Thursday, 2 August 2018 - Today, something I've been wanting to get done for quite awhile, suddenly happened, and I'm hoping it will postpone having to get new batteries for the boat. I finally got more solar panels installed, going from 180 Watts to 820. That certainly should make a difference in how often I have to run the Honda generator and make it much easier to keep the batteries near a full charge. I do know that it can't resuscitate bad batteries, but maybe there is still enough life in them to postpone having to buy new ones for awhile longer. The solar cost more than the batteries, but I've been wanting it for a long time and will save me time and some money in the long run.

Friday, 3 August - Well, guess what. The new solar installation has already failed. It worked fine all afternoon yesterday, but this morning, although the panels are generating 60 Volts of electricity, none of it is being supplied to the batteries. Arrgh! This is not going as planned, but then, nothing I do seems to.
                    Okay, at 4 o'clock, and after shutting off the circuit breaker and disconnecting the panels, which resets the controller, I'm back up and charging batteries. Yahoo!
                    At about 3:45 my friend Gene, whom I met in Ft. Myers Beach, called and said he and his girlfriend are coming to visit this evening and stay for the weekend. I'll meet them at the dock and we'll go have dinner, then come back to the boat.
                    Oops! Belay that last prognostication. Gene called at 10 pm. His 4 - 5 hour drive has taken 6 hours so far and they are still 2 hours away. They've decided to get a room for the evening and show up here tomorrow morning.

Saturday, 4 August - Knowing that I don't get to travel on land very much, as soon as Gene and his girl friend, Marcel, arrived they turned right around and drove two hours back toward the mainland with me to have dinner so I could see the scenery. The only time I've been that far up the island chain was to go to the Miami VA just after hurricane Irma. I can hardly believe the difference. To be honest, outwardly, you can barely tell there was a storm. When I went there before very few businesses were open, trash and debris lined the highway, and most of the vegetation looked dead. Now, the businesses are almost all open, homes have been repaired, the trash is gone, and most plants have recovered. An astounding difference.
                    After a great fresh fish dinner and a four hour drive, we returned to Marathon City Marina, then kept going west to Key West to watch the sunset. Marcel had, even though she grew up in Florida, never been to Key West. After a couple of hours there, we headed back to Island Time just in time to have a few adult beverages onboard, then hit the sack so we could go sailing tomorrow.

Sunday, 5 August - Shortly after getting up, we started putting things where they couldn't fall off shelves, tables, counters, settees, etc, and upon accomplishing that we raised anchor and motored out of the harbor. Once clear of the channel, we raised sail and headed out to Sombrero Key Lighthouse with Marcel at the helm. She did a great job of missing all the lobster pots and steered us right out to the lighthouse. They had hoped to get in some sailing and to then return to the harbor for a quick lunch of more fresh fish that they bought yesterday at the fish market where we ate. Unfortunately, the breeze kept me from starting the BBQ grill on the back of the boat quickly and we ended up preparing the fish in the oven instead. Still, it tasted really good, as did the wine and margaritas that we consumed to celebrate a great day on the water. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, the delay negated the chance for them to head home as they intended, so they stayed another evening and Marcel lost a day of work on Monday.

Monday, 6 August - I spent most of the day getting the boat back to "normal" and relaxing after having taken Gene and Marcel to shore to head back to the Tampa area, about a nine hour drive.

Tuesday, 7 August - On the Cruiser's Net this morning, it was mentioned that there would be a band made up of local policemen, whom I have heard and enjoyed before, playing at the city park next to the marina for "Cop's Night Out," or something like that. I wandered over, but it turned out to be mostly for kids and parents. On display were all the law enforcement departments; police, sheriffs, state law enforcement, highway patrol, swat team, etc., plus fire trucks, bomb squad, ambulances, medical helicopter, and some others I probably missed. I didn't stay long, even though the band is good.

Wednesday, 8 August - I spent most of the day photographing my nickel plated Remington 870 Marine Magnum 12 ga. shotgun so I could send the pictures to a potential buyer who is with the Sheriff's department that I met at the "Cop's Night Out" last evening. Although it's never been fired, I'd like to get it off the boat. If I hide it, I can't access it quickly and if I can access it quickly, it's too likely to cause problems. I think I'd rather have another hand gun; easy to conceal and still access quickly.
                    This evening, after reinstalling the deck awning, which I had to remove to go sailing Sunday, I went to the library to watch a movie.

Thursday, 9 August - I was off to West Marine today to purchase more inflatable boat sealant to make one more try with that technique. It's injected into the chambers of the dinghy to seal the leaks from the inside out, much like Never-Leak or Fix-a-Flat for car tires. Last time, for who knows why, didn't work, but I'm desperate enough to spend another $60 on a quart of the sealer and try again.
                    I, also, just got the news that the compilation of Boot Key Harbor's hurricane Irma stories should hit the Amazon store next week and I'm anxious to read others' experiences, good or bad. Unfortunately, only about 20 other sailors responded and wrote up their stories, but it should still be interesting and educational reading. Since the write-up of my experience came directly from my weekly updates, with a bit of editing from me to shorten the story and eliminate things that I thought would probably be of interest only to my friends, I'm sure most of you won't be interested. If, however, you are, I'll try to get more information about how to order it. I think it is supposed to be available in several formats, including, but perhaps not limited to, Google's and Amazon's readers and, probably paperback. I should know more next week. I have no idea how much it will be selling for, probably not much. By the way, don't buy it on my account, I will get nothing from it other than, as I originally understood, the proceeds, if there are any, will go toward throwing a party for the harbor at some future date. We'll see. Actually, I think there's already a book signing party in a couple of weeks for all the "authors" to sign each other's books in a couple of weeks. That should be fun. Unfortunately, I sure some of the writers have either lost their boats in the storm or sailed away since so much time has passed.