Monday, 10 December 2018 - I spent much of the day online trying to find several small items for the boat that, although I don't really need them right now, I need to decide whether to have them shipped to Marathon or my mailing service since I'm really hoping to get away from here soon. Of course, I've been thinking that for two or three years now.
                    In the afternoon, I tried to update my new chart plotter card, but without WiFi and using data with the phone and laptop tethered, the download timer indicated it would take 27 hours. Perhaps I should go take advantage of the marina's WiFi tomorrow; that should be much faster.
                    Later, Jay and Tami Klassen invite my to join them for pizza and beer at the Hurricane. They had a Bluegrass trio there that deserved a much larger audience than they had. They were really good.

Tuesday, 11 December - Because I couldn't update the charts for my chart plotter yesterday, I had decided to go ashore and use the Wi-Fi at the marina to do so, however, during the Cruiser's Net, a request for help putting together bicycles for the children of the needy here in Marathon was announced. That sounded like something I should do and I could take the computer ashore and accomplish both at the same time. I hurriedly gathered things I would need and headed to the marina. We were to meet at 11 o'clock and I arrived with just enough time to set my computer up to download. I had everything I needed...except the memory chip I needed to upgrade. Arrgh!
                    We assembled about 8 or 10 bikes and I returned to my computer and figured that although I couldn't update the charts, I could at least update several of the apps on my phone and the operating system on my computer. I had to try several times to update most of the apps because most of them would get almost fully downloaded, then fail and have to start over. I think that took about three times as long as it should have. Next I updated the OS on the computer. That, also, took about three times as long as expected. The computer keeps track of the "expected" time till completion, but each minute took three or four. Pretty frustrating. Finally, upon completion of the download, the computer rebooted and started loading the new operating system. It got about halfway done and the screen went blank and froze. I thought, "this is not good." I was afraid to force a restart for fear that the OS would have to restart, but this time it loaded properly, thank goodness. My real fear was that I had only gotten half of the new OS and that the old OS would be corrupted, making it so that neither would work.

Wednesday, 12 December - I successfully updated all my programs today over at the marina, then went to the movie at the library. After the movie, since I hadn't had dinner, I walked the half mile to the Hurricane, had dinner and listened to the "open mic" night music.

Thursday, 13 December - The weather warmed up a bit today. I had been waiting for that to clean the hull of the boat. Just as I got into the water, I knocked one of my scrapers into the water that I had set on the swim platform. I tried to catch it, but it sank faster than I could swim. It disappeared into the murky water and I ran into the bottom of the harbor with my face mask trying to catch it. I surfaced realizing that with no visibility, there was no sense searching. I cleaned the hull and got out onto the swim platform again. I took off my mask, snorkel, fins, weight belt, buoyancy compensator, gloves, etc.,then being very careful, I placed my gear on the swim platform again. I've been using latex "crinkle" gloves to protect my hands from barnacles while I clean the bottom. They do the job well, but, for some reason, they get very sticky after a couple of uses. As I set them on the platform and withdrew my hand, they stuck to me and the fins, pulling the fins, my mask, and snorkel into the water in front of me. I dove in after them, catching the swim fins, but not the mask and snorkel. I had a choice, one or the other; I couldn't catch both since the fins headed off at an angle to the mask.

Friday, 14 December - I rinsed and put yesterdays remaining dive equipment up to dry, then headed to the Hurricane for an informal meeting with some of the meeting with some of the other boaters that was advertised as a get together of the Seven Seas Cruiser's Association. As it turned out, the association was hardly even mentioned, but their weekly luncheons may prove to be a great source of cruising information.

Saturday, 15 December - My full wetsuit is getting pretty old and stiff, causing me to rip it while putting it on, so I decided to replace it along with the face mask that I lost the other day, so I went shopping for those today at three of the local dive shops. The owner of the shop where I found the nicest one wasn't in, so I'll have to return to find out the price on that suit.

Sunday, 16 December - Today we had a harbor-wide brunch at the marina. I helped with the setup and cleanup. It was nice to meet some of the new people in the harbor and the pot luck meal was, as always, great, too.

Monday, 17 December - I tried to use my database to look up the model of the last waterproof phone case I had and discovered that when I updated to the newest operating system on my laptop the other day, my Filemaker Pro 13 data base that is so important to me will no longer run. Now I'll have to update it, too. The Mac update was free; the Filemaker, if I go to the latest version, will cost $550 and it will not read the old files from FM-13. I need to find a workaround. I'll probably try to update to Filemaker 15.
                    Also assembled some more bikes. I think we're done. We have purchased and assembled 76 bikes, from little bitty trikes up through nice 21 speeds, for the needy kids. (See photo link below.)

Tuesday, 18 December - Robert Dahmer sailed in from up north today. It's nice to see him again. I'm sure we'll do quite a bit together soon. He had sailed 31 hours straight, so he was, understandably, to tired to do anything this evening.

Wednesday, 19 December - I went to K-Mart looking for a cheap life vest to replace one that the sun destroyed while in my dinghy and, also, hoped to find an inexpensive wet suit. They had both, but, as expected, too cheaply made, but I had to go see. Next, I went to MDEA Dive shop to order a new wet suit.
                    I, also, contacted Filemaker today on the phone to see what I need to do about updating the program. I have some options. I could buy the newer version for $545. 2. Upgrade from V.13 to V.15 for about $150, then to V.17 for another $150, or ... 3. Upgrade to V.15 and be done with it till next time. I'll probably go the latter route. They don't sell older versions, so I'll have to find those on the internet.
                    Since today turned out to be a pretty nice day, I attended to the battening down for strong winds predicted out of the south, then west, then north in the next few days. I closed and dogged down the hatches, wrapped the yankee and mainsail with extra halyards, and tied everything on deck down so it can't blow away.This evening, Bob and I met at the library for the movie.

Thursday, 20 December - I had thought that today would be very windy, cold, and wet. Not so. Breezy, and it rained quite a bit, but not too chilly. It was one of the longest lasting rain showers we've had, but my timing was off. I just topped off the water tank recently, so I wasn't able to take advantage of the free water.

Friday, 21 December - The winds weren't as high as expected today, less than 40 mph where 45 to 60 were predicted, and thank goodness; there was enough chaos as it was. Three boats broke loose or dragged their anchors in the west anchorage where I had previously been anchored and one small boat dragged in the east end. I spent several hours helping restrain the three boats on the west end, two of which, because of their size, could have done a lot of damage if not stopped quickly. Two boats got hit, but little damage was done. One of the boats that got hit was a large, expensive catamaran with a family of 5 or 6 aboard. They were below and never saw it coming. Luckily, and because of the help that had already arrived, they sustained nothing but a few scratches. If they had had their VHF radio on, they would have been forewarned because several other boaters on the radio had tried to reach them to say the loose boat was headed straight for them. I'll bet they leave their radio on during the next big blow, as they should have this time. We couldn't get the boat that hit them moved far enough away from them because of the anchors it was dragging, so they had to raise anchor themselves and find another anchoring spot. The other big boat ground itself in shallow water, but still needs to be attended to. We couldn't move it at all.
                    Just as I got my dinghy raised on the davits and the salt off my body, I got a call on the VHF with an invitation for dinner on S/V Southern Cross with Bruce and Kindra; a wonderful dinner of chicken curry.