A New Clunking Sound…

After staying two days in Port Ludlow relaxing, it was time to move on! We headed out the next morning in beautiful weather going north toward Lopez Island, back in the San Juan Islands again. Watmough Bay on the southeast side of Lopez Island was an unexpected nice anchorage we found on our way south but we’d had no extra time to spend there. We were looking forward to exploring it this time.
It was perfect sailing weather! We put up the sails, which took a little extra time since we are still learning how to use all of our fancy sail furling systems. Once we got the sails up and trimmed, the breeze caught. Finally! Sailing! We turned off the motor and felt the breeze and the peace and quiet….except for a funny clunking sound as the autopilot worked to keep us on track. Oh Boy! Now what? I took the wheel and turned off our friend Auto while Bill went below to check things out. I noticed that the clunking sound went away when I was steering, a good sign I thought. Bill pulled the heavy memory foam queen mattress off our bed, then the board from the bed platform allowing access to the rudder post, autopilot, and all the stuff.
(Loud cuss words) “We have water down here” Bill yelled up. He was yelling so I could hear him, but all I heard was a shout about water. “That is it, we are sinking, the end of the dream, the boat is toast” is what I was thinking “How much water?” Is what I shouted back. “Not that much, couple gallons” came the calm response “But it shouldn’t be here. Turn on the autopilot and turn to starboard”
Small clunk
“Turn to port”
Bigger clunk
We repeated the maneuvers several times until Bill was satisfied that he had the problem of the clunking worked out and that we were not sinking.
Assessment: The autopilot pin that attaches the strong hydraulic piston to the rudder was loose and past a certain turning point it would go in or out of place with a clunk. The water leak is coming from a very slow drip leak from the rudder post where the rudder comes through the hull. It is called a stuffing box.
Yay! We still have a functioning boat! We sailed and hand steered the rest of the way to Watmough Bay, about 4 hours. After we anchored we were able to tighten the Autopilot pin and no more clunking! As far as the drip leak, the enemy of good is better and we would wait to mess with that in port where a boat lift is available just in case the whole thing let loose. Add that to the list of boat work! We have started a new list labeled “Shit to do later.”
We went into shore and found some wonderful trails, beautiful views, and best of all, more blackberries!