Thursday, 9 February 2017 - Today I finished cleaning the bottom of the boat. I had found a plastic scraper about 10 inches wide that worked well and tried using a stiff brush, too, but although the brush worked better to remove the softer conglomeration of animalcules and vegetation, it wouldn't remove the few barnacles that were adhering to the hull, so I mostly used the wide scraper.

Friday, 10 February - I was so busy lately trying to figure out what was wrong with my electrical system that I really had put off other things that needed to be done like clean the hull and buy groceries. Today I bought groceries. I also got a call from one of the other boaters here in the harbor that was in Sister Creek just beyond where I was and it appears that his navigation system may have sustained some permanent damage from the transmission towers, so I guess even though I spent a lot of time chasing problems that didn't really exist, I got off easy with mine being temporary.

Saturday, 11 February - I got up early this morning in order to have breakfast, lower and motor the dinghy to the docks, get my bike and pedal to the south end of the island where a ferry departs for a two mile ride to Pigeon Key, which was a major player in the building of the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway extension to Key West and that eventually became the Overseas Highway or US Highway 1. It was one of eighty two locations that simultaneously supported the workers working on the railway for the four years from 1908 to 1912 that the project lasted, and it was the one in charge of building the Seven Mile Bridge, which, at the time was considered to be the "Eighth Wonder of the Engineering World." Although it is only about 5 acres in size, it housed up to 450 men, and only men, who were there for one reason and only one reason, to work on the bridge six days a week from 6 AM till 5 PM for a whopping $1.50 per week, paid in gold, three times as much as most common laborers of the day. Another amazing fact about that project was that, compared to the Panama Canal, which had been built and paid for by two different nations, France and the United States, this railway was paid for, in cash, by one man, Henry Flagler. The island has eight buildings that are on the National Register of Historical Places and is used as an educational site and has some minor marine studies. It was also used in a few episodes of the old TV series "Flipper".
                  While on the island looking out at the old Seven Mile Bridge which had a rotating, or swing bridge, span over Mosier Channel, the deepest part of the seven miles, I realized that when I was here visiting my parents on their boat "Eric", I signaled the bridge tender with our conch shell horn to please open the bridge so we could pass through. If you look very closely at the old bridge in my photos, you may be able to see where that span was. It has been totally removed so boats can pass through and the new Seven Mile Bridge has a span that is 65 feet high so there is no longer a need for the swing bridge and its tender. My mast is 60 feet high so I sailed through with ease when I came down from Little Shark River.

Sunday, 12 February - At three thirty this morning I got a truly rude awakening. I heard something on the boat fall. At first, I thought someone was onboard, but as I headed up the companionway, I realized the boat was healing, or leaning, sharply to starboard. It was a calm night and I'm supposed to be in about 8 feet of water with my 6.5 foot draft boat. My next thought was that I might be sinking. I immediately got a flashlight so I could unlock the forward companionway hatch and in the process, shined my light on my inclinometer; it showed an 18° lean. I quickly opened cover to the bilge and shined the light in. Whew! Not much water! That's a good thing. I finally realized that it was low tide, and since there is only about a one and a half foot tide here, there must be a sand bar directly under me. Nothing to do but wait. Thank goodness it was calm out. I moved a few things to keep more stuff from falling, but I didn't get it all. Lowest tide was to be 20 minutes later and I heard one more thing fall. This morning I discovered that the first thing to fall that I heard was the ship's wheel, which I take off frequently just to get it out of the way, and the last thing was a board that I have about 80 holes drilled in so I can store screw and socket driver tips in. They were scattered all over the floor in the saloon.
                  Upon getting up at 8 o'clock, I decided I needed to move. I didn't want to have the boat falling over at every low tide, or even one more. I got in the dinghy and took out my lead line to take some depth measurements. Of course, the tide had come back in and the boat was upright again, so I took measurements all around the boat. Since the boat was floating again, it had moved about 8 or 10 feet to port. Sure enough, I discovered a narrow sand bar running parallel to and just starboard of the boat that I must have been sitting above when the tide went out. I took some measurements further away and realized I could probably move about 50 feet to starboard and avoid getting stranded again unless I'm get really unlucky. I moved, so we'll see. The rest of the afternoon, I spent cleaning up and inventorying most of my diving gear including tanks, regulators, swim fins, weight belts, a Hawaiian sling, fish spear, dive masks and snorkels, etc., but didn't finish. Much of it has been stored below, so everything metal needed some cleaning and rust protection. I'll work on it again tomorrow.

Monday, 13 February - I spent a relaxing day finishing up cleaning some of my diving equipment and inventorying the dive equipment and other items in one of my cockpit storage compartments.

Tuesday, 14 February - Water day. I went to the marina 4 times today to get water, 22 gallons at a time.

Wednesday, 15 February - One more trip to the marina for water today while on the way to a dive shop. I've been trying to reach this shop for a couple of days by phone, but only get an "Unavailable" message. I decided to go there in person, since it's not far. I'm glad I did. The fellow was there and said that his mobile phone, which I had the number for, had been stolen, thus the message. I left two stage one scuba regulators and three stage two regulators with him for him to give me an estimate for how much their reconditioning would be. They haven't been used in years.