Off Grid Boat Life | Days in the Life… Diving and Preparing to Sail

Our mission for today is to clean the bottom. We've chosen the coldest day yet. It is now pouring rain. These are legacy snorkels. They are old. Flippers. Well, just like that, it's turned to cold fall stormy weather here. Um, yeah, fall is coming quicker than normal. Anyway, our mission for today is to clean the bottom. And Jonas has volunteered to do the, do the underwater work. We are prepping to move back to the docks, um, very soon. And the kind of last big thing on our list is getting all of the summer growth off of the bottom, which is so much. I mean, I think it's a sign that the water is really healthy here, so that's fantastic. But it's amazing how many mussels and barnacles and little sea creatures have accumulated over like six months. We've chosen the coldest day yet to do it, but got our wetsuits. And uh, I don't know if I'll go in the water, but Jonas for sure will. And I might scrape from the dinghy. Um, cause it looks like a lot of the growth is actually kind of at the waterline where it gets the most sunlight. So yeah, it'll be fun. We got to do it. I mean we could, we've hired a diver, but uh, in the past we have, this is infinitely more affordable than hauling out more than getting a diver. We do need to haul out at some point. Yeah. Yeah. This is our, this is our short term solution. Um, our priorities are prop and rudder and the rest will just be a blast. I'm so excited. Ladder down. How's the water? How does it look? Is it coming off? Oh, that is so satisfying. The rain has just started. I can't remember if I said this earlier, but unfortunately we don't have a weight belt or anything, which would make this a lot easier. So we're just trying our best with what we have. And it's pretty sweet. I'm, I'm excited. I'm also not the one in the water, so I'm very grateful for that. Note to anyone who is using their paddles, um, it will scrape them up, but okay. But, uh, the paddles work amazingly for cleaning the bottom and it's like the only tool we have. So that's what, that's what we're using. We're only using one. It's our barnacle scrubbing paddle, but yeah, we are aware that they do get very little bit scraped. How are you doing up there? I'm doing good. I feel bad that I'm not helping. Okay. Latest update. We found our old broken paddle, which will be way better to use. On the bright side, it's coming off or I hear it's coming off very easily. It's just a big hole with a lot of growth. So the rain has stopped. which is actually made for a really nice time scraping. I don't know. There's just something about the rain and, and uh, working in the rain that's like kind of nice. So, um, yeah, we've got, I went around from the top, like from the deck of the boat and did a bunch of scraping from the top and it was so satisfying. It just came off in sheets, which is really nice. Um, and then Jonas is still in the water working on more of the underwater stuff that I can quite reach and uh, yeah, soon we'll be able to do the prop, which is one of the big pieces that we wanted to get done and overall it's going really well. Post dive hot chocolate. Yes. It, uh, got very chilly towards the end. Not so much for me. I was very fortunate to be on land or on the boat. It's a few hours later and we're finally kind of warm and uh, it also finally stopped raining. So we're going to get our walk in. Um, just in case it starts raining again cause I think it's gonna, I think it's going to be a wet few days. There's a big system moving over, which I think will be good like to get it over with, but it is going to potentially bring a lot of wind and a lot of rain. So we'll see if we actually get it done. Oh, it is cold though. Holy. Oh wow. Look, there's a school of fish. Yeah. Were you swimming with them? Wow. It looks fantastic. Oh yeah. Those should drop off. Oh, right. It looks amazing. Stay till dawn, stay till dawn. It's turned into a beautiful morning here. It's taken forever. I mean, the dew still hasn't even burned off. It was a very, very damp high dew point. High dew point or low dew point. Well, I think like the closer the kind of remember my atmospheric training. I think the closer temperature and dew point are together, the easier it is for dew like moisture to form. Oh, there's two. There's two. They're beside each other. Oh wow. I'm finally, finally cleaning our stove because it is long overdue for cleaning. So good so far though. So the last thing we need to do is change the zinc, the engine zinc. I can't remember if we've showed this on this channel or not. We've changed the engine zinc a few times and we think it's probably about time. So we're going to check it. And then if it needs replacement, we will replace it. Engine zinc looked good. And now since we're here, we're just going to check the oil, check the coolant. Yeah. Just kind of good things to practice. Oh, oil looks good. That black is very normal. Basically in diesel engines, someone has explained to me this, but basically in diesel engines, the carbon builds up and so black doesn't necessarily mean that it hasn't gone like black isn't necessarily a bad thing. As soon as you change oil, it kind of turns black after one or two uses. So yeah, like we don't, we won't need an oil change probably until next year. And uh, yeah, so we're just looking for the level of oil. So that looks good. Um, and then we'll also check the coolant. And someone told me once that it should be about a knuckle. Um, at least on this boat, it should be up to kind of one knuckle right now. So about up to there. So we may add just a little bit of coolant to top that up. And other than that, I think we're good. The boat is looking good. Engines doing fine. If anyone's curious, this is the zinc that we would have been replacing. Ours is still good. So that'll probably be a next year thing. Well, engines looking good. All the fluids are where they should be. And um, yeah, it's been a pretty chores heavy last few days for sure, but we're getting really excited, um, to actually leave and head back to the docks for, for winter. Um, we're really just waiting for a system to pass right now and then we should be able to get moving. Fingers crossed that, um, it'll all work out, but it's looking good. The weather is looking good for when we plan to leave. So that's kind of nice. Hopefully the weather lines up with our time off work. That's always the, yeah, it's always a tricky part. And if it doesn't, we can just take more time off. We learned our lesson one time trying to get back for a Monday work day and sailed through some inclement weather. Yeah. So we'll just have to wait, but fingers crossed. Yeah.