Friday, 25 June 2021 - I hosted the net again today and thought it was going to be pretty short, but during my "Final Business" section Diesel Don broached the subject of changing our net to another channel again, so we set a meeting for 5 o'clock tomorrow evening at the tiki hut at the marina. After that, I defrosted the freezer and walked to the grocery store and bought $200 worth of food, then returned via taxi and stowed them all away.

Saturday, 26 June - We had a meeting open to all area residents today to discuss changing our "official" harbor VHF radio channel from 68 to another. Our morning and evening nets have been on channel 68 for many, many years, and the harbor uses that channel for hailing each other and for harbor emergencies, too, but since it is also the most popular channel used by visiting fishermen and others, we get a lot of side chatter. That makes lots of the harbor residents turn their radios off to watch TV, talk on their phones, or when sleeping. Many of us, including me, have fort that moving our transmissions to another channel would alleviate most of that side chatter, thus, the meeting. Two proposals were made. One was to switch our morning and evening nets to channel 80 and also use that for harbor emergencies, but still use 68 for local hailing and then move to some other channel for conversations, leaving channel 80 for emergencies for all time periods, plus the nets. Personally, I think we should move everything to channel 80 except conversations. People choosing the first proposal think that by having 80 be for only emergencies and the nets, more people will move to that channel to avoid all the side chatter all day and night, making it better as an emergency channel and quieter at all times. I disagree. I think most people will monitor channel 68 in case someone needs to reach them, leaving fewer people to respond to possible emergencies. I know that if there is an emergency involving me, I want lots of people listening whether I have hurt myself, my boat's on fire, or someone else's boat has broken loose and is about ho ram me. My proposal won the vote, but a very influential harbor member spoke up and demanded another vote. My proposal lost the second ballot. We'll see how it all works out. I hope that I am wrong and that lots of people are listening to 80 to either warn each other about problems and to respond to them.

Sunday, 27 June - I had planned to go do some more trail management in the mangroves today, but upon checking out the tides, realized that I would be working at pretty high tide all day. I certainly need higher water levels that I had last time because I couldn't even travers some of the channels, but if I work at high tide levels, when I return at lower levels, all the limbs and stumps that I cut at the higher levels might be protruding from the water a foot or more and need to be cut again. I decided to stay onboard and I'm glad I did. I started to repair a hold-down strap for the dinghy that need its buckle replaced, so I got out the sewing machine. Before I got really started Tami Shelton and Jay Klassen called and invited me to go to The Panda oriental restaurant for lunch. They both do a lot of sewing and I had some questions about which thread I should be using on boat projects. Wow! They answered all my questions and then, after lunch, came to my boat and gave me a lesson on how to set up the machine, details about what needles to use on different fabrics, straps, and threads and lots more. Jay even went back to their boat and brought back some of their sewing machine attachments to show me. Not only that, but Tami repaired the strap... and they ended up giving me 15 sewing needles of two different sizes that fit my machine, too. It's hard to beat friends like that.

Monday, 28 June - We're still getting spotty rain squalls but not much accumulation and the whole coming seven days is predicted to be the same with a 30% chance, or more, each day. I cleaned the boat up some today then went to play ping-pong with Walt at 3 o'clock.

Tuesday, 29 June - I had to be at the dentist's office at 9 o'clock to get the two new crowns replaced. I got a late start so I had to peddle like crazy and cut about 25% off my riding time to arrive on time, but I made it. Thank goodness it was overcast or I'd have been soaking wet with perspiration. Returning from there, I stopped at Home Depot to look at their small air compressors, but managed to walk out empty handed; a very unusual occurrence at that store.

Wednesday, 30 June - Another sailor asked for information about Little Shark River in the Everglades on the net this morning so I volunteered to help him out. I emailed him some of my tracks that I recorded in Navionics and we tried to discuss them on the phone, but I could tell that we weren't communicating well so we met at the marina so I could show him in person. After that, I played ping-pong for an hour with Walt, then returned to the community room and updated my phone, my Navionics charts, and some apps on my phone.

Thursday, 1 July 2021 - I cleaned the hull of the boat. There's a storm on the way north and it looks like it could pass right over us here in the harbor. Thank goodness it is not due until the 5th and its path could change, but I need to be ready to sail away by Saturday at the latest if the prognostication doesn't change.

Friday, 2 July - I'm sorry I didn't get this posted before I left the harbor. I was just getting too late a start as it was. I dropped the mooring lines at 1:30 in the afternoon today, a much later start that I’d hoped for, but not unexpected since I had to run the Cruiser’s net and put away all the dive gear from yesterday’s bottom cleaning job. Thank goodness I did that, too. The hull wasn’t in too bad of shape but the propeller was totally gummed up with sea growth, both vegetable and animal. I started a new track on the chart plotter just before going under the seven Mile Bridge and passed under it at exactly 2:30 PM. I am totally amazed. I have gone under the seven Mile Bridge and haven’t seen one crab trap or lobster trap or float yet. I am totally amazed and pleased. It is so wonderful. That lets me turn the auto pilot on and just let it do it’s thing without having to turn it off every minute or two to jog around some lobster or crab pot. As I had determined from the weather forecast, I am headed into about 4 mile an hour breeze at about 30° off the eye of the wind, which I can’t sail, and have 6 inch to 1 foot waves. I am motoring and I am fairly sure I will do so all the way up to Little Shark River because I’m gonna be headed into the winds all the way. That’s fine because, since this was a last-minute decision to leave this morning, I didn’t unwrap the headsail or the mainsail an all in order to sail. A beautiful trip north. Anchor down at 10:45pm using only the chart plotter for guidance in total darkness.

Saturday, 3 July - I got up about 7 am in order to have breakfast, weigh anchor and head into the Everglades. I had a soft grounding in nearly the same spot I did last time I was here last year. I could see my track on the chart plotter and adjusted my course to put me in the correct spot this time but, apparently, the shoaling has shifted. Luckily, I was being very cautious and going very slowly. I got out my handheld depth finder and measured off both sides of the boat. Unfortunately, both spots measured the same so it didn't give me a clue as to which way to go once I was off the bottom, I backed off the bar and chose to ge further away from the mangrove island and, although it was still very shallow, I had chosen correctly and moved into deeper water within about 50 feet. I continued on in and arrived at my intended anchorage for the storm at about 9 am. I circled the anchorage to see how the current was running in the main channel and the eddy I like to anchor in. I wanted to anchor in the exact same spot that I did last year and determined where I needed my anchor by watching the shoreline. Since I'm dealing with an eddy line, it's really hard to get the boat into the exact position I need and get the boat to stop there while I run forward to drop the anchor. I think I made at least two attempts because the eddy wants to take the bow one direction and the main current the other way. I finally got the main anchor down, backed off about 200 feet and moved out into the main stream to set a second bow anchor, then drifted back along the eddy line. That was around noon. I launched the dinghy and measured the depth where I wanted to drop my first stern anchor, returned to the boat, rigged my heavy Danforth anchor and lines, then took the anchor out and dropped it, then returned to the boat with the line. Last year I had tied the anchor line to the boat, then backed out to the end of it to drop the anchor because I was afraid I'd misjudge the distance and end up with the anchor too far away and not be able to return to the boat. This time I took another 100 feet of line in case that happened. I was rigging anchor line to set a second stern anchor out in the channel when, lo and behold, here came Tami and Jay in their catamaran Avigna. I was already tired and my spirits rose immediately. They said hello and moved on to anchor for the night, so they can move to their chosen anchorage tomorrow. I still hadn't gotten my fourth anchor out when they came buzzing down the river in their dinghy to help me. They helped me lower, flake and roll my staysail. Next, we tried to adjust my for and aft anchor lines but my main anchor chain was hung up on something out in the main channel although the anchor was in the eddy. My windlass wouldn't haul it in. I thought this was going to be a nightmare requiring us to pull some of the other anchors or greatly extend the lines I already had out to dislodge that anchor chain. Luckily, we slacked that line a bit and it came off. I only had about ten feet of that chain left when it came free from whatever snagged it. I pulled thot line in about 50 feet to straighten it out and adjusted my position fore and aft, then Jay and I got in my dinghy to take that second stern anchor out. We dropped it, returned to the boat and took two lined to shore to tie to substantial mangrove trees and in the process, since the tide had run out about two feet, when I stepped ashore, I sank in mud up to my thigh and in the process of extracting myself, I lost one of my Chaco sandals. I went back for it later thinking I could hook it with my boat hook, but had no luck. Someone in about a thousand years will find that petrified sandal and assume I was some lost adventurer that had some strange demise, probably eaten by a prehistoric crocagator. After helping me for several hours and saving me several hours of work, Tami and Jay headed on back to their boat for the night and I started putting tools and extra lines away.

Sunday, Fourth of July 2021 - I got up around 7 am and had breakfast so I could go help and observe Tami and Jay anchor their catamaran in the next channel up the river. They wanted to wait for a little higher tide so I dinghies to their boat which was, to my surprise, only about three bend in the river away and we talked and waited for an hour or so, then headed up river. They showed me their new location and checked out exactly where they wanted to be, but the tide still hadn't slowed down, so we chatted and Jay fixed us a wonderful tuna salad and served it with crackers and lettuce to put it on. The time and tide finally arrived and we made a u-turn in the river to point the desired direction. I was certainly jealous of Tami's 180 degree turn. Since their catamaran has an engine in each hull, she simply put one engine in forward and the other in reverse and spun on a dime. In that narrow channel, I'd have had to go forward and reverse several times to make the turn. They set their bow anchor then backed off to set it and install their snubber, then Jay and I simply took bow and stern, starboard and port lines to shore and tied them to the mangroves. So much easier than takin four anchors out. Their channel is much narrower than the one I'm in. Before we got the fourth line out, the Everglades Park Service came by. They had a helicopter spotting boats for them and they were telling everyone to leave, but when we explained that we were here for Safe Harbor and that we had done this before, they had no problem with it, but said that they'd be closing the park. Fine...and they wished us well. We raised on of the shore lines to let them pass and we finished putting out the port stern shore line, then I headed back to Island Time.
                    I've always trusted my Yamaha outboard, but today it chose to give me trouble. I was running poorly and air bubbles were visible bubbling up through the in-line fuel filter. I told Jay that if I hadn't made it back to my boat and hailed them on the VHF radio within thirty minutes to come looking for me. The engine started running even worse and I really wasn't sure I'd make it back, but did. I called them, then worked on the dinghy's fuel system for the next four hours. I cut sketchy ends of hoses off, replaced both hose connectors, replaced the in-line filter, opened the engine housing to see if gas was leaking inside the cover, etc., each time having to start the engine to see if the action made any difference. I finally realized there were only two possibilities left: a crack in the 3/8" fuel line under the floor of the dinghy, which would be extremely unlikely, or that the valve in the fuel tank was bad. I've had three of those valves go bad before, but each time, the valve pin was bent and wouldn't let fuel through, so I hadn't expected this to be the problem now. I changed the tank out with another and the bubbles went away. If I'd suspected that and changed it out first, I'd have been done in about 15 minutes instead of four hours. I guess my boating triage skills need some improvement. I still had to put tools, more lines away, and store more items left on deck from yesterday and I finished up about 7pm.
                    Mosquitos and NoSeeUms were starting to come out near dusk, so that gave me a chance to try out the Anti Mosquito, Insect Shield, Full Body, Sea To Summit, BugWear Suit. It's even got gloves and socks and is made of a mesh so fine that bugs can't get to you. Susie gave it to me after I mentioned that NoSeeUms had been so thick last year when I was trying to weigh all my anchors. The suit works great and even has a built in hood that I can wear my had under. Very nice. Now I can sit smugly on deck at sunset and watch the sun go down, the egrets fly by to roost for the night, and the bugs come out.

Monday, 5 July - It's been nearly windless, sunny, and hot, but today should be different. When I awoke this morning it was already overcast and considerably cooler. Yesterday, when I returned from Avigna, it was 102°F in the cabin since I had it closed up. This morning it is only 82. As of this morning, the barometric pressure hasn't dropped since yesterday, but I expect it to go down today. I called Avigna this morning to check in with them and Jay filled me in on the weather. They have Sirius Satellite weather onboard and the storm track is apparently estimated to be about 160 miles to our west. The further the better. Jay contacted me again and invited me to lunch on their boat. I had decommissioned the dinghy by removing the seat, tools, air pump, etc., so I had to relaunch it and restore it to usable, then headed over. They are only about 8/10ths of a mile as the crow flies, but about double that on the river. We had a wonderful lunch and while I was there it rained for about 30 minutes. We assumed that the rain was probably one of the outer bands of Elsa and when it let up I came back to Island Time and put the dinghy away again. The rain had washed the boat off a bit so I installed the rain catchment system, but first had to re-sew one corner of one of the fabric funnels that mount at the back corners of my hard bimini top to catch the water as it runs off and funnel in into a plastic hose and, then, into my water tank. After that I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening reading. Right at 11 pm I started hearing some serious thunder in the distance. I looked out, but still see stars, but I suspect that won't last much longer. The weather report said that Marathon should get up to 8 inches of rain and winds of 30 to 40 mph, with gusts to 60. I'm only 45 miles or so north of Marathon, so I guess the storm is about to arrive here. I wish it had arrived during daylight hours so I could see its effect on the mangroves and water. I guess I'l have to wait until in the morning to see that and find out if I am as prepared as I think I am. Elsa is expected to blow all day tomorrow, but its center is, I think, still about 160 miles west of us. At 11:34 the rain joined the thunder and lightning, but I'm going to bed.

Tuesday, 6 July - It's evening and I think Elsa has passed to me quite well away to the west. It rained almost all day, so it stayed a cool 81°F all day and I collected about 30 gallons of rainwater, but that was way short of what I'd expected. I donned my "bug suit" several times today and it worked extremely well. I do think they could make two minor improvements in it, however, but I'm sure they tie loops in the bungies in a double overhand knot just for expediency, but a fisherman's knot would be smaller and better. The second would be to move the knots opposite the openings. They don't and it makes all the draw on the drawstring have to slide from one side. By moving the knot to the back, the slider can be adjusted much easier. I spent about an hour changing all eleven of the waist, ankle, and wrist closures and it made donning and exiting the suit at least twice as fast.>
                    Listening to the VHF on channel 16 is not something I do much in the harbor, we usually use 68. Out and about, however, 16 is the channel to monitor and hail each other and that's the channel Avigna and I have been on. It's also the channel that the Coast Guard monitors for emergencies and to disseminate information. I suppose the holiday and the storm compounded problems and boy have they been busy today. When I've listened in the past, I've usually heard one or two communications from the Coasties per hour, but today I think they've been on about every five minutes, with all kinds of problems. Some girl in a bikini was missing from a boat, three people were in the water somewhere else, at least one boat was taking on water and another was adrift down at Key West, there was another problem with some boat that had 22 people onboard 25 miles south of Big Pine Key, a jet ski needed a tow, and lots of other problems. What the heck are people doing out on the water in a tropical storm? They ought to be hiding like we are. It will be interesting to see what occurred back in Boot Key Harbor when I return.
                    I wanted to keep my batteries charged up while I was here, but because of the rain and overcast skies, the solar can't quite keep up. However, since I thought it would be quite windy, I thought the wind generator would take over. Wrong. There isn't enough wind down here in the channel to even make the blades on the turbine rotate, much less charge my batteries. Of course, that's why we come here, for the protection.

Wednesday, 7 July - Up at 8 am and had breakfast. I was just launching the dinghy to bring in anchors when Jay called on the VHF offering to come help me bring them in as they left the area. They already hand their lines to the mangroves in and were ready to weigh anchor. I wasn't about to turn down their help but continued launching the dinghy and just had the stern anchor back to the boat when they arrived. Jay helped me get it aboard, then we went for the stern quarter anchor that was out in the river further. We couldn't pull it up by the float line on it so we went back to the boat, gave it some slack and untied it there, then pulled ourselves back out to the anchor. This time it came up easy, but the float line appeared to be caught on something. Within minutes we had it up and Jay then helped me get in the lines to shore as Tami kept their boat centered in the current. Once we had all that done, they needed to get going and I only had two more anchors out, off the bow. Those should be easy since I can bring them in with the electric wench. Thanks for all the help, Avigna. You made my life so much easier this week and more pleasant, too.>
                    Did I say those last two anchors should be easy? Well, they weren't. The wind and tide ended up putting them out behind me and as I slowly brought the chain in on my main anchor, the line tightened on the secondary that was out further in the river and I couldn't get over the main anchor to raise it. Apparently, the secondary anchor's line was snagged on something on the bottom. I had to let out about another 50 feet of line on the secondary to allow me to let me get the anchor speak. Once I did, it was still stubborn. The usual procedure is to tighten the chain and let the bouncing of the boat in the waves break it loose, but here there are no waves so I just tightened the chain enough to pull the bow down about four inches and let the buoyancy of the boat break it loose, although it took repeated attempts and about 20 minutes for that to work. Once that was done I could weigh the second anchor. The way my anchor rollers are arranged my secondary anchor needs to be catted first, then the main, so I had to leave the main anchor acockbill, or dangling from the rollers in order to weigh the secondary, and the boat rotated and tangled the two before I could get to the wheel to prevent it. Why the designers put the shorter roller in front of the chain side of the windlass, I still can't figure out. Once I got the anchor weighed, the boat nearly drifted into the mangroves before I could get the anchor secured and get back to the helm. That's another disadvantage of being a single-hander. I still managed and was away to get near the mouth of the river by about noon. The boat seemed to be making slower headway than the rpm's on the engine should have produced and it took me about 30 minutes to realize that, in my hurry to stay out of the mangroves, I had left the dingy attached at both ends when I returned to the boat the last time, so I was dragging it sideways through the water at the stern of the boat. I'm lucky there weren't any waves; it would have probably flipped if there had been. I had my anchor back down just inside the mouth of Little Shark River by 1 o'clock, had lunch and started putting lines, anchors, etc. away, and remounting the staysail in preparation to head back to Marathon tomorrow.>
                    Oops! I just got a reminder on my phone no remember to show up to play Ping-Pong with Walt in an hour at the marina. I don't think I'm going to make it.>
                    Holy Cow!!! I just heard something on the VHF from the Coast Guard that gave me a good scare. It's 4:30 and I just have all of the ropes except the 115 foot X 1 inch anchor line coiled and have one anchor back in the aft anchor locker and the Fortress anchor disassembled and stored under the floorboards in the aft cabin. I just heard, "A hurricane warning is in effect for the whole west coast of Florida and can expect winds from 74 to 115 mph." I thought, "Oh, no. There's another storm following Elsa." Luckily, the Coastie then identified his location as the station in Tampa instead of Key West. The Coasties in Key West are still looking for or picking people out of the water, but the strong winds have headed north.>
                    It's now 8 o'clock and I've had enough for the day. I finished coiling ropes, raised and furled the staysail, removed the cover off of the genoa, removed the outboard motor and mounted it on the aft rail, and put the dinghy on the davits so I can sail tomorrow. I think there'l still about an hour's work to be done before I can sail in the morning but it can weight until then. I'm hoping the wind will shift from the south to the east tomorrow so I can have as straight run to Marathon.

Thursday, 8 July - I was up at 8am, had breakfast, straightened the boat up a bit, and weighed anchor at 9am. I had very light winds as I exited the mouth of Little Shark River and headed south using the Iron Jenny, the diesel engine. Now the wind was out of the south and my course was 180°, due south, so I motored all the way. I only saw 4 lobster or crab pot floats and was able to use the autopilot 90% of the time. As I was just about to pass through the Seven Mile Bridge, I got a phone call from Tami from Avigna. She said, "Is that you approaching the Seven Mile Bridge?" I was astonished. She just happened to be returning from her job in Key West, and saw my boat on the water below while she drove home. I arrived back on my mooring ball at 5:35, jumped in the swimming pool at the back of my boat to cool off, showered to get the salt off, and relaxed. Dodged another storm successfully! All's well that ends well.