Saturday, 21 July 2018 - In my last week's update, I had just prepped the dinghy to reapply one of my large patches, but stopped to send out the update. After finishing that, I returned to the dinghy to apply the patch in the cool of the evening. Since the previous patch had bubbled up and separated, this time I thought I would let most of the air out of the tube so there would be no pressure to force the air through the fabric on the inner layer. Unfortunately, that was a major mistake. The tube was so soft that when I applied the patch it had wrinkles in it and I had to immediately rip it off again. There's no repositioning with contact glue. I started over at dawn this morning to avoid the heat of the day, which heats the hypalon of the tube too hot to apply glue. I cleaned up the patch as best I could, reinflated the dinghy and stuck it on. It looks pretty good this time, but I won't really know for awhile. In the meantime, I'm out of glue and will have to kayak in to the marina and head over to Home Depot for more because I still have one more large patch to rip off and reapply and one new small patch that will go in between the two larger ones to seal another wear spot caused by the restraining strap that holds the dinghy while on the davits. It's a spot that I hadn't observed on the first round of patching because the spot merely oozes air through the fabric of the tube and there is no visible abrasion.
                    I re-adhered the first big patch this afternoon since a nice 8/9 mph breeze cooled it down a bit earlier today, then I let it cure for a couple of hours while cleaning up the second large patch. The first patch is about 11"X14", and the second about 12"X16". After cleaning the second patch up, I examined the first and am convinced that something went wrong. It looks like there is going to be another big bubble under the patch. I just can't figure out what is going wrong. All the patches on the port side of the dinghy turned out great the first time, back months ago. These on the starboard side obviously not. There are, however, some on the starboard side that did. I had forgotten that this second, larger patch is a patch over a smaller patch, but I rediscovered the smaller one, covering a hole about 3/4" X 2" and had to tear it off and replace it, too. I got that done today, but got no further because I came up from below when I heard a noise at the stern of the boat and discovered that the anchor is, again, dragging and what I had heard was one of my kayaks that I had gone to shore with and was now tied to the stern, tangling with a nearby boat. That meant that I had to take about an hour in the evening to weigh anchor, move the boat, then drop the anchor and set it. Having the dinghy on deck and the other kayak, too, certainly slowed me down, but at least this time, the anchor reset immediately. Thank goodness. That did, however, cut short the work on the dinghy. All I did after that was paint one coat of contact glue on the largest patch area on the dinghy where the big patch will go tomorrow. I'll let it dry overnight and add one more coat to both the dinghy and the patch and apply that in the morning.

Sunday, 22 July - The forward tube had deflated overnight and the patch that I cemented on has some more bubbles under it so I'll rip it off once again. I re-coated the larger patch area, let it cure for 40 minutes and reapplied it, then ripped off the other one and cleaned it up again. I then reinstalled it and added another patch between the two to cover another leaky abrasion area that looks good but definitely leaks a tiny bit.

Monday, 23 July - I was up at dawn again and totally disappointed to see the dinghy low on air again. I got out the spray bottle, pumped up the dinghy and sprayed soapy water over virtually all of the front end of the dinghy. No Leaks! Yahoo! So where's the air going? I sprayed the valves and discovered the leaks. I had known the starboard, aft valve leaks, but, previously, the forward port valve didn't; now it does.

Tuesday, 24 July - The dinghy still leaks. Upon spraying it down with soapy water this morning, there are leaks all around the lower edges of the new patches. I am so disappointed in the dinghy repairs and out of ideas about what to do to repair it that I decided to take a break from it and work on something else. I turned my attention to the battery charging system. That system and the monitors that control it seem to be totally out of whack. For instance, the monitor will tell me that the system is sitting at 100% charge, but the volt meter in it says that it is sitting at 12.5 Volts. That's only a 50% charge. It seems to have other problems, too. Not only is the system out of whack, but the batteries are losing their charge very quickly...and they are only about one and a half years old. I had expected them to last about four to six years, especially since they cost about $1300. I spent much of the morning reading my literature on the system and talking to a fellow at Xantrex support. They make three items that are in the system: the Charger/Inverter, the Monitor, and the Control Panel. I spent about an hour on the phone with support at Deka/East Penn, too. They make the batteries.
                    This afternoon I turned my attention once again to the battery charging system. After further study of the wiring diagram that I've made for my boat and the wiring diagram for their system, I discovered that the boat seems to be wired wrong. I got down in the engine room to confirm that my diagram is right, and it is, so I called Xantrex again. This time I got someone that understands their system much better, plus, he was much better at explaining its operation to me. He confirmed that the boat is wired wrong and explained why. As soon as I got off the phone with him, I opened the battery compartment to make the simple change in the wiring on the shunt. Just change one cable from one terminal to another. Simple, or so I thought. I was taking one cable that was mounted by itself on a stud and moving it two inches down to another stud that already had two cables attached to it. Three won't fit! The bolt is too short...and it's brass. I went to my two jars of brass nuts and bolts an poured them into a large pan. I went carefully through them looking for a 3/8"x3/4 course thread bolt but didn't see any. Lots of many other sizes though. Just as I had them almost all put back it their jars, I spotted one. Exactly what I needed. It's a good thing I'm a hoarder. I hate making trips to the hardware store(s) for just one small bolt...plus there's a good chance none of them would have that size in brass. At least I accomplished one thing today. Now if that would rejuvenate my five batteries, that would be even better.

Wednesday, 25 July - Tired of working on the dinghy for awhile, repaired or not I feel like going ashore. I spent all morning and part of the afternoon getting it off the deck and back into the water, then putting the 9 hp Evinrude outboard motor on it for a change. I've been running the 15 hp Yamaha for several months and, since we're not allowed to go fast in the harbor anyway, I might as well put the smaller engine on. I still have ropes and blocks to put away tomorrow, along with getting the kayaks back on deck.
                    It's an absolutely beautiful evening out tonight, absolutely no wind and the water is a mirror. To top in off, the moon will be full about midnight tonight and not a cloud in the sky.

            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