Wednesday, April Fools Day - I know my timing is a little bit late, but I started divesting myself of most or all of my stocks today. I'm sure I should have done this the first moment I read the word "pandemic" on the internet, but, better late than never, I suppose. I don't think the economic situation is going to get better anytime soon. The hard part may be realizing when the bottom truly has been reached and it's time to get back in. Good luck to all of you.

Thursday, 2 April - I got a break with the stocks today...a few were up from yesterday a little bit and I got rid of a few more.

Friday, 3 April - I was Net Controller again today since it is Friday. After that, back to the stock market trying to get out with the least damage possible.

Saturday, 4 April - Most of today was spent reading "Post Captain" by Patrick O'Brian the second of twenty of the Aubrey/Maturin series of high seas battleship adventures of the early 1800s. As a break, I ventured into the marina to make a trash run and check for mail. No mail, not that I'm expecting much.

Sunday, 5 April - At 11 AM, off to another run through the "Boot Key Everglades", leading a trip through the kayak trails. I can see from how much growth there is in the last year, and how many limbs and tree trunks have fallen, that the trails will, within a few years, become impassable unless the kayakers start working hard to keep the trails cleared. Some of the trails are so narrow that a kayak can barely get through in places and overhanging limbs seem to get lower each year. Last week as one of the boaters tried to get under a limb, he overturned, losing his phone. Luckily, it was in a very good waterproof case and we found it in good, dry condition, after returning when the tide was out and the water clearer. This week there were just four of us; two 70 year old men and 12 year-old and 14 year-old girls. Near the end of the trip, we came upon two 4" limbs that I had to saw in three places to clear out of the trail. We could have gotten past the limbs, in fact, the youngest girl, who reached them first, simply stood up in her kayak, pushed the boat under the log, and stepped back into and set down her kayak on the other side, but I cleared the way for others. It will be interesting next time to see where the limbs end up. Will they flush out with the outgoing and incoming tides, or will they cause a bigger log jam. Only time will tell. It will be a mystery until I pass that way again.

Monday, 6 April - Much of today was spent "socially distancing" aboard Island Time and reading and finishing "Post Captain" and starting "Captains Courageous" by Rudyard Kipling; both books sent to me recently by my brother, Mike.

Tuesday, 7 April - I had intended to kayak another set of kayak trails to Vanishing Lake in Boot Key, but couldn't find anyone else interested that could go today, so I went to shore and worked on my bicycle instead. The bike was in bad need of lubrication. The back brake dragging against the tire causing it to make me work too hard and the shifter wasn't shifting at all; it was stuck in first gear. After a couple of hours and a lot of WD40, all appears to be good again...at least for the moment.
                    This evening, the largest appearing full moon of the year rose at sunset and happened to rise, at least for me, at one of the prettiest points in the harbor; right between a couple of buildings and over the few palm trees visible from the harbor. After watching the moon rise, I finished "Captains Courageous".

Wednesday, 8 April - Skip Williams and I kayaked to Vanishing Lake through the mangroves in Boot Key. Getting in there was a lot harder than getting out, although that was mostly because the entrance getting in there is not marked, and we tried several possible entrances that dead-ended, plus, when we exited into the lake going in, I marked the entrance with surveyor's tape. Without marking it, and since we had to lift overhanging mangrove limbs to exit, we might have searched for hours trying to find the entrance/exit from the lake side. I searched all along the north edge of the lake for another way out, finding only one other trail. We were confused when we reached the outside of the island again because we came out another exit, so we went back in on what turned out to be another trail. We were surprised again when we reached the lake and found that we came out the same exit we did on our first trip. It's really a maze in there!

Thursday, 9 April - The refrigerator was in dire need of being defrosted so I spent about three hours doing that. I keep chemical icepacks in there to moderate the temperature and one of them had ruptured, oozing out a slimy juice that could easily be mistaken for raw eggs. That took awhile to clean up. Luckily, it was near the bottom of the freezer, so it didn't get on much else.

Friday, 10 April - I had a very upbeat morning net today. Since there are very few boats coming or going, I got to skip all the rules that typically need to be read, and lots of people got matched up with help from other boaters, plus we had a good round of trivia.