Wednesday, 21 March 2018 - This morning was spent putting the dive gear and hull cleaning equipment away, then, this afternoon I followed up on an epiphany that I had about how to keep the cold air from flowing out of the bottom of the refrigerator compartment into the bilge where its drain tube ends up. I had asked all around the island about a valve specifically for that purpose, but got nothing but quizzical looks from the sales people in the stores. However, in the process of explaining what my needs were and what I thought the valve needed to look like, I realized that all I really needed was a piece of tubing that would collapse under its own weight - like a zip-lock bag with both ends cut out. Back at the boat, I went through all the zip-locks that I had to find the longest and narrowest, cut the top and bottom off and installed it over the end of the drain tube. Perfect! The water from thawing can flow out, but most of the time, it just sits there flattened out at the end with no air able to flow back up the tube. Cheap, and it works! I like those kinds of solutions.

Thursday, 22 March - Recently, when I tried to pull an anchor up that I had use to mark the location of my boat's main anchor, I discovered that they were intwined and I almost pulled the main anchor up in the process, allowing Island Time to move a bit when the wind picked up out of the west. That let me get a little too close to one of the boats near me, so this morning, when the wind died off a bit, I raised anchor and moved a little further away and reset the anchor. I also cleaned and freed up the valves on both of the buoyancy compensators that puncture the emergency gas cartridges to inflate the compensators for an emergency assent. Neither would have worked because they were so corroded and both need their CO2 cartridges replaced. I have to remember to get those at a dive shop. Later, Patty Williamson texted me saying she had just pulled a loaf of banana bread from the oven and invite me over for a couple of slices. Yummy! I love banana bread.

Friday, 23 March - I had another dermatology appointment as a follow-up to make sure the scar from the excision they did on my back is healing properly. It feels like a keloid may be forming on the scar...but it wasn't. Merely over active scar tissue. They gave me a shot of cortisone or something that should reduce it and make the itching go away. Back at the marina, I met Patty, who said she was on the way to escort her visitors somewhere, but instead let them take her car and I took her back to her boat and dropped her off because she wasn't feeling well. She assumed it was because of something she ate. I returned to the marina about five o'clock to shower and join about 50 or 60 of the other boaters in the marina that were being treated to a fish fry by one of the sailors that had had a great day fishing a couple of days ago. A great fish fry with hush puppies and the usual variety of pot luck dinner dishes. It finally broke up around 9 o'clock, or at least that's when I left it to the last hangers-on. It had turned into a beautiful, windless evening, and I discovered one of the couples on one of the powerboats, Island Girl, have been skiers living in Telluride, Colorado for many years. It reminded me of a couple of trips to Telluride that Ray Nelson, Steve Brown, Gerry Long, Tom Vance and I made a few years back...actually about 37 years. It sounds like the town has changed a bit since then. No surprises there.

Saturday, 24 March - Today I went via bus to the Islamorada Island Festival, a small arts show with some good music and other entertainment including a fun race with home made boats, mostly not serious. While there, I met an acquaintance of Bob Dahmer's, Peggy Moon (she's the one with the pink hair in the photos) and her race team, the ladies of the Wild Women on Water, WOWW! The show was for both weekend days, but it was small enough that I don't feel like going again tomorrow, especially since my experience with the bus system was so bad. I was pretty sure I knew where to catch the bus here in Marathon, but called the transit authority to make sure and I was given wrong information. Returning, I got on the internet on their phone app and was supposed to be able to track the busses in real time, but no bus appeared on the map when it should have. I walked out of the festival just in time to see it pulling away and had to wait another hour. An hour later I went back out and waited an hour for the bus to show up. I got on and the bus driver, who spoke almost unintelligible Spanglish told me that bus didn't go to Marathon and that the next one that would would be along in an hour or two. I got off at the next drop-off spot and within minutes realized that that bus had to go exactly where I needed to go, the end of the line. I looked for the next bus on the app, but nothing showed up. I was just about to call a taxi, actually had looked up the phone number, when suddenly, as I looked up, there was a bus. I barely flagged it down as it passed and ran to get on it. This guy apparently didn't speak English either. I finally got back to the last bus stop five hours after going out to get on one. If I never have to ride the bus here again, I'll be a happy man. Of course, I will have to ride it again. Oh! Did I mention that the bus stops aren't marked with signs. Apparently they think that is okay since all the regulars know where to get on anyway.

Sunday, 25 March - Yesterday, right after I pumped the dinghy up to go to the Island Festival, the connector tip on the pump came off, went overboard, and sank instantly. Today didn't start out too well, either. This morning I mentioned on the Cruiser's net that I need a connector and a generous sailor offered on up. As I went to get it, the engine appeared to run out of gas, but I knew I had about a gallon and a half in the tank. It would start and run about 30 seconds before dying again. This happened time after time until I got close enough to row the last little bit. By the time I got to the man's boat, he had left, but left the air pump on his deck. It didn't fit my boat. I rowed on over to the marina and found that I had a package waiting for me. It was a fuel valve for a tank that I ordered last week. I have changed tanks on the dinghy, changed both female connectors on the fuel line, blown the fuel line out, changed the primer bulb on the line, etc. and it still doesn't work. In fact, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it except it won't work. I removed the valve on the new tank and replaced it with the one I just got in the mail, started the engine and returned to Island Time. Upon returning to Island Time, I tested the valve that I just removed and there's nothing wrong with it. Go figure. One of the mysteries of boat life, I guess. After that, I went to West Marine and bought a replacement valve for the dinghy's air pump and a CO2 cartridge for my small, old diving buoyancy compensator and special ordered one for my newer BC. On returning to the boat, I discovered that the pump valve doesn't fit the boat and the CO2 cartridge is large enough it might burst my buoyancy compensator. Oh well! Tomorrow's another day.

Monday, 26 March - I cleaned up and measured, and entered the 2/0 copper cable, left over from the rewiring I did quite awhile back, into my database in my laptop.

Tuesday, 27 March - A very windy, but clear day here in Boot Key Harbor in Marathon with a nice temperature about 75°:F. I put the 2/0 copper wiring away. Unfortunately, it belongs in the lower compartment of the starboard lazerette which means I have to remove everything in the upper compartment to get to the lower one, plus they are stored in the very back. As soon as I opened the lazerette I could smell fiberglass resin and thought, "That's not good." Sure enough, the bottom of one of my cans of resin had rusted and was leaking. Luckily, I had it inside a bucket. Unluckily, the bottom of the bucket was cracked, so the resin leaked right through and ran between the floorboards of the second level into the third. That's a fuel storage tank, so not much damage was done, but I did have to clean up the mess. It took all day to put the copper cables away and get the lazerette reloaded.