THERE IS A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE BOAT!

And that is not good!!!!

Let me set the stage. At the end of last season we noticed that the black water holding tank (50 gallons) was filling up in a day or two, rather than the 5-7 days we had previously experienced. Didn’t seem right, but maybe it hadn’t been correctly pumped out, or an inexperienced kid pumped it, or the marina’s pump out system wasn’t working……bottom line is we didn’t worry about it a lot.

So now comes this year. We noticed the holding tank was full when we moved aboard a few days ago, so we had it pumped out. We are at Bay Marine, and they have a portable pump system that comes to the boat. It is easy to see what’s happening, so we saw 50 gallons of clear water coming out. Well, within 12 hours the tank was full again. We pumped again; 6 hours later it was full. So now we know there is water leaking into the tank. We figured it wasn’t from the fresh water tank as it was full, so Emery started searching around.

Bottom line?? There is a seacock at the bottom of the boat which allows the holding tank to be dumped into the ocean when you are way offshore. It is illegal to dump anywhere else; as a matter of fact, the Coast Guard requires the handle be removed from the seacock and it be wired shut. Apparently our seacock was open the tiniest bit; over the years the ball inside wore away a bit and water pressure outside the boat was forcing lake water into the holding tank (which is below the water line) and doing so faster and faster.

Bay Marine answered our call quickly and first thing this morning hauled the boat and fixed the whole thing. You can see pictures of the boat out of the water and being fixed. We are back in the water now and the holding tank is empty. The captain is drinking bourbon, and I am wondering

what tomorrow will bring.