more than we might realize.
We left our beloved
boat in the Solent yesterday while I go off and earn some freedom chips. We do this drill frequently, have a 'leaving the boat' checklist that's always double-checked. This time was no different.
So, we rented a car, loaded up the
family (wife and dog) and headed across the channel to her digs for the next couple of months.
Today, I made the return trip alone (you can't do a 1 way rental from
England to
Europe, of course), and headed to my
hotel at Heathrow.
Well, at the turn-off, I had the is sudden very strong need to go look in on the
boat. I never have this feeling, but there was no doubt that I'd drive the 170 mile round trip and just make sure things were kosher at home.
I got on board, fired up the heat, and started to take a look around.
To my great surprise, I found a few gallons of
water in one of our forward bilges! It had been dry 30 hours before. I used the manual
pump to dry it out and investigated.
I discovered that the thru-hull up there was weeping
water at a pretty good rate, but only when closed. It's leaking in around the handle, of all places. How odd. When it's open, it's bone dry.
So, I left it open, notified the yard/marina where the boat is laying, and all will be sorted out shortly.
Of course, this wouldn't have sunk the boat, but it would have made a heck of a mess. Our bilges are compartmentalized, so this forward one would have needed to sort of fill up and 'overtop' the frame aft of it before hitting a compartment with an automatic
pump. Anyway, it's not good to have 3-5 gallons a day entering an unoccupied boat!
I'm about as far away from being a mystic as one can be, but this was really weird, this need to go check the boat.
Perhaps the universe was offering some guidance? Good stuff, anyway.