Thursday, 28 December 2017 - A sailor on the S/V Blue Highway hailed me on the VHF this morning and says he'd like to go in with me because he needs 200 feet of anchor chain for his boat, too. Now we'll have to decide if we both want the same brand chain or not. He says he has a professional discount at West Marine so that may be a deciding factor, we'll see.
                    Steve and I brought 25 gallons of water back to the boat last evening and as he set one of the jugs down, the repair job I had done came unbonded and it leaked, so today I rebuilt it. If this fails again, I give up on that container. I also patched the hole in the kayak that I found awhile back with milk bottle HDPE (High Density Polyethylene). The boat is UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene). I hope it has adhered. The milk bottle plastic is the closest match I could come up with and it gets brittle when I melt it onto another surface. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll get pretty wet because this kayak doesn't have much flotation in it yet.

Friday, 29 December - I went over to West Marine and bought a quart of dinghy tube sealant for $56 and a cover for the fuse in the port lazarette today. I need to get that cover on the fuse before it gets shorted out and sets the boat on fire.
                    I, also, sold the big yellow ocean sit-on kayak for $100 today. Now I just need to sell the canoe and several boat fenders to get them out of the way.

Saturday, 30 December - I installed the cover for the fuse in the port lazarette today. Steve and I had hoped to go kayaking this afternoon, but it was pretty cool and blustery so we'll try again tomorrow. His total experience in a kayak was a couple of weeks ago when he tried this one out for about an hour, but he seemed pretty comfortable in it.

Sunday, 31 December - Steve and I removed the gas tank, seat, and engine from my dinghy and towed it to the spit of land to the east of the marina, dragged it out of the water and propped it up to dry today then went out for a bit to eat at the Florida Steak and Lobster Restaurant and to celebrate the end of 2017 and the arrival of 2018 at the Overseas Restaurant and the Hurricane.

Monday, 1 January 2018 - Steve and I both awoke quite late for some reason or other, then used the rest of the day to recuperate from last night. I guess we had too much fun last year and early this year.
                    Just at dusk I became convinced my boat was slowly dragging its anchor. At first I thought I might let out more chain, but decided that really wouldn't solve the problem, so I got Steve to drive the boat and we weighed anchor to move. The chain was stacking in the anchor locker and jammed several times, but most of the time, it didn't matter; the anchor was still holding us in place fairly well so I had time to resolve the issue. However, just as I got the anchor out of the water and could see what the problem had been, the chain jammed while I was trying to lower it slightly. Now we were off the bottom and moving and it was dark. Steve had to keep an eye out for and keep us away from several other boats, a channel marker on a wood piling, and a floating buoy. He did a great job of that while I got the chain loose in the wildcat of the windlass. Boy, was I surprised when I saw the anchor break the surface of the water! It had a large section, about 3 feet long, of a piling balanced on it. I can only assume that as the anchor dug in three months ago when I set it after hurricane Irma, it snagged the sunken piling that was buried under the mud and took this long to resurface and break the grip of the anchor, or, perhaps the tidal currents rolled the chunk of piling along the bottom and wedged it under the anchor chain. If the latter happened, then as the boat tugged on the line, raising the chain slightly each time, the piling could have slowly inched its way toward the anchor, changing its angle and loosening its grip until it finally broke loose. Regardless, it was quite a surprise to be dragging anchor after all this time and I'm sure glad I decided to reset the anchor and that Steve was here to help.

Tuesday, 2 January - We went to shore, pumped up my dinghy to get more water out of the tube, then went to get the battery in Steve's phone replaced, again, along with a few other errands.

Wednesday, 3 January - Today is very blustery and cool with light rain interspersed. The temperature here is 64°F at noon with winds up to about 33 knots, so it feels pretty cool to us boaters. I see it is even colder, 32° in northern Florida, 30° in Salt Lake City, and a lot colder on the east coast.
                    We just had a little excitement in the harbor this morning. With the winds, one of the boats on a mooring ball broke loose while the owner was ashore and threatened to run into others, but other boaters were wary because of the winds and watching and several volunteered to help and they got it under control and back on a ball without any damage. That was pretty lucky. At nighttime, it might have been another story altogether.
                    With these winds, I'm sure glad we reset the anchor the other night. I don't need any more excitement like that again.

            Until next time.

                        "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson

                                          Rick