Martin Baxter wrote:
I don't agree with their attitude that boats leak, well I guess a poorly
maintained one will, but why would you put to sea
in one? Now way would I sail into the Gulf Stream in January, in a boat
that leaked so much that you had to have electric bilge pumps
to keep up with it!


The Gulf Stream in January is a mixed bag. Some days it's really nice.
OTOH it can turn stinky real fast. And I agree about leaks, with the
observation that more boats leak, and faster, than you'd believe if you
started dropping box-car loads of water on top of them every 15 seconds.

I think they made a couple of unwise choices, including turning back
towards Cape Hattaras with a building northerly wind. Couldn't they have
made for Charleston under sail?

The same kind of poor prioritization happens a LOT with trawler
cruisers. About 4 out of 5 are convinced that you should dump some kind
of miracle glop in the fuel so you never have to change your filters,
and they don't bother to change them... or carry enough spares... some
don't even know how. They look at me funny when I say I have 10 spare
fuel filters on board. And guess how many trawlers I've been aboard that
have a manual bilge pump... exactly *one*... ours!

Fresh Breezes- Doug King