Dry bilge??? Never Considered It

I’ve owned four Catalina sailboat b4 my current Catalina 36,  MK2, Pente, hull 1897.  I never tried to have a dry bilge nor did I have that as a goal.  Pente has always had 1-2” of water in the bilge.  That was ok with me.   Now I do have a dry bilge.  What happened:

-two years ago replaced the packing gland.

-last year an easy fix top of the water muffler crack developed and I fixed it.  

-this summer overfilled / over pressurized starboard aft water tank and thought I cracked the tank (water filling faster than air could get vented). This requires completely emptying aft cabin, removing first port tank, then starboard tank.   Checked both tanks by filling them with water (plugged discharging hole with end of sharpie pen), and let them sit for 30 plus minutes to see if there was a drip.  No drip.   Took off the 3” top observation port cap and sucked out some solids....Ugg.. this is a reason to not seal these observation ports permanently.  There were a few disgusting floating things in the tanks.  

I re installed both aft water tanks, using fresh silicone plumbers tape on all fittings.  No leaks, no more water in the bilge.  My bilge is DRY, so far three weeks bone dry, after running the motor + one hour and sailing 6-8 hours.  I think the water in my bilge was probably dripping fresh water tank connections. And maybe some of the other fixes too.