BAILING IN CLEWISTON

With all the rain falling yesterday, Peter discoverd the portside scupper was blocked. He spent a few hours fighting with 'something' down the hole (I warned him it could be a snake) and he finally pulled out a 2 1/2 foot long piece of plastic/rubber hose. It didn't seem to need to be there, so we aren't sure how it got there...but there it was. We thought the blockage was now cured. Not so fast. This is a boat afterall! Still blocked. Try as he did, from outside the hull, to the cockpit, to inside the aft compartments, it is blocked up solid. No one had a wire or anything to try to force the blockage out and pressurizing with the dock hose was not doing a thing. The rains became torrential and non-stop, and began flooding the aft cockpit. We took shifts all nite long to bail so that the surplus water did not go into the bilge with the electricals and generator etc. (the only flaw we see to the Mainship design). Peter stayed up until 2am, then I took the shift up to 7am. All was fairly quiet for my shift....until 7am and all hell broke loose. We are using a gallon water jug that is very flexible and which Peter cut the bottom off to use as a bailer. The rain poured down so hard and constant, we could barely keep up with bailing/flooding the aft cockpit. Just unbelievable. We both looked like drowned rats.
Peter was finally, today, able to locate some appropriate wire and he got into the dinghy (mindful of any touring aligators) and managed to shove the wire in/out of the outside of the scupper on the hull....SUCCESS!  We finally restored drainage...and just in time as the rains have picked up in intensity and we have almost no dry clothing left onboard.  There is no laundry facility here unfortunately. 
Peter just came in from the cold.....the fuel tank in the dinghy (which, alas, was launched) was FLOATING in the dinghy there is so much rainwater!  Apparently the cold freezing cold weather (pre-yesterday) in Florida is a 50 year record (since we arrived!)  Yesterday was brutally humid..today...back to cold..and rain...and thunderstorms.