I have been reading all of the information on the sea strainer blockages. Many folks seem to mention the warm water, which to me, seems suggestive that’s in some way part of the problem. I am trying to understand that because we’ve kept our boat in the Bahamas for 6-9 months at a time for the past 6-7 years. I don’t recall seeing water temps as high as 90 degrees but consistently 87-88 degrees in areas where the water flows freely through the marina. In some of the more secluded marinas where the water does not move so freely I’ll bet the temperature gets even warmer. When we don’t have the boat in the islands it lives in Palm Beach Gardens. I have never seen the kind of growth inside the sea strainers I am seeing discussed. In fact, I just cleaned the engine sea strainers for the first time in 8 years. I did it then more out of guilt than need. The only need to clean the other strainers has been to remove grass. Never do I find any crud or barnacles. So, taking that into consideration, I can’t imagine a degree or two in water temperature makes that much difference in growth. How can it be so bad on the West coast of Florida that one has to put sacrificial metals in the strainers and on the East coast it doesn’t seem nearly as bad? I can’t imagine anything I have is in any way unique.

You've raised a very interesting question, that I have no idea about. Our boat was in warm water for months and we never had a problem until Costa Rica.

I really have no idea, although I do have theories:

- The second Nordhavn 68 owner also mentioned that his boat was in warm water for months, with no problem, but that recently when he moved it to a different location he started having problems. It is possible that there are factors besides water temperature; for instance, the depth of the water, and clarity of the water probably makes a difference. I had my worst problems when our boat was in shallow dirty water.

- Once you have a problem, you continue to have a problem. It "grows back". If you get a serious problem, such as I had in Costa Rica, new hoses may be the only solution.

- Sharp turns in the hoses or thru-hulls exacerbate the problem.

After our run to the Bering Sea, I'm hoping that 99% of future cruising is in warm water, so this is something I really want to get right.

-Ken W