Voyage of the Sea Bear

Even here in paradise there are chores to do. Especially here.

Yesterday I put in my ear plugs (still fighting a bit of an ear infection), flippers, mask and snorkel. Grabbed a scraper and took a look at the bottom of Sea Bear. There were 2 inch long white bi-valve seashells, with long pink tongues hanging out, all along the white “water line” painted on her hull. These things weren’t there two weeks ago. I also noted round perriwinkle thingies and a lot of green mossy grass-like stuff. Farther down are bunches of “dark stuff” I didn’t inspect closely.

As I scraped these things off, I soon had lots of little buddies. FISH! Anywhere from 3 to 12 inches long. They did a pretty good job of making sure the shells didn’t reattachthemselves. After a while, bigger fish arrived and when I got done, pelicans and other birds were there making sure the bigger fish didn’t get too cocky as well. Ahh, the food chain in action.

Since I will be wearing ear plugs, I really can’t go much more than 6-8 feet down. I float like a cork, so I’ll need to dig out the weight belt.  I have no idea about what works best to scrub with, so maybe I should go buy a few scrubby-tools. Plastic scraper, shiny steel wool, green sponge pads, maybe a metal spatula for the tough guys. Anyone have any suggestions? It’s a red ablative paint there under the water line, but I can see round 1 inch spots where the paint is completely missing. I sense a new paint job in my future. Sigh. I bet bottom paint isn’t cheap, either.

  Anyway, suggestions are always welcome.  If you know of any tricks, tools, or specific products to make the cleaning and maintenance of my bottom any easier, add a comment to this article and let me know. Or you can sent regular email to me at “seabear at  miller period org”.

I’d better get to the hardware store and see what they have on the shelf. The SailFest race is Wednesday, and the parade is Saturday. I gotta make sure my bttom is smooth. pretty.

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