Superstition

Let me start off by saying I'm not a superstitious person at all. Friday the 13th is no big deal, I'll pat the black cat as it passes my way, walk under a ladder is not a problem, etc. However, sailors are by nature very superstitious, this may be due to mishaps that happen on route and it gives you something to blame it on. Some common superstitions include:

• Never start a journey on a Friday
• Bananas on a ship are bad luck
• Women were considered bad luck, but breasts cure a savage ocean (this is why the bow of many boats were adorned with topless women)
• Whistling on board can drum up storms
• A shark following your boat is a bad omen (seems obvious)
• Don't change the name of your boat

If you followed my last post you will know we changed the boat name from "Sailohr" to "Turtle's Krawl". This is considered bad luck as once a boat is christened, the boat develops a life of it's own. There is a de-naming ceremony that can be followed to pay homage to Neptune and free up the boat for rechristening.

Well, we did not do that when we renamed the boat and launched the renamed boat last weekend. I happened to check on the boat after a thunderstorm passed through to make sure everything was okay. Things looked good and I went below to check the bilge for water. I really like a dry bilge and saw a little water so I dried it out and a little while later is was wet again! Hum, I dried it again and within a few minutes it was wet again. Upon further inspection I found some hairline cracks around the center board bolts where water was seeping in. I've never seen this before and my bilge has always been bone dry.

Luckily I had some Marine Tex and used it to stop the leak. A little underwater epoxy and a top layer of Marine Tex and the leak looks like it's been stopped. Marine Tex is great stuff! So was the cause of the leak an older boat, or? Next weekend we are performing an official de-naming ceremony, why take chances?