The 3mm Gap
Scot Free III
Frank & Anne
Fri 10 Feb 2017 07:35
Q: How much water can a 2.5m wave squeeze through a 3mm gap?
Someone..... Left the aft heads (loo) hatch on vent. I have cleverly narrowed the list of suspects down to two (DiP eat your heart out). This leaves a 3mm gap which is normally watertight against sea spray and rain.
We were standing in the saloon when there was the almighty crash of a large wave hitting us side-on. The boat lurched, everything in the cupboards moved around making lots of noise and we were horrified to see a constant stream of water coming out from the bottom of the heads door. "What the hell is that?" I shouted and grabbed the door handle, possibly not a good move; because a large amount of water then flowed over the sill into the saloon. Relieved that it had stopped as suddenly as it had started and that a pipe hadn't become detached we started to mop up, pump/sponge out the bilges, dry the sealed food stored in the bilges and close the hatch. Perhaps that's why there is some very small print on the hatch which reads "WARNING! watertight closure, must be shut tight while under way"
Having complete faith in the weather predictions, we are heading further SW to avoid an area of dead calm, forecast for next week, and hopefully into smaller seas and lighter winds than we currently have.
PS
A: About two large bucket fulls