Dinghy Cleaning in Salt Water

Since this is the first time our dinghy has been in salt water, things are happening that we have never before experienced.  After 6 weeks in the water, the dinghy has a long green beard on the bottom and a few barnacles as well!  If someone could produce and bottle the adhesive that the green stuff is attached to the dinghy, they would make a fortune.  We hauled out the dinghy and turned it over and started scraping and scrubbing.  This took several hours, four different sized scrapers, two large scrub brushes, lots of cleaner, and two very sore backs.  We then applied two coats of black bottom paint, waited for it to dry, and launched the dinghy back into the water - so we could get back to our boat for the evening.  Let’s hope this works for a while.