With three to four days of moderate south wind predicted, the forecast looked perfect for a passage at least to southern Scotland, or perhaps even as far as the Orkney Islands. We loaded up with groceries at the nearby shop, and started to prepare the boat for multi-day passage mode.
Almost as an afterthought, we decided to have a quick look under the aft berth at the rudder post and our new rudder bearing, just to double-check that everything was still in good shape. Much to our surprise, we found a spray of water around the rudder shaft and a small pool just forward of the rudder bearing.
Any sailor knows that the first thing to do when discovering unexpected water in the boat is to taste it – a leak from a water tank onboard will be fresh, and a leak from outside of the boat will be salty. This water was definitely salty, so it was definitely coming in from outside the boat.
A few ounces/50ml of seawater doesn’t really pose much danger, but the particular rudder bearing used on Oso is supposed to be completely dry. And if there’s water leaking through the rudder bearing after a relatively calm summer trip, we can’t feel confident about the integrity of the rudder seal in any kind of adverse weather.
Our high spirits from setting out on our summer trip plummeted – instead of catching a good-looking forecast to sail north to Scotland, we’d need to sail back to Ipswich to work with the boatyard to investigate the cause of the leak, determine a fix, and then implement it.
So, the next morning we pointed the bow west, tail between our legs, bound for Fox’s once again. The forecasted southerly wind proved to be a bit stronger than forecasted, and Oso easily skipped back across the North Sea. We dropped anchor in the River Orwell outside Ipswich after an eight hour sail and immediately deconstructed the aft berth to have a look at the rudder bearing. There was even more water this time, likely because the rudder worked a bit harder in the slightly stronger winds of the return trip. So heading back to the boatyard definitely seems to be the right thing to do…
