Still Summer? ! ? ! ?

SHIP'S LOG:

Is it still summer? Yesterday was certainly hot and sunny enough to qualify, but last night it got "cold!" Even this morning there was a bit of a chill in the air and there is a coolness in the warm breeze that is blowing even now.

Yesterday was bottom cleaning day! One of the down sides of a 38ft boat is that it is 39 feet long and it provides you with an abundant area to clean when the need arises. And that's times 2 as you have to do both sides. First of though was evicting the community of barnacles and other sea-life that had settled upon the prop and shaft. Every single millimeter of space on the prop was covered with growth and even the growth had growth grow upon it. It is actually a rather tiring procedure. Take a breath, dive down under the boat to the prop. Scrape and chop at the growth until your lungs are ready to burst and then back up to the surface where, if you are lucky and time it right, you get another lung full of air. If not, you inhale the wave that you didn't notice. It takes 30-45 minutes to complete the job or at least clean the prop enough so that it will move the boat.

The next phase it to clean the bottom it self. Thanks to the EPA, rivers and estuaries are cleaner than ever and the sea-life has responded by growing abundantly. With a brush, you brush this brown slime off the bottom of the boat, taking about 45 minutes a side to get it clean. This will improve the speed of the boat and I was racing, I would probably notice the difference, but I ain't so I won't. But it will, over a long trip, help with the fuel economy, making the boat easier to move through the water.

I must be getting old. It was exhausting and I went to bed at 8pm.