Post by Larry McCullough

I will never, ever, ever complain about waxing a car that I own.  Independence is 59 feet long, 17 feet wide and 24 feet in height. That’s a lot of fiberglass and it has all been waxed. It is kind of like Groundhog Day with waxing, the only thing on the boat that hasn’t been waxed is my back and that would give too much pleasure to Jamie to go down that path…I am not into that kind of pain.

I have done every project that I can think of with the limited supplies here on Roatan that I can purchase. Before leaving Florida in January I bought extra supplies, like oil (in the last post) and filters for three additional oil changes. Along with the oil changes I have changed all the zincs on the boat. Zincs are a sacrificial metal that deteriorates, hopefully, instead of the metal in various parts of the boat. Zincs can be found in the engine, air conditioning system and the metal below the water line (propeller shaft, rudder, trim tabs, etc).

While we had the Brownie hookah breathing device (scuba diving without the tank) set-up we cleaned the bottom of the boat. It is amazing how much grows on the underside of the boat in this warm clear water. With the bottom cleaned the boat will have less resistance and hopefully go through the water a little bit faster and with better fuel efficiency. Jamie mentions that the same thing would happen with me if I would just wax my back.