Ed removed the old stuffing from the stuffing box a couple of weeks ago. This is the stuff which fills the little gap where the propeller shaft goes through the hull, so is basically keeping the lake out of our boat. Changing the stuffing is a hard job because the old stuffing is jammed in pretty tightly, and you have to work by feel because the opening faces aft. Once the old stuffing is all removed, it's time to replace it with fresh stuffing, and tighten the locking nut to jam it in place.
Once we launched, Ed immediately checked the stuffing box and found a pretty steady stream of water coming in, which even I could hear when I poked my head in the companionway. Out came the tools, as Ed worked to tightened the nut some more. Since the bilge pump was able to easily keep up with the amount of water coming in, we decided that we'd be OK moving on to the dock, rather than asking to be hauled out again. It took Ed an hour or so, and a good borrowed wrench, to tighten the nut enough to slow the flow down to a normal drip. The boat was still floating when we arrived on Sunday to launch the remaining boats :-)
