Key West - Bottom Scrubbed, zinc replaced

I asked the diver, "Why do you need a wet suit, isn't the water warm enough?" He replied it's about 70 but if you spend over an hour in the water, you'll get cold

On our trip north we like to get the bottom scrubbed after sitting dormant in the Key West harbor for two months. When we first came down to Key West we were using Interlux Micron CSC ablative paint on the bottom. It served us well when we cruised in Maine and Long Island Sound. So I was very surprised when we made our first trip down the ICW to discover extreme growth of barnacles all over the bottom, some up to 1 to 2 inches in diameter after two month in Key West. I could only make 6.8 kts when I usually reached 7.3 kts at 2300 rpm, that's a lot of headway to lose on a sailboat.

Good to see, zinc is all there. Last time all I had left was the screw

I had the bottom scrubbed in Titusville and the diver recommended Petit SR60 ablative paint which I used the following year during my summer haulout at the Poughkeepsie YC in New York. The difference was night and day. I have no barnacles on the bottom but I still have it scrubbed smooth of scum to ensure I reach my usually cruising speed of 7.3 kts.

My second problem was the zinc on the prop. They didn't last very long in a marina. During my last Titusville stay of two months, the zinc disappeared completely while sitting in the marina. I have an isolation transformer installed to prevent any and all DC currents from crossing over into the boat but the zinc still disappeared. I then bought a separate zinc I could hang over the side and used an alligator clip to attached the lead to the aft mast stay. That did he trick! When I looked at the zinc the diver removed this morning, it was barely used. So I'm a believer now in attaching a zinc on a line into the water to ensure there's zinc left to protect metal components of the boat.

The spring breakers have all gone, much quieter now and less crowded

For the afternoon entertainment we walked over to listen to Barry Cuda play at Sloppy Joe's and he was good as always. It was then back to the boat to watch the sunset from the cockpit. It's not as good a view as from Mallory Square but it's much less crowded.