Thursday, 6 September 2018 - Now that I have a surplus of electricity aboard via the solar panels, I finally got the opportunity to install a Bluetooth receiver into my stereo system so I can listen to all the music on either my laptop or phone without having to plug into a cassette cartridge type adapter in the stereo, which involved taking the phone out of its case each time. I believe I'll be listening to my music a lot more in the future,
                    Moving gasoline from one tank to another, then going to the marina at the mouth of the harbor, Marathon Marina as opposed to Marathon City Marina, to fill the tanks consumed most of the afternoon today.

Friday, 7 September - I measured the diesel today and it said there was about seventy three gallons in the tank. The measuring device is a five foot, wooden, quarter round molding with approximated markings on it. Today I discovered they were off by more than I thought. The tank holds 100 gallons and I had 25 gallons in jerry jugs on deck. All twenty five gallons should have fit in the tank, but when I put twenty in, the measuring stick already said 100. I dared not try to put the other five into the tank for fear of overfilling and spillage. I also added a bit of water to each cell of the starter battery, and added the ad for the dinghy to two more Facebook group pages. I would certainly like to sell it quickly.
                    Oops! I almost forgot. I also defrosted the refrigerator today.

Saturday, 8 September - I intended to clean the hull today, but rain threatened. I wasn't worried about getting wet, but I certainly don't want my auxiliary generator or air compressor getting rained on. At about 6 o'clock, I went to the Overseas Bar and Grill and joined in the charity dinner Irmageddon celebration. They had a very good chicken and rice dinner for $10 with the proceeds going to charity.

Sunday, 9 September - The weather was perfect for cleaning the hull of the boat today. I've gotten it down to where the dive only takes about two to two and a half hours of scraping, but the preparation time is about the same, as is the clean-up. The city had a party at the park to celebrate the anniversary and recovery from hurricane Irma, so I spent a couple of hours there this evening.

Monday, 10 September - I rinsed, dried, and put away most of the dive gear from yesterday's hull cleaning, then, at 4:30pm, I headed in to the marina to help get ready for the harbor's Irmageddon anniversary party. It's been exactly one year since hurricane Irma hit the harbor and about a hundred people showed up to celebrate their survival. Some have no boats any more, others have new boats, still others have repaired their boats. Some are still repairing their boats and others will never be able to use their boats for anything but to live on. A very few came through virtually unscathed. Almost all, although they didn't feel that way at the time, now feel like they were lucky. Some lost everything but their lives. Two sailors lost even that.
                    I finally got to meet one of the few who actually stayed on his boat in the harbor during the storm. It's a shame he didn't write his story up for the Irmageddon book. He actually got to see all the boats leaping off the waves, breaking loose, moving around the harbor as the wind changed directions and piling up or sinking, or both. That must have been quite a sight.

Tuesday, 11 September - Off to shore today to return some DVDs at the library and to pick up some mail at the marina.

Wednesday, 12 September - It was off to the Marathon Marina again today, this time to get twenty gallons of diesel fuel. Now I have a hundred gallons in the tank and twenty five gallons in jerry jugs on deck.
                    I had heard that the Marathon Theater, a play house, was having Shag dance lessons, so I decided to see what that was like. They were having Salsa lessons first and needed another male dancer to make a couple, so I got volunteered for that too. I got so many different steps, moves, and rhythms poured into my brain I probably won't remember any of them.

Thursday, 13 September - It was a beautiful, warm day, so decided to take a break and go kayaking through the mangrove forest "creeks" in Boot Key today. I haven't done that since I did it with Bob Dahmer several months back. It is a real maze in there. The "creeks" are merely channels that the water runs through as the tide comes in and goes out of the "island." The "island" contains very little dry land. Only about ten percent is above water, even at low tide. The other 90 percent is just mangroves growing in shallow water. I'm not sure why the channels or "creeks" have formed, perhaps because the tidal water flowing in and out is a little too fast through the narrow channels for the mangroves to get a grasp. There's very quiet beauty in there, virtually no noise at all if you sit quietly, and no wind at all. The only noise is the paddle bumping the side of the boat and the water running off the paddle and dripping back into the tidal stream. Crabs scurry along on the mangrove roots, jellyfish mosey along in the crystal clear water, and small fish scurry by to get out of the way. The "creeks" are mostly narrow tunnels through the forest, from two feet wide to about eight feet wide; many places so narrow that I have to ship my paddle and just pull myself along by the roots and overhanging limbs of the mangroves themselves. Near the middle of the "island", there are three or four "lakes"; merely openings where, for some unknown reason, the mangroves haven't filled in. They are only about 4 feet deep at high tide and the sea grasses float on the surface at low tide. Again, since it is surrounded by the mangroves, there is little wind and about the only noise is the sounds of airplanes passing overhead.
                    I had been told that there is a way to exit the island near the west end by Burdines Marina and Restaurant, so I thought I'd try to find the entrance from the large lake in the middle of the island, and I thought I had, but the channel got too narrow and overgrown to go any further. I had about decided that maybe they had recently become impassable, but as I thought about it longer, I realized that the road that used to access the island from the mainland and that has the "Bridge to Nowhere", which is the old drawbridge with the center span missing and out of use, is on dry land and cuts through the middle of the island, so I can't see how it could possibly exit that far west. I spent about 4 hours exploring, went about 5 miles round trip, and never saw but two other fellows, who were in a tandem kayak. I had entered the maze near Island Time in the harbor and exited on the east end into Whiskey Creek and Sister Creek, then paddled back to my boat. I believe there are still more channels to explore in there, but before I do, I'd like to talk to someone that knows the island better and find out if there really is a way to get to Burdines or to the west end of the island where the submarine is.

Friday, 14 September - The best of my intentions were foiled again today. I had intended to pull the secondary anchor out of the water, cut the splice and about two or three links of the chain that are rusting badly and renew the splice on better links. I was also going to cut the line at about the 100 foot mark and splice in thimbles to make two lines out of the one to make untangling twisted anchor ropes easier, but after going to West Marine and buying new thimbles and bringing them back to the boat, I realized that my plan couldn't work because the thimbles and, especially, the anchor shackle necessary to reunite the lines won't fit through the hawsehole in the deck.

Saturday, 15 September - The harbor had another Nautical Swap Meet this morning, or at least that was what it was supposed to be. As usual, there were 90% sellers and almost no buyers. Although I took about seven boat fenders, a 5 to 16 foot fishing outrigger, a small fishing box, a good cooler, and a never used 400 Watt wind generator to the swap meet, I couldn't get rid of anything. Mike and Bev from the sailing vessel Quiqueg invited me to join them in a trip to the Porpoise Research Center in the afternoon. This center is where the TV series Flipper was originally photographed and the original "Flipper" is buried on the property. It was both enjoyable and educational. One of the things I found most interesting was that they really have to teach the porpoises very little; for years now the younger porpoises merely learn by watching and mimicking the older porpoises doing their routines. The trainers basically just signal the porpoises which trick to do and when to do it.

Sunday, 16 September - After breakfast this morning I planned on untangling the anchor lines and pulling up the secondary anchor, a 45 lb. Delta Plow, so I got in the dinghy and pulled Island Time in a 360 degree circle to remove the twist. I did that at low tide so there wouldn't be any resistance on the rudder and keel and got lucky in that there wasn't much wind at the time, either. Unfortunately, there was one more twist in the line than I could tell and when I pulled the anchor up, the anchor still had the other, primary, anchor line draped over it. Getting the anchor up still took up most of the day. I'll let the line dry overnight, cut the old splice and a couple of old, rusty, bad links of chain off and re-splice the line back onto the better links on the chain tomorrow...or, at least, that's the plan. This anchor rode is 12 strand mega plait nylon, so it should be interesting doing the splice.

Monday, 17 September - I tackled splicing the 3/4" mega-plait line back onto the anchor chain today and worked on it for about 5 hours, however, I only got about half of it done. To say that everything I do takes way longer to accomplish than I think it will is a huge understatement. I never dreamed one splice could take so long. The 12 separate strands of the rope are paired off, then fed through the chain link and doubled back. Each pair has to then be woven back into the braided rope numerous times and each time I add another strand, the weave gets tighter and tighter. I think I've done about 6" out of 16, but will finish tomorrow.