Critters!

The amount of marine growth on the bottom of the boat from spending a month and a half in the waters of Marathon Harbor was amazing. We had a small reef on the bottom of our boat which became evident shortly after our departure from Marathon on our way to Bimini. We were only making about 5.3 knots when we should have been going 7 or so. About 7 miles south of Marathon I dove over the side and found the multitude of barnacles clinging to our hull. I held my breath and cleaned the prop as much as I could but made little headway. It seems like I used to be able to hold my breath longer. I climbed back on board and got underway again but with just a little more speed. I reluctantly decided I should exume the hookah gear from the catacombs of our bilge and do a better cleaning. While we motored along at reduced speed I assembled the dive gear, started the compressor and stopped the boat for an extended cleaning. It was a little unnerving cleaning the propeller in 300 feet of crystal blue water with hands, back and feet bleeding from barnacle scrapes but I got the prop cleaned and we got back underway. A clean prop and a barnacle encrusted hull still only gave us 5.5 knots but that would have to do.

After arriving in Bimini we took a slip at Bluewater Marina. The water is so clear in our slip that you can see fish, starfish, sea anemonies, etc right under the boat. We spent the afternoon cleaning the rest of the hull with scrapers and got it mostly done. One more swim should have it finished.