Mission Complete

Vergennes, VT
NoLL

Friday morning I completed a chore in preparation for the return to salt water. After breakfast, I donned my mask and snorkel and went diving to put a new zinc on the propeller. That's a chore we have to do a intervals as short as one month and as long as a year. The zinc I replaced was put on when we were up on the hard in Fort Pierce last March.

I like doing the zinc chore best when in the Bahamas. The clear warm water is ideal for the job. To do it, I have to stay in the water for about 15 minutes, and I have to be able to see some very small screw holes. Anything I drop is lost forever. Therefore, the worst case is to do the job in cold-rough-opaque water. I don't think I've faced a worst case yet.

In Vero or Marathon, after a few months we need to hire a diver to clean the bottom. We usually have the diver change the zinc while he's down there.

Porter Bay, turned out to have water much less clear than up in Burlington or at Valcour island. Still I was able to manage.

An Old Zinc (left) and a new one.

p.s. For non-boating readers. A zinc is a critical piece of boat equipment in salt water. Because the water is conductive, tiny electrical currents flow through the water from submerged metal (like propellers and shafts.) These currents eat away the metal and can completely ruin the parts. The zinc attaches to the metal, and the zinc is eaten away instead of the metal in the expensive parts. In the picture, you see a new zinc and the old one it replaced. The old one had 3 months in salt water, and it lost about 50% of its mass.