My father's sailboat was sinking. I'm not making this up. And you never, ever want to sink into Maine's refreshing waters. Some sort of seal along the propeller thingamadoohicky appeared to be leaking. A lot.
So what to do - a tiny fishing village and, because it was a Sunday, everyone in their Sunday best to boot, so it's not like some fancy boatyard is handy to airlift you and your boat to safety. But there ARE old salts about. A bunch came by to check in with my father - it really warmed my heart to think they cared...until I realized they were just there shooting the breeze.
Now follow me here - one came by and shoveled sawdust into the water behind the boat. I quickly looked around to see if a Coast Guard Cutter was steaming towards us to return the old salt to the happy home.
THE LEAK STOPPED. Apparently, sawdust swells up as it gets wet, and it plugged the leak. The broken seal was busily sucking water past it and it simply sucked the wet sawdust into the breach.
These old salts.
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