Yucky Job!
29 April 2014 | St. Augustine Beach, Florida
Cathy
Today was bottom cleaning day—for the boat, not us. From the top of the lighthouse last week, we spied a cove with a sandy beach that looked as if it would be out of the worst of the current and a good place for bottom cleaning. I checked the guides, and it checked out. The five foot tidal change here would allow us to set the boat in near the beach at high tide around 10:00 a.m. and then the outgoing tide would expose the bottom. The tide would be right back in at the same place around 6 or 7 tonight to float our boat.
As I began scraping off the gunk, I felt as if something was crawling on me. It was! I was covered in tiny squiggly things! I backed away and scrubbed at myself to get them off, and yes, I screamed like a girl. They clung to my swim suit like they were glued on. Once I didn't feel any critters climbing on me, I inspected some of them up close and found they were itty, bitty shrimp. Our gunky boat bottom was a shrimp nursery. Knowing what the squiggly things were helped a bit, but it was still one of the grossest jobs I've ever tackled. While I continued to work, I tried some positive self-talk to get me through. “Well, at least it only has to be done once every few months. I could be cutting grass every week. And it’s not as bad as the time we had to dig up the field lines for the septic tank. And then that time when a 14 month old (I won’t disclose which one) took of the diaper off in the baby bed and played with the pooh, smearing it everywhere. At least I’m working at the beach…in the sunshine……”
Every time I eat shrimp for a while, I will have to wonder—were you born on my boat?