CURRENT LOCATION: Anchored in Mosquito Cove, just outside Jolly Harbour in Antigua
17 04.579' N, 061 53.613' W

Sometimes, in this rather unstructured existence of ours, we set a single goal for the day and let the rest of the hours of the day take care of themselves. My goal today is to fix a leak in our dinghy.

When Sheryl checked in the other day, she returned to find quite a bit of water in the dinghy. Water often gets into our small dinghy when splashing through waves; however, conditions here are fairly calm. How curious. We pumped the water out and found it filling again several hours later. Ah, we had a leak.

This leak is not a big deal, at least not as big as an air leak in an inflatable, as the buoyancy of the tubes will keep the dinghy and engine afloat. But it is something we need to address, because carrying around any extra water weight will slow Patience even more.

The leak has been caused by the floorboards chafing on the bottom of the dinghy. Two of the boards have 'legs' and these have worn four spots in the bottom of the dinghy. One of these four spots has worn through and has started leaking.

I spent my day decommissioning and deflating the dinghy, cleaning it, and applying four patches to the worn spots.




The deflated dinghy remains on deck, adhesive curing in the tropical sun. Tomorrow I plan to reassemble with four thick pieces of rubber at each of the floorboard contact points in hopes of preventing new chafe and spreading the pressure caused by the floorboard legs. I cut the rubber pieces from an old floormat I had aboard to keep things from sliding around in the cockpit locker.

I suppose that I can make the reassembly, launch, and recommission of the dinghy my goal for the day tomorrow. One day at a time, we enjoy life here afloat in the Caribbean.