We leave our anchorage around 8:00 am. It's cloudy and cool this morning, and there's about 8 knots of wind. We raise the jib as we enter the Bay River.

The river is choppy, and the waves are on our port beam. Not pleasant, but bearable.

Once we turn into the Neuse River, the waves are behind us, making it a much more pleasant ride. I spend the morning doing a little housekeeping. Robert's at the helm. Maggie sleeps.

Lunch is soup and sandwiches. The wind has increased to 10 - 15 knots, and we're making about 7 knots.

After lunch, I go down to use the head, and step into ankle deep water in the port hull. SHIT!! The bilge is beyond full, and water is sloshing around. The bilge pump switch had inadvertently gotten turned off. I quickly turn the switch on, and the pump begins working.

I take the helm, and Robert begins the search to find the source of the incoming water.
Since the pump on the port side is working, he checks the starboard side of the boat. There's water coming from the engine compartment door, and onto the guest cabin floor. The starboard bilge pump is working adequately.

BOTH engines have hoses that are leaking. The starboard engine leak was easily visible, and repaired quickly. The port engine leak was not as easily diagnosed, as the water was leaking out the rear of the engine-- near the generator. The heat exchanger "end cap" had a slit in the seam. In our bucket of spare parts, we found a replacement cap, but it was too small. Damnit!!

Robert abandoned efforts to repair the port engine; we decide to just use the starboard one for the rest of the trip. We only have about 12 more miles to go.

The bilge pump on the port side isn't pumping the water out sufficiently, so Robert rigs up an auxillary pump using our electric drill and a siphon hose. Finally, the water begins to recede!!

We arrive at the New Bern Grand Marina around 3:00 pm. We're emotionally frazzled, the starboard engine is tired, but we manage to get docked safely. Hallelujah!!

As soon as we are securely tied up to the dock, I mix two mighty strong cocktails to ease our pain.

Days like today are a sailor's nightmare. We're thankful that we are safe, and that SeaQuell is ok. The clean up will have to wait until we finish our cocktails, and breathe a big sigh of relief.