Monday Aug 1st:  Today's Blog by David . 36:08.91N 05:21.32W

Oh dear.

It was very hot yesterday.  The team went off up the Rock of Gibraltar doing tourist things while I got down to some routine maintenance and catch up. Sadly during the day I came across this:

What you are looking at is a trail of pink red fluid running out of the main sail furler gearbox and on to the deck:

At the same time, I found clear hydraulic fluid dripping from the bottom of the (hydraulic) vang.

Today, the team  caught the ferry to Tangier, Morocco  for a day trip while I remained to host Gavin Jekyll from Landamores – who has come to fix the water leak over the AC panel.   I also spent time  on the phone to the UK about my pink fluid (gear oil) leak and my clear fluid (hydraulic oil) leak. By this stage the day was not going well.

Gavin is a shipwright and has clearly hunted leaks before and found it in about three hours. He was disappointed that it took so long but given the way water can run around a boat am pleased that he found it at all.  He also brought with him a number of replacement parts for things that needed fixing which I spent the my spare time fitting (under Gavin’s direction). I am glad he was here because I think I would probably have made a bit of a mess (which would have upset me not a little) without  guidance from the voice of experience.

Once Gavin pronounced the boat sealed (against water leaks) he went sight seeing which allowed me a chance to  get out for a walk.

It has been arranged for Sean the rigger to arrive at the boat “first thing” tomorrow for him to make an assessment of our pink fluid and our clear fluid.