Tales of maintenance aboard Yahtzee rarely make it to the blog because, well, they’re really just not that exciting. But it’s important for those following along to understand that living and cruising aboard a sailboat isn’t all history lessons, racing and eating s’mores. When it comes down to it, there is always a project to be done and with two young boys it seems time is not always on our side.

On Sunday night, though, with Porter and Magnus snoozing away in their bunks, Jill decided to tackle the plumbing to our galley sink. A foul smell has been emanating from the drains for some time, and after attempts at thwarting the odor failed, we decided to install a new section of hose and clean out the elbows joining the double sink drains.

When she got into the project, it was pretty clear that swapping out the hoses and cleaning the elbows was the cure. But the fun thing about almost every project we get into is that we learn about Yahtzee a bit more. This time it was about the seacock and thruhull that the sink actually drains out of.

After Jill closed the seacock and then got the hose off the sink end, seawater was still filling up the hose at a slow rate. That shouldn’t be, as the purpose of the seacock is to completely stop the flow of water. Closer inspection revealed that when the handle for that seacock is pushed to starboard it rests on the handle of another valve, which leaves it about a quarter of an inch from closing. So, lesson learned: when closing the sink seacock aboard Yahtzee, always turn it to port, not starboard. The more you know.