Underwater maintenance

Today was a real strain. I worked on my sailboat and then took it out for a spin. About two miles from port white smoke started to billow out from the stern. I shut off the motor and dropped the hook. A brief examination of the cooling water system showed that there was a blockage at the through hull inlet. Was I going to call the marina or go after it myself? To avoid the embarrassment and cost I decided to don my wet suit and go over the side. After a safety rope was secured to the bow and a bumper placed on the side to indicate the position of the inlet, I hopped over the side hoping that there were no white sharks in the area as I looked rather like a tasty seal. As the inlet is several feet down and I didn’t have a weight belt, it was a struggle to kick my way low enough to pull the seaweed from the inlet. There was a good gob of it. I also had a screwdriver to clean the muscles that had grown in the inlet partially blocking it. The come in as larva and get through the screen but then grow too big to get out. Fortunately there was a hole in the screen that allowed me to get at them. I should have removed the entire screen this Spring as it would have made cleaning the inlet much easier. There is a filter in the boat to keep anything from getting to the motor. The seaweed finished the job of blocking the port. After reassembling the tubing I cranked the motor and water came out the exhaust with no white smoke! As the current was strong retrieving the anchor was a strain. My calves were very sore from kicking with my fins and my back sore from pulling up the anchor. O, the life of a sailor.