Wednesday, 15 January 2020 - I had the sole of two more of my back-up pairs of sandals fall off today. One totally disintegrated, so now I only have one more back-up pair left. I've glued these back on with contact cement at least once before. I also got out my new stapler with stainless steel staples and reattached the velcro to the bottom of the hatches. That velcro holds the mosquito netting in place when needed, which here isn't very often, but it looked pretty poor hanging down from the ceiling. After doing more research on sandals, I ordered a new pair of Chacos. Apparently, they are the only manufacturer that still passes the straps all the way through under the footbed anymore and that's only on their "Z" series sandals. I also ordered a new pass-through portal lens online. The pass-through portal is a window that allows meals, drinks, etc. to be passed from the galley into the cockpit without having to open the hatch during poor or cold weather. I can't pass food to myself, but with all but one of the "ears" on the lens broken, it was time to replace it before it can't be held closed.

Thursday, 16 January - I spent quite a bit of time today working on mildew removal. The warmth and humidity make that a continuous job. Later in the evening I met Susie at Dockside and danced to "The Lady A Band".

Friday, 17 January - I need to replace the waterproof hard case on my iPhone again. The membrane on the Home button that allows fingerprint recognition has developed a hole in it. Although this case had been waterproof, I didn't trust it as well as I did the Catalyst case that I had before. I looked online for something better, but ended up settling on another Catalyst and ordered one along with some gloves that are advertised as very cut resistant for me to use while cleaning the boat's bottom and while handling the anchors. After that I cleaned the mildew off more surfaces on the boat and treated them with a homemade brew to resist further mold.

Saturday, 18 January - We hand another nautical flea market at the tiki hut at the marina today. I managed to sell absolutely nothing, but did manage to keep my purchases to a minimum. In the evening I had pizza and a bit of dancing with Susie. There was a duo playing at the pizza shop singing "oldies" rock and folk music just for us; a private concert. Nice.

Sunday, 19 January - Today we had a pot luck brunch at the marina at 11 am and at 1 o'clock, a meeting, led by sailors with experience traveling to the Bahamas, to inform others interested in traveling there about paperwork involved, routes to take, tides, wind and currents to take into account, sights to see, and anchorages, etc. The meeting lasted about 2.5 hours, then Bob and Ellie, on Christinaki, and I dropped our mooring lines and headed out the harbor and sailed the short distance to Molasses Key to spend the night and part of tomorrow, then return. Sailing was nice even though the sun wasn't out. Actually, that was a blessing. Had the sun been out, with our course going due west, it would have been much harder to see and avoid all the lobster pot floats. The sun came out just as we headed into the anchorage, but we had turned north to round the islands and drop anchor. When I first dropped anchor, I realized that I wasn't right in the middle of the narrow channel, so I raised the anchor to move again. I'm glad I did. When the anchor came up, it had a large, wishbone shaped snag on it. The anchor wouldn't have had a chance in hell of setting properly. I grabbed the boat hook and finally managed to raise one end of the snag and it slipped off and sank, then I reset the anchor. Shortly thereafter, Ellie invited me to join them on Christi for "happy hour" which evolved into home made pizza for dinner.

Monday, 20 January - My parents' wedding anniversary. I still miss them and know they'd have loved this boat and the adventure. Bob and Ellie kayaked over to one of the two tiny islands here at the Molasses Keys and I took my dinghy over since it was still in the water. Ellie and I just explored the shallows and walked to the other end of the island to see what was there. Not much, but I did discover a fossilized footprint left by a four toed Big Foot. I didn't realize he'd been this far south. (See Photos link below) Bob searched hard for a couple of hours snorkeling for lobsters, but, although seeing quite a few, none were large enough to keep. About 2 o'clock we weighed anchor and headed back to Boot Key Harbor. With a 15 knot breeze across our port rails, we took about two hours to reach the harbor and by 5:30 I had caught my mooring ball, coiled lines, and put most of the sailing gear away.

Tuesday, 21 January - Since I heard a part hit the deck on Saturday while out sailing and discovered it to have been the pin of the shackle that holds the tack, or bottom of the front edge of the mainsail down, I replaced it and moused, or wired, it closed for better security today. A cold front moved through and it's cool and windy out but I did make it in to shore to get my mail today which included a new pair of Chaco sandals, a pair of "cut resistant" gloves, and a new Catalyst iPhone waterproof case. While into shore I also loaded 50 gallons of water into the jugs in the dinghy, then siphoned them into the water tank on board Island Time.

Wednesday, 22 January - This morning I went to the marina and stuffed 25 insulated bags with information for the newly arrived cruisers in the area. Another colder front moved through last night, making it even colder, and it's still windy. I know it got down to at least 49°F last night. They say the iguanas are falling out of the trees they are so cold. The sailors are all bundled up, too. A good day to catch up on this update; speaking of which, I'd better get this out.