Thursday, 8 June 2017 - I almost always raise the dinghy out of the water overnight to keep the seagrass and barnacles from growing on the aluminum hull and hypalon tubing, but yesterday I didn't get it raised on the davits before it started raining. A band of heavy rain came through and put about 4 inches of water in it, then slacked off. Luckily, I went out on the afterdeck and raised the dinghy up a bit, then pulled the drain plug. It was already VERY heavy. I went ahead and raised it all the way and secured it. It's a good thing I did because later more rain came through and at least five boaters had their dinghies sink last night...and if you have a motor on the dinghy, that means you have to not only get it out of the seawater, but get the seawater out of it, before it rusts, and that's fast.
                  About noon, Diesel Don Shuler called and said that my alternator arrived and he had it. I went over and got it, then brought it back to the boat to install it. It took me almost an hour to get one of the bolts back in, but in the end, all's well. I fired up the engine briefly and, voila, not only do I have energy going into my battery, but my tachometer is working now, too. Yahoo!
                  I need to take it out for a test drive when these rains let up.

Friday, 9 June - This evening, about 7:30 when I was about to fix dinner, Ton's wife Trisha called to ask me some questions. It became apparent that they haven't a clue as to how to use their navigation equipment that they've acquired with their new CSY. I've been asked by Mark and Pat Becker if I'd like to go to Key West with them tomorrow and I, of course, said yes, so that means that I can't help Ton and Trisha tomorrow, and I need to go to the grocery store Sunday. I might be able to help them sometime Sunday, but that wouldn't give them much time to explore and learn the ins and outs of the chart plotter before they try to take off Monday, so I decided to go over to their boat this evening, even though it's raining. I arrived, expecting to show both of them how to use their chart plotter, but Trisha said she wasn't feeling well, so it was just Ton. I think she may have really just been trying to force Ton to learn some of this. I think all the sailing that he's done has been real seat of the pants, deep water sailing; and he hasn't a clue as to how to use electronics. To be honest, it's the blind leading the blind, especially since his plotter is a Garmin and mine is a Raymarine. I was where he was just two years ago, so I know how hard it is to figure these computers out. I was pleasantly surprised to see how similar the operating systems are, but disappointed to see how out of date his charts are. My first clue was when I saw the date as the plotter booted up. The second was when I saw that the Seven Mile Bridge on his chart showed to be a swing bridge, which is the old bridge. Now, they've removed the swing section of that bridge and built another bridge that has a 65 foot clearance above the water next to the old one. I may not know much about the plotters, but I have eagle vision compared to his blind man's vision with relation to my knowledge of the electronics and his. In about two hours, I taught him how to turn it on and off, how to open the charts and zoom in and out on them, how to find the different buoys and read the depths, how to maneuver around within the charts, etc.; about 1/100th of what they are capable of, maybe less, but I thought I'd better stop before he got mental overload and couldn't remember any of it. Hopefully, the two of them will get together tomorrow, since more poor weather is predicted, and figure out a lot more of the features. They have a lot to learn, but are very anxious to sail to Tampa whether they know how to or not. Impatience can get you in a whole lot of trouble sailing.

Saturday, 10 June - A great day for me. Mark Becker picked me up in his dinghy this morning and we headed back over to his boat, then from there, we headed to Key West in a rental car. Our first destination was the historical Key West cemetery where we saw the tombstones of many of the early settlers of the island and of the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor that precipitated the Spanish-American war in 1898. Next on the agenda was the Key West Butterfly Conservatory, which was pretty spectacular, then the Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, a historical, early Union Civil War Fort to help blockade the Confederacy, then out to the No Name Pub on Big Pine Key for their famous pizza and a beer. This place has its ceiling and all the walls totally covered in dollar bills stapled on by customers. I couldn't help but think, "Wow! How much cash would they lose if the building burned down?" Thousands and thousands in just the dollar bills alone! Another thing that is amazing about this place is that it's not easy to find. It's out in the middle of nowhere on an island that until just recently refused to have even electricity. Nobody even wanted neighbors. Some of the T-shirts that they sell say, "Yea! I finally found it!" Lots of very tame and very small Key Deer on the roads, too. They're really not afraid of people, either. I saw one woman outside the Pub walk right over to one and pet it.

Sunday, 11 June - Mark Becker picked me up at about 9:30 this morning and we went to the grocery store to get groceries. I bought more than usual simply because, with the rental car, I could transport more. Then we drove to see some sights; the multi-million dollar homes of Key Colony Beach on the next island east, and some homes in which you can park your own airplane in the garage below your house. That's how houses ought to be built; room for toys! The landing strip is a grassy parkway right across the street from the houses. This puts a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Honey, let's get the vehicle out of the garage and go for a ride." We then west to West Summerland Key to see up close some of the old Overseas Railroad and Highway Bridge. After that, we returned to Marathon and had dinner at the Sunset Bar and Grill. We finished the day off at Mark and Pat's boat with some of Mark's special Margaritas and great conversation. A really nice way to finish off a great weekend. Thank you Mark and Pat! I really enjoyed all of it.

Monday, 12 June - The letter that I've been waiting for finally arrived today. Yea! It only took two weeks!

Tuesday, 13 June - Fighting rust is a constant battle on a boat, and with that in mind, today I spent a couple of hours wiping the rust off of the tools in my tool bucket and in two of my tool boxes and giving them all a not so light coat of oil. In the process, I discovered something I certainly hadn't expected. I have collected the packs of silica gel desiccant from items I've bought or received for several years believing that I could use them in my tool boxes to keep the tools from rusting. I recently put some of those packs in with the tools, and today, discovered that they had exactly the opposite effect. The tools they were touching had rusted significantly at the contact point. Since the packs that I have are a hodgepodge collected from many sources, I don't know if it was from a specific type of desiccant, or if those packs had just absorbed so much moisture out of the air that that caused the rust to form. I guess I'll have to dry the packs out, then run some controlled tests. Whatever the reason, it sure worked fast to rust my tools.
                  This afternoon I got back into the engine room to try to see if it will do any good to remove what little bit of antifreeze and oil drippings were left under the engine from awhile back. I got most of the rest, but there's no way I can see that I can get it all without being somewhere I can flush it all with lots of fresh water, and even then, it would be very difficult and time consuming. It would be nice to have it totally dry and clean, that way I could tell at a glance if the boat developed a new leak or drip, but I guess that's not going to happen.

Wednesday, 14 June - All morning, I spent defrosting the 12vdc refrigerator. It seems to be running poorly again. Tomorrow, I'll know for sure; I hope.