The Ending Of The Season

SHIP'S LOG:

It hasn't been what you would a particular good season this years. Few have really had the chance or the opportunity to enjoy their boats. The sole exception is the Barnacle. Considering their adherence to props around the Yacht club, this has been a truly bountiful season for the randy little bastards. Prolific doesn't even begin to describe them this year. Any underwater appendage of metal has, not the odd one or two, but a colony on every surface. In fact, barnacles are adhering to barnacles creating a dense mass in every thru-hull and on the prop. In addition, every unpainted underwater surface, has it's own colony growing. It is amazing as a month ago, there were few or none around, but now! WOW! I am not sure why but they are there in force. And they half to go. Now! The water is somewhere between 65 and 70 degrees (yeah, I know that sounds warm, but it ain't), more on the cold side than on the warm, and going for a dip now, while doable, will be a chore without a wetsuit. And I do not have one. But chilling as it is today, next week, even the end of this week it will be even more so.

And as I said, they have to go. It is not that they will cut your sailing spend that much, unless you are a serious racer looking for that 1/10 of a knot edge, but barnacles on your prop can, if not removed, really cut down on the engine making the boat move. A big colony can actually render the prop useless. An inconvenience when you are sailing can become a serious problem when you need your engine and with the time soon approaching to haul ABISHAG, I am going to need the engine-powered locomotion. Sailing to Mystic, about 6 miles, is a piece of cake but getting up the Mystic River to the marina absolutely demands the engine, and so the prop, be functioning at their best.

So it is that Columbus Day will be celebrated with a dip in the Thames River, scrapper in hand, evict the barnacles, one and all. I am sure that more than one barnacle will get revenge by inflicting a cut or two or more. It will be a cold, non-funny experience. It would have so much better in the Keys!

MASTER'S PERSONAL LOG:

I haven't even figured out what it will cost to ave ABISHAG hauled for the winter. I have the contract and all I have to do is plug in the numbers, and I will know. But coward that I am, (that should be "financially destitute coward") I haven't done so as though somehow, the final figure will somehow be lower. After the "dip," will will figure it out. Might as well make the whole day a totally awful experience.