Date: 05/15/2011
Local time: 2130
Location: Coral Bay, St. John
Weather: Gentle Breeze, Overcast
Title: St. Thomas to Coral Bay

We cast off the private mooring about 8am and headed for Coral Bay. On the way we practiced reefing and un-reefing a couple of times. Barry seemed to be happy with my performance. He said, "You're a fore-deck man!".

When we got outside a little, we raised the mainsail and set the sails for a close reach, arriving at Coral Bay about 1130.

After anchoring, there were several chores to do. First, I had to inventory everything in the triangular locker which was inside my cabin. This is a small locker that is located between my entryway and the head on the starboard side and at deck level. It was a tight fit. All manner of tools, lubricants, shackles and blocks are stowed here.

After that, I set out to fix the oar that I broke earlier in the week. My tools were: hammer and chisel, wood saw, wood rasp and my bosun knife. First I chiseled out the broken wood inside the stainless steel barrel for about 2 inches. Then on the other half of the oar, I sawed off the broken part making a new end. Then I marked off 2 inches with duck tape and sawed a 1/8 inch groove around the oar. Then I had to chisel 1/8" of wood all around the end lengthwise and use the rasp to smooth it out. I carved final refinements with my knife as I alternately fitted the new end into the metal sleeve.

After 3 hours, I was finally happy with the tight fitted results and finished it off with a couple wraps of duck tape. The oar was now once again functional, albeit a couple of inches shorter.

Barry made a very unpleasant discovery. He checked the bilge and found it full of oily water which meant we were leaking. We first had to pump the bilge dry to find the leak. Then we took off all the access covers to the engine compartment. We found a slow but steady drip from the shaft packing gland which seals the area where the shaft goes through the hull with grease. So along with the water leaking, we had grease being forced into the bilge by the seawater pressure.

I found the right size wrench and backed off the locking nuts 1/2 turn and then tightened the gland nuts to meet the locking nuts. This minor adjustment was enough to stop the leaking. I cleaned the area around the gland of all the oil and grease and rinsed it with salt water. Mirko and Barry were working on cleaning the forward part of the bilge around the engine. We used a whole bottle of bilge cleaner.

This was a major job and Barry offered to take us ashore for dinner for being a great crew. That first beer was soo good.