As most would verify, owning and working on one’s sailboat is associated with unusual situations and predicaments oft requiring boat yoga. In other words, putting one’s torso and limbs into unusual positions for extended periods of time to accomplish a job.
Work also requires work in tight spaces. That part of it is a challenge to me as I have a bit of claustrophobia. The fear of small spaces developed after an incident when I was about 12 years old. My friends and I had this lame ass idea to crawl under a road through a corrugated aluminum drainage culvert. I got stuck about half way through. Panic set in. I frantically worked to free myself and was ultimately able to go out backwards. I didn’t think anything of it until some 20 years later when I had a panic attack in the back seat of a small automobile. Thereafter, I could only fly if I was in the aisle seat of the plane. I had flown as a private pilot for a while but the claustrophobia was never an issue as I was always in control.
I’ve learned to mentally prepare myself for small areas with tight confines. That approach has served me well working in the rear bilge of sailing vessel Ruby.
My purpose in the bilge on this occasion was to work on a plumbing issue. The prior owner had coupled the drains for the cockpit coaming and the propane locker to the same seacock. That is actually against regulations. To complicate matters, the short pipe from a Y junction to the seacock was cracked and the copper Y was corroded through. Under power, when the stern of the vessel squats, the seacock is under the waterline. Thus, water was trickling into the boat at the crack and at the Y junction when underway with the engine on. I replaced the tubing and established a connection to only the coaming drain.
I anticipate installing an electric range and dismissing with the propane system. If I do choose to stick with propane then I’ll have a dedicated drain installed.
Sailing Ruby 