Our friends have been writing to us lately asking whether we’re okay. At first it was just the folks back home in England. Then people as far away as Fiji and South Africa started commenting on our situation and suggesting that we might be in some kind of danger. To be honest, we were a little bit worried ourselves before we crossed the river from Uruguay. Surely, it’s not a good idea to go and visit a country when that…
The purpose of antifouling is to prevent marine plants and animals from colonising the hull, and the easiest way to do this is by killing them. The ocean is brim full of planktonic larvae and planktonic algal spores whose further development depends on their finding a suitable surface whereon to rest their travel-weary selves and develop into something more adult. Flotsam, and most kinds of jetsam, are surfaces quite suitable enough. Ultra-slippery fast moving things escape the grasp of the…