The Saddest Day

A very sad thing happened yesterday. A dream vacation and the trip of a lifetime came to an end.  The weather had been pesky and held me back for a couple of days. The real nagging concern was when I went out the bilge filled and filled the cabin to about two inches of water.  I tried to dismiss it as the bilge only need to be pumped twice a day while at anchor. Yesterday, after the fog lifted and the rain ended I decided to head for my first anchorage on the trip.  I had barely gone a mile when the cabin submerged with about 2 inches of water again. I vigorously pumped out the bilge and watched it while I was sailing.  I could see a veritable stream of water coming back from the cabin area of the bilge, not up through the bottom of the bilge or from behind.  Clearly there is a crack or defect in the centerboard trunk.  In the past I have always had to pump the bilge a couple times of day or left the bilge pump on during sailing.  Clearly there has been an insidious leak or tiny crack that has widened with the stress of sailing specifically in 20 knots the first day.  I always wrote the small leak off to the boat being older.  Clearly a repair is urgently needed now.  Obviously I was not about to set out on a month-long voyage in this state of affairs.
I'll be working on structural restoration on several levels some of which I had planned in the next year before my retirement.  I am afraid this will be the last trip Belle takes before those repairs are effected which will take me into retirement.  I will not have another vacation ruined with these sorts of problems dogging me and sending me home beaten to lick my wounds.
This blog was created to document this trip. I am not sure I will even continue it. I may keep it just to have it for retirement.  For now, I'm afraid the buzz is over.  For those of you who I enthused about HF radio contacts on an LeXpedition, I apologize for letting you down.  If you think you are disappointed, think how I feel.  For now, so long.