Today was a good day. Whilst the mood was slightly lethargic, everyone seemed content. Writing my post was obviously cathartic because a decent sleep later and I woke with a bit of renewed enthusiasm.

We have had decent wind and sea state again but we all seem to be taking it much more in our stride. Canopus has been performing well too - despite a horrible main sail she is pointing (the ability to go into wind) very well for a cruising yacht.

We even had a family movie afternoon in the cockpit with Moana 2 (confession - both v and I raised a wry smile/eyebrow to the tune of “Can anything be better than this?” as Moana and her team disappear across the open sea. Well yes - a shower and bed frankly!).

We have also gone over the 1000 mile mark today (logged 1016 miles). In retrospect this has been a great shake down sail and while the defects list is growing we are learning a lot about how we use the space, how many provisions we get through as a family (Canopus felt full as we left Albania but we are now running low of fresh produce - down to some potatoes, a red pepper and a handful of oranges). In terms of defects the most serious are an aft heads (loo) that needs a service, we need to look into our servers as we are unable to connect properly to the outside world  through  the boats cellular and satellite systems (can call out and get emails but that is it), all 3 of our main hatches are leaking (badly) and the stern gland issue remains.

My 2300 watch started with what was supposed to be a bit of a milestone - the engine starting. By our plan, this meant we were rounding the corner alongside the Balearics to head in a more Northerly direction (at last) towards Barcelona and our rendezvous with the dog. Spirits were high to have the background noise of engine rather than groaning boat during V’s handover briefing.

It was time for V to get her head down - “Could you just check the stern gland on your way past?”. “No probs”……….”L - it’s pi@#ing out again…..”. 

Righto - sails out again, back onto the 240 deg tack we have got to know so well and time to reassess……

So what is the stern gland? Essentially the seal that prevents water from entering the boat through the propellor shaft. In our case it is a packed stern seal - a cup that the shaft runs freely through. That cup is filled with a square rope material that is then pressed inside the cup by another face that is concentric to the inner diameter of the outer cup. The whole lot is then lubricated by a remote greasing system.

The issue is that, whilst the harder your compress the packing, the tighter the seal. But in turn, the faster the material wears and the hotter the whole thing gets - again bad for the material and the shaft. As the material wears away, thee is obviously less in contact with the shaft, so the tendency is to redo press, so the wear gets faster etc etc etc. To add a new dimension, over time the grease and packing also goes hard, again requiring a harder compression.

On ours, the 2 faces of the “cups” are now only half a mm apart - implying we have little to no packing material left. Indeed, the flow of water now is not just along the shaft but forcing its way out of the grease nipple (which would normally be protected by packing.

So we have a problem. We have managed now to stem the flow of water with a final squeeze of whatever material we have left, but both V and L agree, once more start of the engine (presumably to get into a port!) and we will have a leak that we will no longer be able to stop. The issue shifts from preventing a leak to managing the leak.

The situation is more of a pain than it is dangerous. We have pumps on board and several pairs of hands so it would be “all hands to the pump”. But an already tired crew would lose all watch patterns until we reach port and can effect a repair.

So here I am now. Settled back on to the 240 degree tack, with a dying wind. Canopus is doing well - 5kts from a 9th true wind. But we need now to get as far west as possible before we lose the wind and are forced to either bob around until we get some more wind or switch on the engine and make for port - at which point we are in leak management mode. So we have elected to abandon our plan for Barcelona and make for Palma in Mallorca where we can stop, provision and sort the defects list.

So 3 new challenges on the horizon - where do we go on Mallorca to fix the leak? OB has started his journey so how does one of us go and get him? Whose on first pumping duty?

It would be nice if the internet was working so we could start researching some of this…. Ah the Swiss cheese effect in action once again.

Time to sail this boat West - the quicker I do this bit, the less pumping I have to do later!

Thinking of you all.

Crew of Canopus.