Saturday, 29 December 2018 - We had another harbor cleanup today. We were supposed to meet at the tiki hut at the marina at 10:30. As I approached the marina, right on time, there was only one person there. I didn't know it, but that person was the organizer for the day. Since there was only one person, I quickly went inside to check for mail. That took about 3 minutes and when I walked out, there was absolutely no one there, so I sat down, thinking I must be the first one there. Actually, the organizer had already given up and left at 10:33. A few minutes later a very beautiful girl in her late twenties showed up. We chatted and exchanged names and boat names. It was Emily of the S/V Sapphire. To shorten the story, the organizer showed up and Emily and I teamed up to collect trash together. As far as I know, there were a total of four doing the cleanup. Emily and I collected about two big bags of trash, including hundreds of feet of black 3/8" polypropolene rope that had floated into the mangroves from lobster and crab pots, probably, mostly, during hurricane Irma.

Sunday, 30 December - I was a bit disappointed to see that the only adult interested in exploring the mangroves today was Rick McClain. However, there were four kids on the boat next to me that were ready, willing, and able, so we headed out in four kayaks to see the sights. We did cut the trip a little short because the youngest, about 8 years old, was riding with an older brother that did get a little tired with the large kayak and extra weight. On the way back and once we were in Whiskey Creek, the travel easy, and home just around the corner, I let them continue on and I took the side detour that I had bushwhacked on Friday so that I could record the track on my GPS app and see on the map. With the tide high again and the trail cut now, I really didn't recognize when I neared the trail's end until I saw the "Golden Arches" just ahead. Since the tide had been through several cycles, much of the cuttings I had made were now covered with silt, making them virtually undetectable. I did cut a couple of underwater stumps at the turnaround off even shorter to make the turn easier near the end. I can now, after looking at the track on the map, see that the current end of the trail is only about halfway to an intersection with the Burdine's trail...if that is where the old channel leads, so it will definitely be up to someone else to see the reopening to completion. That probably won't happen at all. The mangroves will surely win in the end.
                    With the skies being clear and the high temperature being 85°F. today, the sun shower water heater was almost too hot tu use. I believe the high today in Salt Lake City today was 34°F. and in Fort Worth it was 43°, so I'm not going to complain, especially since the low tonight here will be 77° and in Salt Lake City, 19°. I'll be sleeping under one sheet with the hatches open. I hope your heaters are working well.

Monday, 31 December - The last day of 2018 - Where did the year go? I think time is accelerating! My excitement for New Year's Eve was reading several chapters in Mike Barber's new book, "The Water: Life and Adventure". Michael is the local sailor that compiled all the hurricane survival stories for the book, "Irmageddon" and he's been sailing, or at least on the water, almost all his life.

Tuesday, 1 January 2019 - New Year's Day - Right after the net this morning, I went to help one of the local sailors move a 60 foot mast from one storage area to the marina using about 7 helpers and a laying it longitudinally on the top of a 17 foot fishing boat's arch and a saw horse on the deck. I think we got lucky. With all that could have gone wrong, nothing did. I'm real curious to see him install it on his sailboat. He says they'll do it with a lot of help and one other sailboat. That should be very interesting.

Wednesday, 2 January - I went ashore early today to check out a couple of folding bikes that are for sale. My good friend Steve Luta is due in town in about a month and saw them advertised on the Boot Key Harbor Cruiser's Facebook page and was interested in them. After that, I contacted Rick Garvin of S/V Echoes. He had volunteered to help me with my computer. Since I upgraded last week, FileMaker, my database program, won't run and I need to resolve that. Before going any further with installations, I thought I'd better backup my hard drive again. I'm stuck waiting for that to finish and my computer says it needs two more hours. I hope it finishes before the marina closes two hours from now. Later, I'm headed to the library to see a movie.
                    Steve Luta decided not to buy the bikes because he'd not have a place to store them or have a use for them until they return from the Bahamas. Since he decided against buying the bikes, I bought one of them to replace my old bike which had become so rusty that I had no brakes, couldn't shift, and had to take my feet off the pedals when I quit pedaling or the chain would get all jammed up.

Thursday, 3 January - I worked on the new bike for a couple of hours this morning cleaning it up and lubricating its parts, then rode it to the MDEA dive shop and the sewing fabricator's. I took the mast base boot that I need replaced hoping to get it done soon. Now the guy says he'll have to order one yard of fabric for it. That'll take several days. At the dive shop I picked up the wet suit that I'd ordered and tried on several face masks that they had gotten in the same shipment. They only ordered two with purge valves built into them and neither of them fit my face well, so I tried on several without valves. One fit fairly well, but for $69, I decided to pass on the purchase. I can't believe it; none of the three dive shops within walking distance have a face mask with purge valves.

Friday, 4 January - I worked on the bike some more today. It's weird. At first it wouldn't shift to high gear. I got that adjusted, but now, even though it will hit high and low gears, it skips third gear. I wanted to get a new set of head and tail lights for the bike and look at face masks today, too, so I rode to K-Mart first. They had some cheap lights, but there was a bike shop only a block away, so I wanted to see what they had, too. They had a set for $25 that I thought would be better, but while trying to get them out of the package, the tail light fell apart. I thought that was a bad omen and a bad design, so I passed and headed back to K-Mart. Their $15 light proved to be a much simpler design with easy to replace AAA batteries, so I bought them and think I'll be totally satisfied. While there I looked at their face masks and decided to buy one of their $19 models. No purge valve, but if I can't get one with a valve, there's certainly no sense paying $69 for it at a dive shop.
                    Back at the marina, one of the boaters had rigged a makeshift screen, had a digital projector, and showed two good movies for us under the tiki hut.

Saturday, 5 January - I spent more time today trying to get Filemaker Pro, my database program, to run on my computer, without success again, then later, Bob Dahmer, who is back from Key West, and I showed his girl friend, Ellie, some of the local bars. We were amazed at how desolate the bars were for being 8 or 9 o'clock on a Saturday night during high tourist season. Maybe everybody is still hung over from New Year's partying.
                    Oh, there was one interesting occurrence today. A dinghy, with its engine running and in gear, was found a couple of rows over from Island Time, along with a life jacket in the water. A couple of us searched, but found no bodies, and the owner of the dinghy was tracked down. He is, and has been, in Key West since yesterday and he had left his dinghy at the marina on his way in. Go figure. I searched until my dinghy ran out of gas, then we figured since we'd covered the area pretty well, there probably weren't any floating bodies.

Sunday, 6 January - Kayaking the Boot Key Mangrove Trails - Today I was to lead a group of about seven people or more through some of the mangrove trails. One bailed out yesterday and three others, including one that had borrowed my spare kayak bailed out this morning after the mother in the group fell in the water even before our trip was to start. That left Bob Dahmer, his girlfriend, Ellie, and me. Actually, that worked out great because we wouldn't have any beginners with us to slow us down. This gave me the opportunity to run all the trails in one trip and record them on my phone's tracking app at one time. I've never gotten all the trails on one track before, only portions. Well...I still haven't. Something went wrong and the app stopped tracking just under halfway through. I guess I'll have to go back and do it again. I hope the next time I'll have a little higher tide level. It was pretty shallow out there today. All in all, it was still nearly perfect; temperature near 80°F., blue skies and light winds. We did virtually all the trails in about four hours and forty five minutes. A great day!

Monday, 7 January - I came to the horrible conclusion that I either don't have the installation key (number) for FileMaker Pro, my database which I need to reinstall, or I recorded it within the database itself, which I can't open since I updated my Mac's operating system. I've always written the installation key right on the installation disk so it couldn't be misplaced, but it's not on the disk this time. I don't suppose any of you, my readers, has an installation key for your copy of FileMaker Pro v.13 that I could use? If so, I sure appreciate getting it from you.
                    The remainder om my day was spent working on the bike, using the bike to get to the store to buy a very few groceries, replacing the pull-cord handle on my Evinrude outboard engine, and repairing the towing bridle for the dinghy that I was sure I had short enough that it couldn't get into the propeller, but it did anyway.