Friday, 1 January 2021 - New Year's Day - Happy New Year! I certainly hope all my friends have a better year in 2021 than we did in 2020.

Saturday, 2 January - As usual, we spent the day at Susie's house. High tide was at 11:30 and at noon we decided to give her labradoodle dog, Sangria, some exercise. I tossed a tennis ball across the patio a couple of times but she wasn't interested at all. Susie got the dog's flotation harness out and she didn't want anything to do with that, either. Once it was on her, however, and she saw me pick up the ball, she was all in. I had lowered the ramp to give her access out of the water back up onto the dock and she was totally excited. We, however, had almost changed our minds. Even though it was high tide, it was the lower high tide of the day and we thought better, realizing that she might have a hard time getting her back feet high enough to get them on the board, and without that happening, she'd have to give up and we'd have to use the handle on the harness to lift her out of the water. Susie almost lost the wrestling match getting Sangria to go from the dock back onto the patio, but finally won. Then...we changed our minds and decided we'd let her try. We threw the ball about 5 times and she gamely chased and retrieved it, but, as we suspected, had a hard time getting onto the ramp, each time being harder. She wasn't ready to give up at all but we decide that, rather wait until she couldn't get back onto the dock, we'd call it a day for her. She does love chasing that ball into the water.

Sunday, 3 January - Today was pretty laid back for us. Other than me tightening the screws on her bathroom door knob and reversing a small part on the dog's ramp that I'd installed improperly when we added the last bit of friction tape, and the two of us hanging two beautiful, still life paintings in her hallway, we pretty much wasted the day either talking on the phone or on-line on our phones. Well, that's not quite true. Susie loooooves to sit on the dock with her coffee in the mornings and watch the tide rise or fall, while trying to catch a glimpse of manatees, sharks, or eagle rays; and she certainly wouldn't consider that "wasted" time.

Monday, 4 January - For some reason, the refrigeration isn't cooling as well as it should. Perhaps I had accidentally bumped and turned the knob on the thermostat. It doesn't have a means to set a specific temperature, only a smoothly rotating knob, so I set it to its highest setting and will see if that makes it any better.

Tuesday, 5 January - It was a beautiful, but cool day here so I took the opportunity to take down the Christmas lights that Susie and I had strung. Also, at 1 o'clock this afternoon the Net Controllers, of which I am one, had a meeting. In order to social distance ourselves, we met in the middle of the harbor in our dinghies and tied up to one of the daymarks. It has been decided to integrate some of the less than permanent residents of the harbor into the group, which I think is a great idea, so this also means that I don't have to do the net but half as often, every other Friday, now.

Wednesday, 6 January - I changed gas tanks on the dinghy today and marked the bow painter at the point that it needs to be hitched to the cleat. The painter is black line and I'd marked it before but the marking has disappeared so this time I pierced it with a fid and inserted a strip of light brown Sunbrella fabric run through, looped around and sent through again so that it can't come out.

Thursday, 7 January - Four of us went kayaking out to East Sister Rock today. East Sister Rock is a tiny island just off Vaca Key, which Marathon is on. It is only big enough for one VERY expensive house. The house was almost destroyed during hurricane Irma. Almost all the sand and dirt was washed out from under it during the storm; so much so that you could see all the way under the house and see eighteen of the pilings it was standing on. It was also one of the first homes to be rebuilt after the storm and now has a significant, but beautifully designed, sea wall around the east and south exposures, plus, of course, the helicopter landing pad, pool, and beautiful flora returned to better than ever. We had a bit of headwind going out, but virtually flew home with trailing seas and about a 2 mph current once we got back into Sister Creek headed for the harbor. Only two of us went clear around the small island because of the waves. There were a few breakers near shore but we went on the outside of them. The other 'yakers were all on sit-on kayaks and mine is a sit-in style with no spray skirt, so I was a bit afraid I might take on a couple of waves and swamp, but I only took one over the bow and not much came into the cockpit and, thus, into the boat. I said we virtually flew on the way back. I just looked at my track in Navionics and it says I hit 6.4 mph for awhile coming back, pretty quick for a kayak.

Friday, 8 January - Well, I got behind on this posting and have no idea what I did on this day. I do know that I didn't have to do the Cruiser's net this morning. They are working some of the new people in the harbor into the Net Control positions to alleviate the workload on the full time residents. Now, I'll be doing the net every other Friday. Now, however, I'll probably have a tough time keeping track of which weeks I'm on and which ones I'm off.

Saturday, 9 January - I washed clothes at Susie's house and we installed a bamboo screen on the border of her porch and her next door neighbors' in the duplex to separate the two porch/patios. It's not that she doesn't like her neighbors, just for a little more privacy.

Sunday, 10 January - It was pretty nippy here so Susie and I stayed indoors most of the day and enjoyed each others company.

Monday, 11 January - I got a late start on testing and diagnosing why my 12V refrigeration isn't freezing the freezing compartment this afternoon, then, when it got too dark, I switched to trying to figure out why my US Navy spotlight won't come on. The batteries are reading 4.5V and 5.2V and I though that should be enough to, at least, make the lamp glow a little, but it doesn't. The switch tests OK, as does the lamp and the connections seem fine. I guess I'll just have to spring for a couple of new 6V lantern batteries in order to really find out what's wrong.

Tuesday, 12 January - I added a little bit more refrigerant to the 12V freezer and ran a test on its electronic controller. I'll let it run overnight again and see if it's doing any better tomorrow morning. I also re-soldered a connection on one of Susie's outdoor solar lights for her. Susie recently purchased a small banana tree from a local resident and in the process of digging it out of the ground, most of the roots were cut off. The man reassured her that it would survive so she brought it home and put it in a pot about 2 feet in diameter and filled it with potting soil. All the leaves on it dried up and it appeared to be a lost cause...however, Monday she discovered that a single, tightly furled leaf had shot up about a foot overnight. It continued to grow and spread at the top, forming a cone, and during the day today it totally opened. It's about 18 or 20 inches tall and about a foot wide, green as can be.

Wednesday, 13 January - Today I defrosted the 12V freezer and moved the thermostat sensor in the freezer compartment so that it might get better readings. I also checked my mail at the marina and got a couple of Christmas cards; one from my brother and another from long-time skiing friends, Kenny and Sharon Crockett that now live in Michigan.

Thursday, 14 January - Roger of the vessel Never Say Never came over to my boat and helped me with the refrigeration. He took some readings and compared them to a chart of pressure and temperatures and decided that the the system still needs more refrigerant, so we put some in. That's good news and bad. The good news in that the system still works, the bad news is that, somewhere, there is a leak. That's whit I suspected, unfortunately. He suggested that the most likely place to look for leaks is at the Schrader valves in the high pressure and low pressure, or fill tube. Schrader valves are exactly the same as in a bicycle or automobile tube or tire. As soon as he left, I tested those, but neither leaks. At least the system is cooling again, but I'll need to check again in the morning to see if it's holding the freon now.

Friday, 15 January - Net control today. I checked for leaks in other locations in the refrigeration system today and found none, so I added more refrigerant to tide the system over for the weekend so I can re-evaluate it later. I wish I had a freon "sniffer", but realize that with enough persistence, I can probably find the leak(s) with soapy water. I hope so.

Saturday, 16 January - Susie had discovered a set of small end tables that she wanted down near Key West so we drove down and got them today. While we were down that way, we also stopped at a garden center and she bought a 15" pot of bamboo for her back porch. We'll need to build some planter troughs to move those into and hope we can do so without tearing the already bound-up roots up so bad that it kills the bamboo.

Sunday, 17 January - Susie got on the internet again this morning and almost immediately found a very nice bamboo-looking set of shelves at a very nice price here in Key Colony Beach to replace a wicker piece she had on her back porch. The bottom of the wicker shelving was rotting out, so it really needed replacing. It was only about a 5 minute drive over to get this new (used) piece.

Monday, 18 January - Yahoo! I found the leak in the refrigeration system. I'm writing this minutes after having repaired it. The freon was coming out of the low pressure Schrader valve. I had tried to check it several times with soapy water, but since it was facing away from me, I could never see bubbles forming. In reality, I think it was leaking so much that the freon burst the bubble the instant I put the soap on, so, as I watched, nothing more happened. I happened to discover that fact when I placed a mirror right next to the valve and "hallelujah", the freon fogged the mirror. I took a Schrader valve out of a bicycle inner tube I have and replaced the old one. Now, assuming that was the ONLY leak, all I have to do is get the proper amount of freon charged back into the compressor and I'll be set...until the next time something goes wrong. Unfortunately, this is not going to solve the all-to-frequent over frosting problem. I'll deal with that some other time.

Tuesday and Wednesday, 19 & 20 January - Most of both of these days have been spent checking online for information about the refrigeration or venting from or adding refrigerant to the compressor. Unfortunately, almost all of Tuesday was wasted because I took the advise of Roger on Never Say Never and reversed the hoses end to end on the refrigerant manifold in order to make the ends align better which facilitated getting the male and female threads on the Schrader valves to screw on without cross-threading them. I assumed that was ok since he professed to having worked on "many" refrigeration systems, but after being confounded as to why I couldn't get usable readings for hours, I took the lines off and discovered the problem. Only one end of the lines has a tip inside to push the head of the Schrader valve in to open the passageway on each of the line. Pressure from the can of refrigerant would open the valve on the low pressure valve, but the high pressure valve always stayed closed since the higher pressure was always in the inside of the line. Now, I'm finally sneaking up on the proper amount of refrigerant and have the unit cooling down to 9°F at the bottom, but still not quite freezing at the top. I have to be careful not to overfill the system because doing so might freeze the line clear back to the compressor and cause permanent and significant damage to the compressor itself, but being overly cautious has cost me a lot of time.

Thursday, 21 January - More time was spent with the refrigeration today and I finally got the temperature down to about 4°F below zero at the bottom of the freezer and have the evaporator frosting all the way to the top. Yea!

Friday, 22 January - No Net Control duties today.

Saturday, 23 January - Susie wants to try to separate the bamboo plants that are all in the one pot and put them into a planter trough about 7 feet long and one foot wide, so we went to Home Depot to see if they had any planters that would work. No. We'll make our own, so we left the outdoor store and went to the lumber section, hoping they might have composite decking, since it would never rot out. They do, but the price was going to run too high. I suggested we head home to figure out exactly how much would we would need. I needed to pick up some cleaner for the boat so we headed over to that section of the store, but on the way I said we need to thing out of the box. What else in the store might they have that would do what she wants to do. As we walked by the storage aisle, we spotted some plastic storage containers that are about 11" high X 12" deep X 20" long. Four of those would do nicely, with the benefit of being easy to move, repot if one plant did better or poorer in its position, and absolutely never rot out. They could be concealed behind a single short wall and would appear to be one, long planter box. One wall with legs to support it from behind. Much easier to build and move than one box. We picked up four of the storage boxes, headed back to the lumber department and got four 1x4s and one 2X2, then headed home. We got the wall built before dark, but didn't get the legs on it today.

Sunday, 24 January - I started back on the planter wall before breakfast and since all the sawing had to be done by hand, no vise, no clamps, and without a square, we finished that project and had brunch about 1 o'clock. Then, for some reason, since it was still early and a beautiful, warm day, I suppose, Susie decided to try to separate the seven foot tall, totally root-bound bamboo and repot them today, too. She's such a slave driver. We finally got them separated into four clumps by spraying them with the hose until most of the dirt was gone and we could start to see how entangled the roots were, then trying to untangle them one root at a time. I was absolutely amazed at how tough those roots were. Some, less than 3/16" in diameter were so tough I couldn't even break them, although I will admit, I was trying not to. We did have to cut a few, and did considerable damage to many, but, we thought, we did a pretty good job of saving much of all the root systems anyway. I'm sure they'll be distressed for at least a few days, but hope that since we were able to keep the roots misted and quite wet the whole time, they'll all survive and recuperate. Her banana tree that she got about three weeks ago, even though it lost all its leaves, is doing well with two totally new, two foot long leaves and looks beautiful.

Monday, 25 January - I recently got another gypsy for the anchor windlass. It's not for a chain size that I currently use, but it might come in handy someday. If not, I can sell it for a profit. The price was right.

Tuesday, 26 January - I caught up on some reading today.

Wednesday, 27 January - I went over to S/V Tammy Anne and picked up several ice trays from Tammy and Rick. The had announced on the Cruiser's net that they had some with lids on them that will keep them from spilling water before they freeze. I have some aluminum trays that stand vertical, but they get frosted in so badly that I can't get them out when I need to. Maybe these will be better.

Thursday, 28 January - I paid my property taxes for last year today. I didn't put it off too long. I still had two days before there would be penalty fees.

Friday, 29 January - I cleaned up the ice trays I got from Tammy Anne today and got a better look at them. I was hoping the lids would keep water from spilling if they weren't level in the freezer, but on viewing them, I can see that's not going to be the case. It's hard to create a level spot in my freezer but if I can do so for long enough to freeze the water, it won't matter after that. Unfortunately, I don't hold out much hope that these will get much more use on the boat than the metal, vertical ones do, which is not at all. This evening at Susie's, I got to see how the bamboo was doing. We were afraid that the damage we'd done to the several root systems might have really cause them to wilt, but they all look fine. I'm not sure we're in the clear yet, but another week should surely confirm the outcome for sure.

Saturday, 30 January - Susie any I exercised her dog, Sangria this morning by throwing a tennis ball repeatedly into the canal behind her house at high tide. If you throw the ball for her onshore, after about ten times, she looses interest, but into the water and I don't think she'd quit until her legs wouldn't carry her up the ramp we built for her. After that, and while the dog was home drying off, Susie and I went over to the marina and both gave blood for a blood drive, then went next door and flew my two-string kite for awhile. She's getting better at it. With variable winds it's pretty hard to fly. It wants to stall out when the wind dies off, then rips across the sky as the next gust hits it, and in the gusts, the kite really turns fast. The banana tree already has another leaf almost at full length, although totally rolled up into a rod about 30" long by 3/4" in diameter.

Sunday, 31 January - Wow! A twelfth of this new year is already gone. This morning the banana leaf is totally unfurled; spread out about 11 inches across to start soaking up the sun. We had a pretty quiet day at Susie's, but this afternoon we bent a wire coat hanger into a stand for a piece of carved artwork of a pod of dolphins so she could place it on top of the cupboards in her kitchen next to a metal art piece of a school of fish.

Monday, 1 February - Today was a very blustery day with winds 10 to 30 miles per hour out of the west and northwest. A storm front moved through about nine thirty this morning and three or four boats in the west anchorage dragged their anchors necessitating several volunteers to go move boats, untangle anchor lines on different boats and move one to a mooring ball because the owner wasn't onboard. It rained for about 20 minutes, then the precipitation was over, but the winds will remain until late tomorrow. At least it is still in the 70s here.

Tuesday, 2 February - Lots of wind today, again, and a wayward dinghy or two in the harbor. A swamped dinghy or two, also, plus one longtime resident of the harbor that has been taken to the hospital for afflictions unknown ...and then there's a drunken sailor on the VHF radio who is lamenting the loss of his mother. Numerous people in the harbor have tried to get him to turn off his radio and go to sleep, but it's not working.