We're still getting ready to head to Mazatlán. Yesterday we pulled the dinghy out of the water so we could clean her up and stow her. You'd never know that Lulu did a major bottom cleaning on the dinghy less than 2 months ago.
The barnacle build-up was epic.
We scraped and scraped and then Lulu attacked what was left with a scrubber. Finally, the bottom was as clean as it was going to get and the dink was folded up for the first time in 8 months.
Now she's all stowed away and ready for the trip across the Sea.
In spite of some pretty darn good anti-fouling bottom paint, Siempre Sabado was also experiencing a pretty good growth of barnacles and sea slime. This time, however, we opted for the easy way out. We called Clark from Paradise Found Dive Services and let him do the dirty work. I tried to do a link to his Facebook page but, as is usually the case when I attempt anything Facebook, I failed. But, if you know how to handle Facebook, he said that he's at Facebook/Clark Waters or, you can email him at paradisefoundservices@gmail.com. Anyway, he spent an hour or better scraping and scrubbing.
He also checked the prop zinc and the Frigoboat keel cooler zincs and declared them all OK. He said that, except for the waterline where the bottom paint has come off, the rest of the bottom paint looks good to go for another year or so. Maybe longer if we'd clean it more often. Since the bottom was so crusty, he had to charge me extra but still it was $38 (US) well spent.
And speaking of cleaning, I would NOT want the job of cleaning this panga:
Anyway, little by little we're getting ready to go. Lulu did a shopping trip today for some odds and ends. We'll make a couple more beer runs and then top off the water tank on either Saturday or Sunday and then head out to anchor and wait for our window.
2 comments:
A rare Lulu sighting!
Thanks for posting up the photos of the dink on deck and secured too. Dani and I are interested in the porta-bote and wondering how you guys kept it on deck.
I've got another question for ya. What type of boarding ladder are you guys using while at anchor? Is that it I see on deck as well?
Tate
Tate,
Not sure what you're seeing that you thought might be a boarding ladder but the stuff alongside the dink is stuff for the dink: 3 seats, transom, and an anchor. We used to use a rope boarding ladder that I made (see: http://tinyurl.com/8xz64rh) but it was kind of a pain since our feet would always swing under the boat when we were trying to climb up. It works, but it's not a great solution and our toes were always blue. Now we use a regular old telescoping ladder that hangs over the gunwales. We hang it from the ratlines when it's not in use. Ours is like this one: http://tinyurl.com/c2zrhv5. We opted for the 4-step model so it's easy to climb onto the boat from the water. The W28 has a fairly high freeboard.
BTW, I realized we don't have an e-mail address for you guys. Why don't you drop us a line and then I can give you more detailed responses when warranted.
-Steve
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