Boat cleaning day in the Tropical Tip...

My buddy, Herb, offered me the use of his boat lift to clean Wild Blue's bottom - very gracious!  It allows me to do the work, instead of having the guys in the boat yard blast off my bottom paint (that I paid them last year to apply).  Herb's lift is a good size for Wild Blue...

(photo courtesy of Wilma Stark).  We crawled around, checking out the condition of the bottom, after 2 1/2 months in the warm salt water...

(photo courtesy of Wilma Stark)  I said, "It doesn't look bad!"  When I got under the boat with the power washer, I kinda changed my tune... what looked like slime was stuck on there pretty good; it took a lot of power, some scrubbing, and the loss of some bottom paint to get it off.

My friend, Charlie, asked why I didn't just get in the water to clean the bottom.  That is the way I usually do it.  Our unusual cold weather the past three weeks has dropped our water temp to around 60º... too darn cold for me to get in the water, even with a wetsuit!  Typically, I anchor in relatively shallow water and scrub with a long handled brush, allowing me to reach to the middle of the bottom.  It sounds primative, but it works well.

Using the power washer also works... although, trying to keep the dinghy in one place while the sprayer is blasting was a trick.  My shoulders will be feeling the effects of that in the morning.  I'm hoping Herb won't be sore... while I was the one in the dinghy, he was guiding it and feeding me line from the power washer.  I didn't mean for him to have to work, too.

Adding another interesting twist to working from a dinghy under the boat: the dinghy began to fill with water.  I thought, "Damn, I know I am getting water everywhere (especially all over me), but it didn't seem like I should be getting that much in the dinghy.  When Herb and I pulled the dinghy up on the dock afterwards, we could hear water running out... and the plug was still in.  Looking down, you could see daylight between the floor and the tubes of the inflatable!!  Yep, the glue it was assembled with had given up.  It all looked fine when I cleaned the dinghy yesterday.  Good thing it occurred while under the boat, cleaning, and not on a lumpy trip to shore from a far away anchorage!

The end result: I was a soggy mess.  I offered to take Herb and Wilma out for lunch, and called Joan to have her bring me some dry clothes.  Yes, I had a wetsuit in the boat... didn't think I was going to need it!

With the cleaning done, Herb lowered Wild Blue in the lift to make it easier to get on and off...

The four of us had a nice lunch at Pirate's Landing, with a view of the Laguna Madre.  Back to Herb's after lunch, some chit-chat, then plunking Wild Blue back into the water... trying to make the 3:00 bridge opening.  As I came under the causeway, there was an excursion boat sitting crossways, watching dolphins.  I slowed way down to not cause any stress to the dolphins... and just made the bridge opening!

Add another chore before we head out again with the boat: reglue all the seams on the dinghy!