![\"Full](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erikdolson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Full-sail-207x300.jpg?resize=207%2C300\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Water dripped from the valve behind the engine at the bottom of the boat. It wasn\u2019t that hard to get to because \u201cFoxy\u201d has more room to move around in than most boats, but the valve was behind other hoses, and contortions were\u00a0required\u00a0to even get down into the hold.<\/p>\n
It was raining like stink outside. Tarps I bought to cover the leaky hatches should stop water from dripping\u00a0onto rugs\u00a0in the main salon,\u00a0tiny splashes that woke us up the night before. The dinghy that lay partially deflated over the forward hatch, air leak still not found, should keep rain water off the sheets in the stateroom.<\/p>\n
Some\u00a0said\u00a0I had no business buying this boat. By any rational standard, they’re right for many reasons. I don\u2019t know anything about boats like this, even less about sailing. But I love the water, and figure\u00a0I have one grand adventure in me. I had a chance to acquire Foxy and I took it, depending on my general mechanical knowledge (mediocre), ability to acquire new information (pretty good) and my desire for adventure (excessive, nearly pathological) to keep me safe.<\/p>\n
Being in the bowels of a gently rocking boat was the result of ten\u00a0years dreaming about it. Hopefully it would not become a nightmare.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter if the valve was on or off, water dripped and added to the inch or two washing about as Foxy swayed gently at her dock lines. I reached down and flipped up the float on what I thought was the bilge pump. Nothing. If the water continued to drip for the week I expected to be gone, I could come back to find a flooded engine room, or worse.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d promised Irish weeks ago I would attend the gathering that evening at the school where she was getting her MBA. It\u2019s a four hour drive to Portland \u2014 and that assumed no delays going through Seattle, not usually a good assumption.\u00a0 I should have been on the road a half hour ago.<\/p>\n
Irish would understand completely if I called and told her the boat was leaking and I couldn\u2019t make it. She’s really good like that. She would also be disappointed, and in the short while we\u2019d been together, absurdly short considering the bond we felt for each other, seeing her smile had become a major priority for me.<\/p>\n
Besides, I have a nearly Obsessive\/Compulsive need to do what I\u2019ve said I\u2019ll do, and I\u2019d said I\u2019d be there.<\/p>\n
Turning the valve off seemed to make the leak a little worse, adding an extra drip in between the steady \u201cdrip, drip, drip\u201d I\u2019d noticed when I pointed the flashlight into the engine room before closing the hatch one last time. Now it went \u201cdrip drop, drip drop, drip drop.\u201d I turned the valve back on, the cadence\u00a0 didn\u2019t change. I flipped the float again\u00a0 on what I thought was the bilge pump, again the pump didn\u2019t come on.<\/p>\n
With a bit of reluctance I turned traitor to my life-time habit of stubborn self-sufficiency and called the boat yard. No answer. It was Saturday, and everyone was working the boat show down in Seattle. I finally called the owner of the yard on his cell phone, feeling more than a little foolish in again putting the massive mountain of my ignorance on display.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have Curtis go check it out. I\u2019ll call as soon as I know something,\u201d Jim said. There\u2019s something reassuring about people who will \u201cjust take care of it,\u201d whatever \u201cit\u201d is. Jim is one of those. I\u2019m looking forward to following him up to Alaska a year from now as part of a small flotilla. By then, all the little leaks, cracked hoses, dead electrical connections should be taken care of.<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s a boat. Which means \u201cthere\u2019s always something,\u201d as I\u2019ve heard and read, even about this boat, \u201cmy\u201d boat,\u201d in a story written long before I knew her. My friend Jaime says there\u2019s something to the theory you should always leave something undone, because as soon as you think everything is all taken care of, a boat will break something else, usually at the worst possible moment.<\/p>\n
Like now. Drip drop, drip drop.<\/p>\n
I had to go, and hit the road south toward Portland. This was not good, not good.<\/p>\n
Curtis from the yard called an hour later. He got the leak to stop by turning the valve off. Maybe I hadn\u2019t turned it quite far enough, not wanting to break it off. He said the bilge pump worked just fine, maybe I was trying to trip the alarm float switch, which he\u2019ll look at on Monday.<\/p>\n
Jim calls later to say the same thing. \u201cHappy to do it,\u201d he replies to my thanks. Worry begins to lift.<\/p>\n
When I show up to change from dirty, bilge-tainted boat clothes into a suit and tie for the celebration with Irish, she greets me with a hug, and a smile that makes everything seem like it\u2019s going to be okay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Water dripped from the valve behind the engine at the bottom of the boat. It wasn\u2019t that hard to get to because \u201cFoxy\u201d has more room to move around in than most boats, but the valve was behind other hoses, and contortions were\u00a0required\u00a0to even get down into the hold.<\/p>\n
It was raining like stink outside. Tarps I bought to cover the leaky hatches should stop water from dripping\u00a0onto rugs\u00a0in the main salon,\u00a0tiny splashes that woke us up the night before. The dinghy that lay partially deflated over the forward hatch, air leak still not found, should keep rain \u2026 Read more\u2026