Maintenance is just about completed on June Bug down at Spencer Yacht in Wanchese after a month-long holdup and she'll will splash back in the water for the season sometime this week they tell me.

We had a little excitement a few weeks ago with June Bug that other boat owners, especially of inboard or inboard/outboard boats, should be aware.

Our boat has an excellent bonding system to tie together all of the electrical and metal systems on the boat to bleed aware any stray electrical currents that can cause galvanic corrosion. Our system is heavy duty and is checked several times per year. Spencers put June Bug back in the water on a Friday about a month ago and when the workmen came in Monday morning, she was sitting pretty low in the water and the bilge pumps were pumping as fast as they could. Men jumped on board and the floorboards in the lazarette under the cockpit and in the engine room were floating by good margins. They lifted June Bug out with the travel lift and noticed then that water was coming OUT somewhere in the middle of the boat.

It turned out that the port stuffing box, the heavy bronze casting that allows the propeller shaft to penetrate the bottom of the boat, had 3 big holes in it from galvanic corrosion. This could have been a huge problem had this happened when the boat was away from the dock. Spencers has replaced both stuffing boxes now with custom fiberglass ones like they use in their new boats.

It is a known fact that much galvanic corrosion is caused not by an owner's boat but by other boats and electrical installations in the area. A neighbor who thinks a good dockside power system is a cheap extension cord is a likely candidate for causing damage to your boat.

Both Yellowfins and Bluefins are being caught in excellent numbers out of Oregon Inlet. In addition, the deep water bottom fishing is outstanding. June Bug won't be ready to fish offshore for a couple of weeks after she gets back in the water but there are plenty of excellent charter boats both at Oregon Inlet and Hatteras. Tony Tillet on the Caolinian at Oregon Inlet and Rom Whitaker on Release out of Hatteras Harbor are both superior skippers who will put you on the fish.