Saturday, up and back into the bilge with washing materials. Joy of joy and how thankful we can be for small mercies the water is on so I can get a few bucket loads for bilge cleaning.
After watching the wall of the aft cabin last night for over an hour to see where the diesel was coming from not a drop appeared. Today there are puddles again! Clean them up and pull off some more panels on the search. Feeling and looking as there is no sign of a source but towards the back and the furthest corner from where the diesel was gathering the wall feels slippery,,,,,,,diesel. On the trail now it follows back to an aft corner weld just at the level of the bottom of the tank. Pull out some more foam and interestingly find Les has marked this very spot with an arrow! And there it is a pin hole in the corner weld with a little flow of diesel coming from it right at the bottom most corner of the tank. Out with nead it, just a little to block the flow and then clean up the surface and apply a larger section which later I cover with metal epoxy. The leak has been stemmed but there is more cleaning up todo. Diesel is found seeping out of the insulation glass at the back of the genset cabinet so off with more panels and pull it all out and trash it the bottom is saturated as the diesel soaked up it. The cabin is pretty well stripped.
Mix up batches of hot water, bilge cleaner and citrus and again flush the bilge out hoping to vacuum the floating diesel off the top of the water - we'll see tomorrow.
At this stage I can see or feel no more leaks!
Onto something productive fit the new sternlight. Apart from some frozen screws requiring the impact wrench to loosen them at least this all goes well and the new one works fine. This is a second light but useful when using the dinghy at night also.
Then to the anchor switch. Make a start but enthusiasm is waning and it is getting dark. Get on the skype for a while to home and the family and then peddle into town on the folding bike to our favourite Indian restaurant for a $1.80 feed including coffee which was great after a low food day! No rain today which was good. It was hot tonight it is cooling down as there has been strong winds here today although where we are in the yard is quite sheltered.
A little progress at last and a full belly so feeling better. Tomorrow, Sunday night, is yachties social night over at the Golf Club across the road so looks like I will get fed tomorrow night as well. Monday morning I have a boy coming to work at 0730 so I'll have to be up early as well.
Water is on but not enough pressure to run the shower but at least could run the low taps to fill a small bucket for a decent wash off tonight. I probably needed it although I couldn't smell anything except diesel!
Sunday tomorrow but not a day of rest over here!