Thursday, 31 August 2017 - Today's adventure started with a bus trip to the VA in Key West to get blood work done leading up to a, supposedly, annual check-up and a few other minor things I want the doctors to look at. I got there, went to the restroom before checking in so I'd be ready the moment they were. Five minutes after checking in, since I was the only patient there, I was called into the room and they drew a blood sample then handed me a small container and said, "This is for a urine sample." You're kidding right? I just emptied my bladder. Nobody had said anything about needing a urine sample. They went without the sample.
                  I was supposed to have an appointment with a doctor next week, but they've moved that back clear to the end of the month.
                  Being in Key West, I thought I might as well take advantage of the situation, so my next stop was Mel Fisher's treasure museum where they have several million dollars worth the 400 million dollars worth of treasure from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de La Atocha and several other sunken treasure ships. Some of the silver bars weigh over a hundred pounds each. It took him years to find it, but when they did, it was truly the mother lode; tons of silver and gold in bars and coins, and lots of exquisite silver, gold and emerald jewelry crafted from the Aztec mines in Panama and Mexico by some of the best jewelers of the day, along with silver plates, earthenware pots, and on and on. A very impressive museum.
                  Next, I walked over to the ECO Center, which is a free museum displaying how the ecosystem of the Keys, their coral reefs and their inhabitants are all interrelated.
                  Walking down the street after touring the ECO Center, I heard someone say, "Is that Rick?" It was Fran, along with her husband, Butch from the trawler Smartini. They were out to see the sites from their boat that is now anchored off shore at Key West, but will soon return to Boot Key Harbor where I am now. On their suggestion, I went back to the waterfront to the "Sunset Celebration" where artists and performers show their wares, sing or perform each evening, then returned to Marathon via a two hour bus ride, arriving back at the boat at midnight.

Friday, 1 September - Buying groceries today. I need to stop eating so much so I don't have to do this so often. It's one of my least favorite things to do. Before going to buy groceries, I realized that the freezer compartment has become quite frozen up. In fact, the bottom of the evaporator compartment, which is the aluminum wraparound coils that the freon expands in to freeze the contents, had gotten so much frost in it that it wouldn't drain and had then retained water that should drain and frozen it in a 2 inch, clear block of ice. It obviously needs to be thawed out. I remembered that one of the sailors in the harbor had mentioned that he'd been a refrigeration repairman for 30 years and I hoped to contact him since I have tried every way I know to seal the openings to the refrigerator, and though that he might have some helpful ideas. I couldn't reach him on the radio. Lots of people here turn their VHF radios off during the day, after the Cruiser's Net is over, but I thought he might still be onboard his vessel. I got in the dinghy and went looking for his boat, but he wasn't aboard, so I headed to the grocery store. I didn't want to thaw the freezer out prior to his seeing the condition it was in, thinking there might be some clues as to where the problem was.

Saturday, 2 September - I was able to reach the refrigeration repairman, Ed on Dream Catcher II, today immediately after the net. He came over and looked at the unit and was glad that I hadn't thawed it out, but said that, now that he'd seen it, I need to get it thawed out and he'll come back over on Monday to run some tests. I think the unit is running well other than the fact that so much condensation is getting into it. Summer's here and it's humid, but I still shouldn't be getting so much ice in there. I spent all day thawing the unit out. Not only was there a two inch block in the bottom of the condenser, but there was a triangular space behind the unit of about 1/2 cubic foot that was solid ice that was hard to get warm water or heat from a hair drier into. I know, you're thinking, "Why would Rick have a hair drier onboard?" and with good reason. I don't have enough hair to warrant a hair drier, but this sort or situation is exactly why I have it, to dry things out quickly or melt ice. I finally finished getting the ice melted at six in the evening after starting on it at about 11 o'clock.
                  Although I used the hair drier quite a bit today and the wind hasn't been blowing much since Wednesday when the electrician changed the setting on the Xantrex System Control Panel, my batteries are holding out well and I haven't had to start the generator at all, but if the wind doesn't blow tomorrow, I probably will then. That is, however, much better than before the adjustment.

Sunday, 3 September - While defrosting the refrigerator yesterday, I had not only melted quite a bit of frost and ice that drained into the bilge, but I had poured quite a bit of warm water into it that did the same. I kept waiting for the bilge pump to come on to pump the water overboard, but it never did, so this morning I replaced the pump switch. That's something I really don't want to be without with a new hurricane possibly headed this way. The bilge pump isn't needed often, but the boat could definitely sink if water came aboard an the pump didn't come on. It would take a lot off water coming in, but with a hurricane, you never know how much you'll get. Actually, very little should get into the boat, most will just run off the decks and out of the cockpit, not getting below decks, but I don't want to take any chances.

Monday, 4 September - Irma started to worry the sailors here, but it's a little wait and see to figure out the predicted direction and path she'll take. Started getting a few things ready, just in case.

Tuesday, 5 Semtember - I'd hoped to go into the mangroves in Boot Key here in Marathon. It will hold quite a few boats and plan B would be to take a mooring ball if the mangroves don't work out. There's a planning meeting at 5:30 pm to see the next prognostication for Irma. I wish it was earlier in the day, but they've delayed it for working people. A fellow sailor, that I hadn't met before, announced on the Cruiser's Net that he needed help pulling his large foresail down. I needed help, too, so we helped each other and I removed all three sails, planning on going into Whiskey Creek. At the meeting, since Whiskey Creek in Boot Key, where I'd planned on going, someone tried to enter and ran aground at the mouth of the creek blocking the entrance. I decided to go look for myself. I could get in, but if we get a high storm surge, as is sure to happen with the 160mph winds they are predicting, half the mangroves will be underwater leaving no protection. I decide not to stick around.

Wednesday, 6 September - It's late, but I've decided to run to the west to avoid the storm. Many people are sticking around, but if Irma hits full force as a category 5 hurricane, I don't think there'll be much left here afterwards. The poor fellow next to me called and said he's already decided he can't save his boat. Others are going to Little Shark River, but if the storm goes as currently predicted, it's going to turn north here and go right over that area. The fellow that helped me pull my sails down is staying and volunteered to help me put the sails back on, a lot of hot work. West seems to be the only place it won't be, if I can out run it, and it' big and running two to three times as fast as I am. I left the harbor at about 1 o'clock heading west with a 44' Antigua. That boat is almost a duplicate of my boat, in fact, his hull is the last hull CSY ever made and Antigua finished it out. I was motoring with sails up to get some distance between me and the storm, but he was under sail alone, so I was outrunning him pretty well, After an hour, he decided to head to Shark River because he'd heard that the storm prediction had changed. I don't think that is a good idea. I think he thinks the cones on the storm charts are the only place high winds will occur, but that's not true. I'm sure I'll get plenty of wind even as far west as I can run with a two and a half day head start. Right now it is 2:45 and I'm about even with Bahia Honda Key, on the ocean side. Another boat left the harbor about an hour ahead of me headed west, too, so I contacted them, but the went under the seven mile bridge and are running on the north side of the Keys, so I'm on my own. Everything's running well for the moment and it's a beautiful day for a sail. My only problem, so far, is that my wind direction indicator isn't working properly. I certainly wish it was, but that's minor. Luckily, it looks like most of the lobster fishermen have pulled their pots out of the water, so that's good, but there are still plenty here.
                  Tonight, when I pass Key West, I will be without phone service or any other way to communicate, so wish me well and I'll be in touch as soon as I can. I've gotten quite a few incoming phone calls, but have been to busy to answer them and probably can't return them all. I'm several miles off shore and the reception is already poor. I hope this email goes through. I don't know how far west I'll end up, maybe the Yucatan Peninsula at Isla Mujeres or Cancun.
                  Sorry, gotta go pay attention to sailing and dodge some lobster pots.
                  The adventure begins anew!