... There did seem to be some sort of moisture on the interior surfaces of the engine enclosure, but those surfaces led down to a gel-coat covered bilge pan, intended to keep any engine drips from going beyond the engine and messing up the rest of…
The excitement of a new boat, even after you’ve toiled over it to prepare for its maiden voyage, should not be an excuse to neglect your safety preparation, nor forget your operational checklists...
In view of Stan’s apparent knowledge, I delegated the pilotage to him and, stupidly, didn’t keep an eye on the charts and the marks although I had read up on the passage. At that stage we did not have a chart plotter so we were relying on paper…