Friday, 3 February 2017 - I got several small things done today. I went to the marina office and updated all my software via WiFi, took the trash to shore and made a contribution to the pizza kitty so I can participate in the Super Bowl party this Sunday at the marina. I don't even know who's playing! It should be a good opportunity to meet some of the other boaters that are moored in the harbor, however. There are well over three hundred boats here on mooring balls, plus quite a few anchored out like I am. I also got my opportunity to get on a mooring ball today, but turned it down. My name had been on the waiting list, but, being a single hander, meaning I'm sailing alone, I think it would be very difficult to pick up the mooring ball by myself. I'd have to be able to motor right to it and stop close enough to pick up the pennant with a hook, then tie onto it quickly. With me being so far back on the boat, the ball disappears in front of the bow, and if I didn't get totally stopped, I wouldn't have time to climb out of the cockpit, run forward and catch the pennant before either the tide or the wind moved the boat out of reach of the mooring ball. I think I'll just stay on the hook for a while. That way I won't hesitate to go sailing because of the difficulty of catching the mooring when I return.

Saturday, 4 February - Pigeon Key is a tiny island under the Seven Mile Bridge that is now a marine research and educational facility. This weekend, they are having their big annual fund raising art festival. I spent the afternoon there. There was a lot of incredibly beautiful artwork there, most of it marine and nautical in nature as might be expected, but I was pleased and a little surprised to see at one of the first booths that I approached, a large, absolutely stunning photograph of Bryce Canyon taken from Sunrise Point. The fellow had been there many times to photograph from that same location, but that day, everything came together perfectly; brightly lit up skies in all directions, just the right amount of snow on the ground, and one ridge where the sun was shining through to put a perfect glow on the hoodoo formations. Bryce has always been one of my favorite places to photograph because dramatic lighting and interesting hoodoos can be found in every direction and all day long, not just at morning and late afternoon; plus, once down inside the canyon, if you move as little as ten feet, the whole scene has changed dramatically. I do believe his photo is the most incredibly beautiful photograph I've ever seen of Bryce, absolutely stunning.
                  Another artist at the festival was Wyland, the fellow who has painted the life size murals of the dolphins and whales in over 100 huge walls in many countries, including the one on the wall at RC Willy's in Salt Lake City. While we watched, he painted a 20 X 24 inch black on white turtle for someone in about 10 minutes for a mere $2500. They bought two, although I didn't stick around to see what the subject matter for the second one was.
                  I had photographed the performance of a Beatles tribute band called Yesterday, about 25 years ago in Salt Lake City at the Fun Dome and their act was superb. They each totally assumed their roles as John, Paul, George and Ringo, right down to their individual appearance, accents and mannerisms of each Beatle, a very polished act. They also played several short sets over a period of about 3 hours in which they changed their elaborate costumes each time to represent the various time frames and phases of music through which the Beatles progressed. They were really good and I looked forward to seeing the tribute band here at the Pigeon Key Arts Festival, expecting a similar performance. I guess I really set my expectations high and set myself up for disappointment, which came true. This group was called the Beatlemaniax and, unfortunately, they weren't nearly as good or polished an act. It was still, however, really nice to hear a concert that I could sing all the words to every song. In fact, I think everybody there knew all the words. Very enjoyable.

Super Bowl Sunday, 5 February - At 1 o'clock there was a meeting of boaters with a desire to head to the Bahamas headed by a Texan and his wife that have been there many times, then I joined about 70 or 80 other boaters in the boater's lounge here at the Boot Key Harbor City Marina. The lounge is not a fancy affair like would be found at a commercial facility. It is more like a warehouse with an office and customer service desk in one corner of one large room that has a library on one wall, tables with electrical outlets on another wall, and a couple of TV's at the far end. Luckily someone had access to a television projector and a 6 ft. portable screen. The image wasn't too bad, but the sound couldn't be understood at all over the crowd noise. That was ok, however, it's football, you can tell all you need to know by watching. Maybe it was because of the lack of sound though that the commercials didn't seem nearly as good as in the past. It was a pot-luck dinner, and with that many people, that meant there was quite a variety and quantity of food. I went into the game not even knowing which two teams were playing. It doesn't matter; I always cheer for which ever team is trailing on the scoreboard. I thought it was a pretty good game, although I would have liked to have seen the lead switch a couple of more times, so I could have cheered for both teams an equal amount.

Monday, 6 February - I spent all day working on the electrical problems on the boat, although I do get sidetracked by labeling wiring and fuses when I discover the device or system they service. I also make notes in my maintenance logs. That and tracking down user's manuals and installation manuals for the systems from the internet really can eat up the day.

Tuesday, 7 February - What a wonderful day. I'm all giddy with excitement. After working on them for more than a week, I finally resolved my electrical problems! Yahoo! Now I can move on to other things.
                  By the way, here is the entry I made yesterday in my "Electrical" log. It will inform you about what I was up against, nothing simple, I assure you.

                 

"February 2017 - House and Lighting 12VDC Electrical Wiring - Having a problem with 
some of the Indicator Lights on the Breaker Panel staying on all the time. Here are some 
notes on what I've discovered:
	Three lights seem to be affected: Bow Light or Steaming Light (in mast), Deck 
Light (in mast), Navigation Lights, and sometimes, the TriColor Lights (in mast) at the 
top of the mast. The Anchor Light (top of mast) is not affected and does not effect the 
other lights.
	The Stern Light on the transom, on the Navigation Lights breaker, stays on 
constantly, but dimly, whether the breaker is on or off, but the Port and Starboard 
Lights on the bow, do not.
	If I turn on either the Bow Light or the Navigation Lights breaker, the other 
indicator light goes out.
	The Bow Light wire and the Navigation Lights wire, when tested at the bottom 
of the mast, have continuity between them.
	A, perhaps unrelated to this problem, pair of unused, red and black wires in 
the Aft Stateroom Starboard Forward compartment, seems to have -.512  to -.610 vdc on it 
constantly, but when the Auto Pilot breaker is turned on, it has +12.+ vdc on it.
	The circuits on the far right panel have the following voltage readouts:
Nav/Com			+.534v
Bow (Steaming) Light	-.008v
Anchor Light		+.080v thru >1v - Up and Down, Over and Over
Foredeck		-.007v
Navigation		-.001v
Auto Pilot		This circuit, upon being turned off, drops slowly from +12.36v to 
zero, then sinks steadily, unless some other draw is turned on down to about -.700, if the 
12v refrigeration is on, but if the refrigeration is turned off, it will continue to lower 
to below -1.625
Washdown		-.110v
Tricolor Lights		-.006v"

Wednesday, 8 February - After going over the electrical problems and the solution in my mind, I'm sure thankful for how knowledgeable and helpful the boating community here in Boot Key Harbor is. I might have spent from now to eternity trying to figure out what the heck was causing all the mysterious problems without figuring it out if it hadn't been for them. By the way, I want to thank my brother, Mike, and the previous owner, Rick, for their input, too. They didn't happen to be right this time, but they had no way of knowing what the unusual circumstances were, since I didn't suspect that the transmission towers were the culprit and I didn't mention the towers to them.
                  Today, now that I could move past the electrical problems, I finally got around to diving on the hull to clean it again. Unfortunately, I only did half, but at least I made a start. Four hours under the boat is a long time for one session, so I decided to split it up this time.