Barnacles



On our short journey down the river to Charleston, the boat was clearly rather sluggish, the chief suspect was barnacles (given that we could see them on the waterline). The boat had been left for a month in brackish water which was probably not ideal (though we had little choice - marinas are pretty full round here). The speed indicator wasn't working so after it started raining today I pulled out the paddle wheel that indicates our speed to find it totally encrusted with barnacles. It took almost 15 minutes to clear them off the 1-2 sq. inches of plastic. Hopefully they will eventually fall off the anti-fouling, however the keel is largely exposed due to our grounding and areas like the bowthruster will be totally covered (it barely worked yesterday). We will be traveling about a knot slower until we can get the boat hauled out and the keel cleaned and anti-fouled :(

The picture shows the barnacle encrusted paddle; at least with all the rain (see 2nd picture) we managed to get a few boat jobs done and Ruth could watch the sprouts grow (it was a slow day).....


Posted: Sat - June 2, 2007 at 09:37 AM          

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