Last year water regularly accumulated in the drive shaft bilge in the engine compartment. It's a small space down there and the drive shaft is generally rotating, making things slightly hazardous.  Twelve months ago when we were coming across, Neil regularly sponged that bilge out.  The problem for me this year is that I'm very slightly larger than him, and a lot less supple.  The good news regarding being becalmed yesterday was that I was able to open up the engine hatch - without the shaft which goes from the engine to the propeller turning (it normally free-wheels when sailing).  I could then sit on the threshold of the engine compartment hatch and insert the new hand pump, brought from the UK, into the shaft bilge, whilst having a comfortable seat.  It was then fairly easy to hand pump out two thirds of a bucket of water from the shaft bilge into a rubber bucket placed on the wooden cross members above.  A nightmare problem reduced in size by a bit of kit costing under a tenner.  Why all the detail you may ask  -  well it's sometimes small pleasures that one has to look out for. 

 

The good news is that we have been sailing.  Wet weather and rolling a lot (since we're sailing downwind and the boat rolls like anything doing that), but we're sailing. 

 

49:58.02N 33:02.38W