OK…the generator and the inboard are in the same area of the boat, under the cockpit and they share the same bilge.

We learned 2 things today…the generator (known affectionately as ‘the gennie’) has a water leak….somewhere??? and the inboard engine has an oil leak (looks like a dipstick seal has died…somehow??.

So what does all this mean? Basically it means Ralph once again has had to get down and dirty with the bilge… there is a bilge pump of course, but there’s no point using it when you’ll only be pumping toxins out into the ocean!

Two hours later, covered in oil and holding a plastic jar taped to a stick Ralph emerges with black filthy watery oily stuff in a huge plastic jerry can. This is because it has to rest somewhere to settle before the water can be separated from the oil (oil then safely disposed of on land and the water tipped back overboard)….lucky oil and water don’t mix otherwise we’d be carting 20 odd litres of filthy fluid back to land in the tender!