Friday, 7 August 2020 - I spent a significant amount of time today trying to get the images for my last blog to upload. In between trying to get that to work, among other things, I tightened the nuts on steel mainsail furler halyard. I had noticed that there was a wide gap between the sail and the mast, and that's not good. I also whipped the line I cut this week in Little Shark River. It was 79' long and is now about 10'. While sailing up to Little Shark River last week, I observed that there was way too much gap between the mainsail furler and the mast, so today I tightened the steel halyard.

Saturday, 8 August - Over night, while staying at Susies, and since I'd had so much trouble with the image upload, I had my phone and my laptop update their operating systems and the upload went through in mere seconds, just like it should. We took it easy today, then watched a Prime TV movie in the evening since she has Apple TV and Netflix.

Sunday, 9 August - Susie and I headed out of the harbor this morning about 10:30 and unfurled sails at about 11:00, then headed out toward Sombrero Reef and Lighthouse. We didn't stop there, but headed on out to deeper water where we spotted something floating off the port beam. Just as I got out the binoculars and identified it as a very large turtle, it dove, not to be seen again. By the time we reached the reef the water was already a beautiful green, but shortly after passing the reef we decided to head on out to a depth of 300 feet, then turn around. Beyond about the depth of about 100 feet, the water is a deep, deep blue. We arrived back on the mooring and tied up about 5 o'clock, coiled lines and broke out the margaritas. That gap between the sail and the mast was much better after having tightening it on Friday. We'd had light winds and amazingly, very few lobster pots are out yet, so the sailing was very relaxing today.

Monday, 10 August - The fan quit again; this time while it was running. It may be on its last legs, but I tried to fix it again and found that there was a C-clip under one of the bolts holding the motor mount together. I thought that shouldn't be. It seemed to be binding the rotor shaft, but, in actuality, I had to replace it with a thicker shim and add thin shims to the three other corners of the mount to get the rotor spinning freely. Unfortunately, it seems to have more problems than that and I still couldn't get it to run. I also found a loose wire but am sure that should only affect one of the fan's speeds, not stop it from running. I'll explore that another day.

Tuesday, 11 August - I see there's another storm crossing the Atlantic, but it's still over a week away from here. I'll have to keep track of it. Stitch, from S/V Moonlight Sue, came to the boat to do some more fitting for the lifeboat cover. If I'd realized that this would take this long, I certainly wouldn't have had him do the work. Of course, I'd already had one seamstress turn down the work and another say he would do it, but didn't. There's one more option and I should have gone with him in the first place. It's still hot so I reinstalled the deck awning today and moved the generator back to the deck at the bow to get it out of the cabin. I don't like to sail with it up there because it can get splashed and sprayed with seawater even though I keep it covered with two layers of canvas.

Wednesday, 12 August - I went up into the channel to the east of the harbor this evening to see if there is a possibility to hide in there during a hurricane. The channel is in among two story apartments and the channel is narrow. I'm still not sure it is a viable solution, however. I could tie off on both sides of my boat to shore but there's still a good chance of getting run into by another boat that breaks away.

Thursday, 13 August - A little excitement in the harbor last night. Two boats that were at anchor and tied together caught fire, burned to the waterline and sank. Who knows how it started. Happened it the middle of the night. Derelict boats.
                    I got in the water to clean the hull at 11:30 this morning after getting the generator, compressor, cleaning tools, and dive equipment ready, then spent the next two hours underwater. I was surprised at how clean the hull still was. Moreover, I'm surprised how little scum and few barnacles it had taken to cut my boat's speed by about 20% on the trip to and from Little Shark River. Even when motoring, I had to increase the engine rpm's by over two hundred to maintain my normal cruising speed of five knots. However, with the ease of cleaning came better visibility while doing the scraping and the cleaning only took about two hours today. I was out of the water by 1:30, had things rinsed off by 2:30 and mostly dried out by 4 o'clock. A new record for me. Of course, everything made of neoprene needed to dry overnight.

Friday, 14 August - They are sure the storm out in the Atlantic will head out toward Bermuda after passing Puerto Rico and stay out to sea. I hope they are right.
                    I re-re-glued the rubber oarlock on the dinghy today and put another 9 Volt pigtail on my Extech clamped multimeter. I've got to be honest, I hate those cheap little pigtails on electronic equipment. Is the difference in price between those and solid connectors really so great that no one would buy the better one? I think not. I would buy the better one in a heartbeat. Surely it couldn't raise the price more than fifty cents.

Saturday, 15 August - At Susie's for the weekend and today we completed several small jobs. The first was drilling her masonry wall to hang a picture. She had bought a very nice wine cabinet at a yard sale in Key West so we moved that in from her car and tried it out in a couple of locations in her living room, settling on a location in the corner by the back sliding doors. Next, I sharpened her very dull kitchen knives. We finished off the evening with steaks cooked on the outdoor grill and a movie.

Sunday, 16 August - Today we went exploring across the bay in Susie's two-person kayak. Even out on the water it was very hot. There wasn't much breeze and every little bit helped, but it was nice to get out of the house and get some exercise. We finished off the evening with a margarita and one of my favorite movies from years back, "Paint Your Wagon" with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin, which she hadn't seen. With those two lead characters, you'd never guess it was a musical. They aren't the best of singers, in fact Lee Marvin is terrible, but it fit their characters perfectly. Much better than the terrible singing of Pierce Brosnan and Meryl Streep in "Mama Mia".

Monday, 17 August - I finally got the last three pieces of canvas repairs back today. He's been working, or not, on these simple projects for so long that I can't remember when I gave the first ones to him. I'm glad to get it all done. He made some covers for padding on a webbing strap that goes over my dinghy when it's on the davits, a cover for the life raft, and added about 5 inches to the covers for my on-deck fuel containers. I also finally sold the Remington 870 Marine, nickel plated, 12 ga. pump shotgun that I had bought and never shot. I'd gotten it for self defense on the boat but realized that since I couldn't keep it both hidden and readily available, it was a poor choice for the that purpose.

Tuesday, 18 August - I defrosted the freezer again today and it doesn't seem like it's been that long since I did it last, but I think it had more ice and frost in it this time than it ever has before. I guess that's because of the hot weather and high humidity. This evening, Susie and I watched a spectacular display of lightning from her back porch and living room as small storms pounded the waters just north of the Keys.

Wednesday, 19 August - I need to change the oil in the engine and the portable generator so I dug out all the line I have stored it the port lazerette and checked my oil supply. I was one gallon short of Rotella Diesel Oil, so I had to go to Home Depot to get some. As I walked in the door to the store, there, right in front of me was a display of plastic gasoline cans or jugs. I'd noticed yesterday that one of mine has ruptured along a seam, probably from the hot weather we've had, so I bought three gallons of oil and the gas container. While at the marina I went ahead and paid the mooring ball fee for another month. I'll change the oil tomorrow.

Thursday, 20 August - With the help of Tom Krueger on S/V Malaya, I took down my two foresails. He was too tired to help with the mainsail, so I'll have to deal with that later.

Friday, 21 August - There are two storms that are a problem for me. One looks like it is going to run right over us and the other is to our west, so I can't run that way. I'm headed back to Little Shark River where I think the best protection is even though it is right in the projected path of the storm. Gotta go now!

Wish me luck!

            Until next time.

                        "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson

                                          Rick