2nd batch... Something wrong already.

So I cooked up my second batch yesterday afternoon, and everything seemed to be going fine.

Checked on it this morning, no fermentation, no biggie (24-72 hours)

Checked on it after work today, and its fermenting away... But I looked closer, and it appeared that some beer was spilling into the airlock, and onto the top of the bucket. I thought "uh oh", ran and got some paper towel, wiped off the top of the bucket and air lock, but the airlock itself was really loose. Upon further investigation, it appears that when I was putting the airlock in, I pushed the gasket out through into the wort. I was not about to dive into the wort to find it, so I pulled out the airlock, cleaned/dried the top of the bucket off, placed duct tape over the hole, poked a pinhole in it, and pressed the airlock back in. Then I wrapped an alcohol soaked rag around the airlock and filled up the airlock with the same alcohol...

So, how screwed am I without a gasket sealing off the airlock? Will my cobbled together job do the trick, or did I increase my infection chances exponentially? please help.

I should have known things were going too smoothly yesterday...

You should be fine. If you have a LHBS nearby, I'd get another stopper and replace the tape.

You should be fine. However, if you have krausen pushing through the airlock then you should set up a blow-off hose.

You'll be fine. Back in the day, they just put a towel over the bucket...NO airlock. its called 'open fermentation'.

it does increase the risk, but many people have made great beer this way.