Here comes Murphy again

Wednesday we had Neil over to help bleed the engine (i.e., get the air out of the fuel lines). This should have taken about an hour, however, by the time we were ready to start the engine we found that we had no cooling water. We have always had a problem with our cooling water, but we normally just reved up the engine a bit and the water would come. This time nothing. Upon investigation, we found that the through-hull for the cooling water for the engine was broken in the closed position - so you can move the handle, but it doesn't do anything to the valve inside. So, in the next few days Geoff will be going for a swim to insert a wooden plug into the through-hull to block it off so we can change the ball valve without taking the boat out of the water. This is the type of repair we have only read about, but we've never heard of anyone actually doing it!