Recently we had a spate of winter-related warm weather and sped (a loose use of the word) over to the beach along which we sometimes anchor. And since the water in the Florida Panhandle tends to be pretty clear during December I was able to determine, be laying on the swim platform and looking down into the drink, that the two big beefy zincs on Betty Jane's transom were somewhat chewed up but still lively. This was good news, of course, and yet I didn't sleep as well that night as I might have.
Despite the wafty sound of wavelets sleepily lapping the hull, I kept wondering about the zinc on the propshaft. Was it in as good a condition as the two big transom-mounters? I really didn't know because I'm not able to see the darn thing from the swim platform. And despite the balmy, sunny weather we'd had during the afternoon (my wife BJ took the photo here as we idled in toward the beach), there'd been no way I was gonna jump into the water with my fins and snorkel...not then or even in this lifetime...not in December.
So a few days later I dialed up the folks that periodically scrub Betty's nether regions (while wearing the appropriate scuba diving-type clothing) and asked them to check on the propshaft zinc soon. Just in case.
Lucky course of action. My propshaft zinc was gone for all intents and purposes and had to be immediately replaced, else some prop or other damage might occur.
The moral of the tale's easy to get a handle on...just because the easy-to-see zincs on your boat are hangin' in there doesn't mean the hard-to-see ones are also. Check one...check all!
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