Rowing out to the mooring for an evening check

While driving past the mooring this morning I noticed that the crutches was hanging off the boom rather than supporting it, so Julian and I rowed out to Robinetta after work to see what had happened. I had a bag full of kitchen items that I had forgotten to put aboard Robinetta before launch that we need when we are sleeping on board.

The topping lifts were holding the boom up properly, but the crutches were dangling over the side, with one of the legs broken off. We both got on board, and when I opened up the cabin I found that the bilges were so full that the water was beginning to spill over the floorboards. Julian got on with freeing the broken crutches and tightening up the topping lifts, while I turned on the bilge pump. This was working, but the float switch was stuck in the down position, so had not triggered the automatic pump.

The pump was still running after Julian had sorted the boom, so he filled the prop shaft grease reservoir which was getting very low while the pump did its work. 

We do have a spare set of crutches, unvarnished pine rather than varnished teak, so we will take them out to Robinetta in the next couple of days. We need to start going out to Robinetta at least once a week to check on the float switch, which might need replacing.