Rock Sound, Eleuthera, Bahamas

 The winds are calming....we're just really hanging around pleasantly.

Time to figure out the dinghy leak...this is made much more difficult because the dinghy has a "double floor".  So there is the outer "V" shaped aluminum hull, and a flat aluminum plate on top of that making the surface where our feet ride completely flat.  This is welded in place and completely non-accessible.  The fuel line and electrical cables are hidden beneath this flat plate.  

On to the troubleshooting -  We filled the dinghy up with buckets of seawater then observed the hull to try to figure out where the leak was coming from.  Tilted the dinghy 45 degrees to position the water for maximum impact.  Nothing obvious right away, but we did find a small drip that couldn't be explained.  After quite a while we finally honed in on a very small corroded area in the middle of the outside aluminum hull.  This had to be the culprit as the hull was dry everywhere else.

Since the dinghy is hanging in mid-air we needed a "work platform" to proceed.  Darcey and Michelle on New Ambition answered the call.

 

Now that we could reach it, just poking it with a small punch opened up whatever debris was slowing down the flow.  We definitely found our leak - very strange spot.  (We were expecting it to be at the hull-to-tube junction.

Super easy fix that we hope is "good enough".  Since Darcey was still in the dinghy, he took the honor of doing the repair.  Just a quick sanding of the area, drill out the hole for a large aluminum rivet, copious amounts of 3M 5200 sealant, then he popped in the rivet.  Covered with more 5200 just for good measure.   So nice of them to help!

Later in the afternoon, Michelle invited us over for some games.  Darcey came and provided taxi service to let the 5200 cure on our dinghy.  (It's underwater rated so should be a fine fix.)

Had a fun afternoon chatting and playing 5 Crowns.   They will head out for points south tomorrow.   We'll likely stay around or head a bit north.   

If you're wondering about the dinghy and the corrosion.....the dinghy is a Highfield brand - which is well liked and reviewed.  We bought it in 2019.  The warranty for the tubes is 10 years but the hull is only 5 years.  So we are out of luck as far as that is concerned.  All the aluminum surfaces are powder coated.  We have seen a good amount of "bubbling" from underlying corrosion on several areas.  Probably not a great process although it looks great when new of course.  Obviously, the ocean water is a terrible environment.  But the location of the hole is strange - not a seam or anything.  I think the next dinghy will probably be bare aluminum....