Thursday, 14 February 2019 - For some reason the list of names and contact information of the boaters that I've met since I bought Island Time has mysteriously disappeared from my computer, so I spent most of today trying to recreate that list, but I'm sure I left many out. That's why I kept the list; because I can't remember them all. Most of the list was just boater's names and their associated vessel, but others, I had phone numbers, email addresses and more.
                    Just after installing the dinghy on the davits for the evening, another sailor announced that he'd enjoy having a visitor to share a beer with and watch the sunset, so I joined him for about an hour and a half and made a new friend, Nigel Turnbull on S/V Tailspin, a sleek looking little trimaran.

Friday, 15 February - I stuffed some Cruiser's bags at the marina with information about the Marathon area today and later went to the Hurricane Bar to listen to my favorite local musicians, Fiddle Rock, performing for the first time in a long time. One of the duo lost his boat in hurricane Irma, then got a gig in the Seattle area, but they were performing in the big Coralhead Music Festival here at the park, so he had to return for that engagement. They played at the festival earlier in the day, then performed at the Hurricane starting at 9 pm till 1 am.

Saturday, 16 February - There was a highly touted swap meet at Tilden's Dive Shop this morning, but it was really small. Along with the music festival at the park, there were lots of other activities trying to tug at my timeline. This evening there was the big Carolina Shag dance at the Marathon Country Club. I attended that, then later went back to the Hurricane to see Fiddle Rock again. They really rocked the joint tonight.

Sunday, 17 February - I led a small group through the Boot Key mangrove trails again this morning. On the way to the entrance to the trail, I found a decent two piece kayak paddle. I'll try to find the owner, but if I don't, I'll sell it. I already have two.
                    Bob Dahmer returned to the harbor today. We had a margarita aboard Island Time, then he and I joined a pretty large group of other sailors for an evening dinghy drift at sunset in the harbor.

Monday, 18 February - I got the water out of the kayak paddle handle that I found yesterday that had penetrated the plug that was supposed to keep the paddle from sinking. Now I need to find some more closed cell foam to reseal it with. I also looked at some of the wiring on the depth sounder, but, again, could find nothing wrong.

Tuesday, 19 February - More time was spent trying to trouble shoot the depth sounder today, then I drilled another hole in the shaft of the kayak paddle I found the other day so it can be rotated for use by a left handed paddler.

Wednesday, 20 February - I went to Bob Dahmer's boat today to take my Raymarine SP 60+ depth finder over and plug it into his boat to see if it gave false readings in his system. It did, so that pretty well demonstrates that the display is the bad link in the system. Later, I joined him at the library for the free movie, then we bar hopped from the Overseas to the Hurricane for a few beers.

Thursday, 21 February - I organized a meeting at Burdines' Seaside Grill with some of the harbor occupants to discuss how we might improve the operation, fees, and / or facilities here in Boot Key Harbor that a few people are not satisfied with. The biggest problem seems to be the lack of access to the shore for people not on a mooring ball in the harbor. It costs $22.50 per day to take a dinghy into the docks, and they have a virtual monopoly for the access. That fee does include other amenities like use of the project room, TV's, washers and driers, rest rooms and showers, and the community room with WiFi, but if all you want to do is go to a restaurant, movie, the city park, grocery or other store, that $22.50 increases your cost significantly. For instance, a beer for $2 at the Overseas during happy hour plus $22.50 makes for a pretty expensive beer.

Friday, 22 February - I went to the marina to stuff a few Cruiser's bags again today, then I spent a good part of the afternoon on S/V Salt Shaker with Art, He has a Raymarine SP 60+ Depth display just like mine he thought he might make available to me, but realized at the last minute that he didn't have redundancy on it as he thought he did, so that wasn't available, but he did have another SP 50 depth unit. Unfortunately, it has different connectors on it, so it probably won't work.

Saturday, 23 February - Bob and I got up early and he came to my boat in his dinghy, then we went ashore in mine to go to the big annual nautical flea market in Islamorada, a few islands up the Keys toward the mainland. We got to the bus stop about 20 minutes early, but just about time for the bus to arrive, another friend, Tom Krueger from the sailing vessel Malaya saw us standing by the boat as he headed to the flea market in his car, so he stopped and picked us up. We all spent most of the day wandering the lanes in Islamorada park looking for items for our boats. None of us really spent much but we had a great day, then stopped by one of the nicer marina/restaurants, Lorelei, for a quick beer on the way home.

Sunday, 24 February - I needed to be over to the Tiki hut at the marina early today to help setup for a Sunday brunch. Bob wanted to attend, too, so he came over a little before 10 o'clock to ride in with me since he is at anchor and doesn't have dinghy dock privileges.

Monday, 25 February - I changed the size of the fall on the davit block and tackle that I rove Saturday afternoon to a smaller line. I believed the large line I used was causing significant drag, making it harder to raise the dinghy. Changing to a smaller size proved me right. I was a bit afraid that the smaller line might be harder to grip, but I believe it will be Ok. Just before its closing time, I went to the library to swap some movie CD's and as I arrived back at the dinghy docks, Roland and Leta Kok were headed to the Hurricane for pizza and beer, so I joined them.

Tuesday, 26 February - I spent much of the day adding information to the contents of one of my drawers in my database. It contains over 30 different types and sizes of blocks (as in block and tackle) that are not in current use on the boat and there are duplicates of several; all spares...and that's just one drawer. I didn't get finished before needing to meet Roland and Leta Kok to go to happy hour for peel and eat shrimp at Sparky's Landing, the bar and restaurant. I hadn't ever been there before. Their shrimp are 30 cents apiece during happy hour and very good...and large. Twenty made a pretty good meal. After that we stopped by the Hurricane to listen to music for a while. Upon return at 9 o'clock, I finished the database entry on the drawer with all the blocks in it.

Wednesday, 27 February - I've put out notice via the Cruiser's net that I need a Raymarine ST60+ Depth display and so far I've acquired three more from well meaning boaters, but they lack the "+", and either don't work at all or are incompatible. A search on Ebay isn't working very well either, but I did put in an offer for one unit that may or may not be quite as advertised. It is covered by Ebay's guarantee, so I'm not too worried if it's not, so I'm not too worried.