Let me give you some up front info: in the past, I've gotten a few drips of water from the
hatch over the V-berth, so I'd taped some rags over the corners of the
hatch. It has been raining for the last 3 days, and last night it was raining particularly hard. I'm not sure if these drips are from a leak, however, since when I went sailing on Sunday in rough weather, I took plenty of water of the bow and none got through the
hatch. I also recently covered the
hatch from the inside with that plastic used for insulating windows in old drafty houses. That made the V-berth a lot warmer. I have an Espar, forced-air system but the vent in the V-berth seems under-powered.
I went to sleep last night in a cozy, dry V-berth. I woke up about 5am because I had rolled over and gotten slapped in the face with a soaking wet blanket. The rags on the hatch were soaked through and dripping onto the bed. I dried things up as best I could, put new rags in place, and went back to sleep.
About 630am, I woke up again because I had rolled over the other way (towards the hull) and felt wet. Some cursory inspection discovered that the wood paneling on the sides of the V-berth were wet (mostly at the bottom, where they may have had my blankets up against them). It felt like the wood itself was wet, however, not just condensation on its surface. It was also very wet down in between where the mattress butted against the paneling, and somewhat moist across the entire platform the mattress sits on. At this point I gave up on sleeping in the V-berth and moved to a settee in the salon (after lifting all the V-berth cushions to dry).
When I awoke at my regularly scheduled time of 9am, the rain had stopped, and there was barely a trace of water in the V-berth. The cushion was still slightly damp, but the now-exposed wood paneling was dry, as was the platform. I noted a couple very small spots of mildew on the bottom of the mattress under where my butt rests when I'm sleeping (center of mass?), and this was also the area most damp, which I think indicates this has happened before to a lesser degree I didn't notice.
So, sorry for the long story, but what am I dealing with here? I am still relatively convinced it's not a leak, but it's not behaving like any condensation I'm familiar with. It certainly seemed like water was soaking through the wood paneling on the sides and then across the platform, but if that's what was really happening, how could it dry so quickly? Also, I discovered all the opening ports (including hatches) were sweating from their metal frames, yet strangely the fixed ports were not. I didn't notice that until after I took a shower though, so it might just be condensation from showering. If this is condensation, how do I fight it? If it isn't, where should I be looking for leak(s)?
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woke up wet this morning
