The Leaky Mast ( ooohh thats a good name for a bar)

It all started one dark rainy dismal day. It was pouring so hard as soon as you stepped out side you were soaked to the bone. I thought it only rained like this in Kodiak but I was wrong, it rains harder in California than in Kodiak, and that's BAD!

This is a shot straight down the mast and into the hull. Now let me take the time to remind you that there is a hole in the middle of the bed that allows the mast to go from the deck into the interior through the bed and to the keel. As it is, our mast is hallow, and there are wires that are run in the mast to provide lights to the top of the mast and spreaders. Those wires run from the very top of the mast 40 some odd feet from the top of the deck all the way into the interior where they are hooked to the power source. So what happens is there is a hole drilled somewhere in the top of the mast to let the wires out to the lights and a hole drilled in the interior portion of the mast to hook to power. WELL, the rain water goes in the top hole, and where do you think it goes from there? right down the center of the mast. Then what happens? the mast fills up with cold nasty rain water until it reaches the second hole just above our heads as we are sleeping! And once the mast is full it proceeds to leak out of the hole and onto our heads and all over the bed! and starts to fill the bilge! So the bed got completly soaked and it's still raining and filling the bottom of the boat with water!

As you can see Jim is not very happy about this situation. But really what makes it even worse, there's nothing he can do about it because he can't fit his arm in the mast hole. Larissa to the rescue. sort of. I could barely fit my arm in the hole. love that expression! I had to make it as I squoze. so I had a piece of duct tape attached to my fingers and was trying to cover the hole to get us through the night. my poor arm hurt for the next few days, and the tape only covered part of the hole.

After lengthy hours of revolving all the cushions in front of the heater, we are finally sleeping on a dry bed again. and the rain still hasn't stopped! you should see all the duct tape we've been using. we also found out several of our port holes leaked and so did the main hatch. Well, were all sealed up again at least until the rain stops and we can fix it the right way!