BobbingAlong

I met a man who said he's never had to buy a fender as he picks up all the fenders lost by those foolish enough to cruise with them down. Starter rope sounds like a great idea with my batteries; I'll pop down the weed hatch with a few metres of rope while I'm cruising along to get that fitted nice and snug ?

Aah. That's a relief. It confused me because it was in two distinct rings and one of them has I guess melted so much it almost looks plastic-backed (see pic) but it absolutely does not look like that pic of packing. The prop does strange transformation to stuff it encounters. Feeling glad it's not packing but a bit daft now for thinking it was. So much to learn. Thanks a million, this community is great.

Hi, Fair warning, noob boater, terminology still being acquired. I went down my weed hatch this morning to dislodge something caught on the prop and while checking things over found two rings of what I assume is stern gland packing (see pic) were outside in the water around the prop shaft in a state of advanced knackeration. What are they doing there?! This can't be good, right? Is my stern gland kaput, having a tantrum and throwing it's rings into the cut? Having lost two rings am I safe to cruise on? Can/should I head straight to the nearest boatyard? We just had her out of the water and the yard said the gland didn't need repacking when we'd asked for them to do it but we had a terrible experience at the yard so not sure how much to trust their word.