I went to the shipyard here today and asked about my rudder problem. Basically the immediate response was that the boat definitely needed to be hauled out, and that they could do it tomorrow and have it back to me in a week. I was told it was the bearings and bushings that were toast because the shaft is moving. I don’t really know anything about it though. I know they seemed overly anxious to get me hauled out (like the next morning) which makes me a little nervous.

In the meantime, while deciding what to do, I installed two new bilge pumps tonight. Hopefully that’ll be enough to keep the boat from sinking next week while we are away. If not, well, then I guess it wasn’t meant to be.