Wednesday, 10 January 2018 - I took the dinghy out of the workshop and scraped and cleaned the hull a bit more and washed the tubes clean. It started to sprinkle a little, so, rather than get wet myself, I moved the dinghy back inside and cut several patches to size for the tubes. Some of them are quite large, almost 10 inches by 15 inches, intended to not only seal up many small holes, but to act as anti-abrasion pads for the future. It's certainly good that I took the advise of my friend Gary Powers and cannibalized a couple of the other dinghies that were to be trashed after hurricane Irma by cutting large pieces of hypalon out of them while I had the chance. The amount of hypalon that I have used as patch material so far would have cost me a fortune otherwise. I had several square feet of it and have used up most of it already. I had thought I'd never use up that much. Of course, I wouldn't have been so generous with the patches if I'd had to fork over cash for the hypalon. I had also intended to apply some of the patch material but the humidity had risen abruptly and nothing would dry out, so I gave up on that. Later, Steve and I went over to the library and watched the movie "The World According To Garp".

Thursday, 11 January - Steve didn't have to go to work today, so we spent all day applying patches to the dinghy. We actually believed we had all the leaks sealed and patched up until just as we were about to leave, I said, "Let's pump the dinghy up tight before we go so we can see in the morning if it still remains tight." You guessed it, a leak started bubbling down at the bottom inside the hull. We knew that would be the hardest hole to patch, but had been sure we'd succeeded with the repair. The dinghy seems to still have some of the sealant in it that has not solidified, so I lowered the pressure on that tube a bit in hopes that the sealant will quit being blown out and may have a better chance to dry and solidify in that hole. Finding that leak at the end of the day when we were so sure we had the dinghy all patched up and were so proud of our work was a real blow to our egos. Tomorrow's another day. We'll figure something out.

Friday, 12 January - To get to shore this morning, we needed to mix a tank of gas and oil for the outboard motor, so I opened the port lazarette to get a quart of oil out and discovered that virtually everything in there was soaking wet. The return line from the refrigeration pump cooling system had come off a connector and was soaking everything. Luckily, I discovered it before it drained the water tank or caused any major problems. We moved most of the wet items out on the deck or to the top of the hard bimini top to dry, then, around three o'clock, it rained. Repairing the line and replacing its stainless steel hose clamps delayed our trip to shore and cut our work day on the dinghy short. We arrived at the project room to find that the dinghy was still pretty well inflated in spite of the leak at the hull/rubber joint. We made a quick trip to Home Depot for some shop rags, a couple of paint brushes, and acetone, then returned to the marina, washed the boat well with detergent, sanded the tubes to give the paint something to grip, wiped the sanding dust off and applied one good coat of rubber paint to the bottom of the tubes. By the time we got that done it was dinner time.
                    I had received a message from Robert Dahmer that he'd anchored about 75 yards from us today, so after returning to the boat I went over to his boat, Christi, to catch up on what he's been up to this last year.

Saturday, 13 January - Ashore today, Steve and I put a second coat of rubber paint on the bottom of the dinghy, then went in his car a couple of islands west to a nautical flea market on Big Pine Key where I bought a lock than I will install in a small lazarette lid where I keep much of my dive gear, some fishing tackle, and spare outboard engine parts. As far as I know, I haven't had anyone come aboard while I've been ashore and take anything, but I'm sure the time will come when I'll certainly want to lock everything up every time I leave the boat. This is the last compartment that I can't lock up. After returning from the flea market, we turned the dinghy right-side up and applied one coat of paint to the top of the tubes and will, hopefully, finish painting the tubes tomorrow with one more coat of paint. It's looking pretty good already, but we still have to figure out how to seal the one leak at the rubber/hull joint on the inside of the hull and make one bubble in a patch adhere.

Sunday, 14 January - We put the last coat of rubberized paint on the dinghy today and purchased two part epoxy paint for the hull at West Marine but didn't have enough time to apply it this afternoon. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Day, so the marina project room will be closed so we can't work on the dinghy till Tuesday.

Monday, 15 January - Steve headed to shore this morning to take care of some errands and I stayed onboard Island Time and started putting away the items that had gotten wet in the port lazerette but are now dried out. As I started putting them away, I realized that that location had not ever been inventoried and entered into my database, so I did so. There are a lot of ropes in that lazarette, including a couple of handy billies which are each a pair of blocks, one single and one double, that can be easily attached to different locations around the boat as needed to help tension a line or lift a weight. I think I can use the larger and longer of the two to help me lift the dinghy onto the deck by myself when I need to next time. If I'd had the dinghy on the deck during hurricane Irma, I wouldn't have had to be making all the repairs that I am on it. I was in too big a hurry to leave and outrun Irma to lift it onto the deck before I left and I'm now paying the price. Later in the afternoon I started installing the lock into the hatch cover for the small compartment in the port side of the cockpit, but didn't have time to finish.

Tuesday, 16 January - Pierre Sorriaux, my French friend on the S/V LOL called this morning before breakfast and asked that I come over to his and Jessy's boat so he could sell me a wind charger that we had previously discussed. It was just too good a deal to pass up, and once I have it installed, I won't have to worry about charging my batteries unless the wind stays calm for several days in a row. Since they are selling their boat to go back to France, he also had some fiberglass matte and resin at a good price that I'm sure I'll put to use sometime in the future. Something else he had is a 400 Watt inverter that plugs into a cigarette lighter to power small tools, lights, electronics, etc. and has two USB ports in it to power or charge phones or other devices. I don't need it, but he asked that I give him half of what he paid for it and sell it for him. It's a little hard for either he or Jessy to communicate on the VHF with others because "we all talk to fast." My French isn't very good either.
                    Steve and I had stopped by LOL on the way in to shore and when we arrived, Steve headed back to Ft. Myers Beach to help a friend sell her house and buy a new one that she won't feel she's paying for amenities like a pool, golf course, club house, and boat dock that she never uses like she does at her current condominium. He thinks he'll be back here in about 3 weeks, having saved enough money to buy a new boat for himself.
                    I continued working on my dinghy at the project room at the marina, but as I was about to open the epoxy paint that I bought yesterday, I realized that I had grabbed a can of grey paint instead of white, so I had to return to West Marine to switch colors. That slowed me down about an hour and a half, so I only got one coat painted on the dinghy today instead of two.

Wednesday, 17 January - I got two more coats of epoxy paint spread on the bottom of the dinghy today, then went to the library for the movie of the week. Coming back to the boat was a bit brisk, but not bad; twenty mile per hour gusts and about 65°F. If I stand up in the dinghy and move my weight a little further to the rear, I stay a lot drier in this little dinghy, just like I do in my larger one, but it's more important with the small one. A much wetter ride, even in much lighter winds. It's supposed to drop to 52° by in the morning and have a high of around 60° tomorrow. It could be worse, it's snowing in northern Florida tonight.
                    As you can see, on a boat, one project leads to another. I was simply going to patch the dinghy. Instead, I've scraped it, patched it, sealed it, painted the rubber on it, and now, painted the hull. I think I'll wait awhile to paint the interior. I can do that while on the water if I've got the leaks patched. Actually, there's still one patch that is leaking, but it's leaking air, not water. It's the one up under the tube where the rubber meets the hull.

            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