A day or two ago Sue discovered that when she turned on the fresh water aboard Heliotrope she heard a gushing sound. This was not music to my ears; a gushing sound is a bad sound. After putting research off for a few days, we faced the music today, only to discover the worst—a major leak inside the domestic hot water system.

And, there is only one solution for a problem like this (caused by inadequate winterization, or the fact that the system is now very old)—extraction, and then replacement. And the only way to do that is down the hatch, the little cockpit hatch on port side. When diagnosing the problem I leaned well into that hatch up side down and, as it turned out, leaned a little too far, needing to call Sue for help in extracting—me.

That’s when I decided to hire help. Patrick spent an hour and a half, working mostly at my direction but also contributing good ideas, scrunched down in that very small space. Ultimately we prevailed, and the wonderful old water heater has been removed.

As of this moment, Heliotrope is completely non-functional with a broken toilet and a discombobulated water system. So. There is lots to look forward to.