Sunday, 1 August 2021 - This morning I removed the Yamaha outboard motor from the dinghy and raised it to the pushpit railing. That allowed me to stand on the swim platform and change the 90 weight oil in the lower unit of that engine. I thought that would be easier than going to shore in the dinghy, removing the engine at the dock, taking it into the workroom, changing the oil, putting it back on the dinghy and returning to the boat for the Evinrude outboard and repeating all those steps for that engine, too. The Yamaha 15 hp engine is considerably heavier and harder to manhandle than the Evinrude 8 hp engine so I changed the oil in it on the boat, then took the smaller Evinrude to the workroom to change the oil in it. I, also, removed the spark plugs and squirted fogging oil in the cylinders.

Monday, 2 August - I changed the fall for the block & tackle on the davit for the outboard motor and in the process, realized that a weld on one of the supports for the mount for the outboard on the stern rail has broken. I had always thought that it was of poor design and am disappointed that I didn't believe in my assessment strongly enough to strengthen it before it broke. I could have added a wooden support easily, but now the steel tubing has to be welded and the bracket strengthened, too. I played ping-pong with Walt on S/V The Gloaming from 3 o'clock till 4, then returned to the boat and repaired the steering extension on the outboard motor that had broken recently.

Tuesday, 3 August - As I mentioned a few days ago, I need a new fuel tank for the dinghy so I went to West Marine today and got one. I took the dinghy so that I could immediately, temporarily, install it to make sure it fit in the compartment. My rectangular six and a half gallon Yamaha tanks barely fit in the compartment and take up almost all the space, leaving room for little else. Since this tank is trapezoidal, it goes in much easier and has lots of room left over. Unfortunately however, I didn't notice until I got back to the boat that although the Yamaha tank has a filter to strain particles out as you fill it and another to filter the gas as it flows out of the tank to the engine, this tank has neither. That's not good. I have an inline filter and the engine has a built-in filter, but I really don't want anything to get to the engine and those two filters in the tank really help; especially the filter that removes particles as it goes into the tank. I jury rigged one of the filters from the Yamaha tank that has recently developed a crack and is leaking, but it has to be put in place and removed each time, not stored in the tank itself. It will be just another item to remember, store, and otherwise deal with.
                    As I replaced the tank I also found where the air was entering the system and creating bubbles at the in-line filter. It was entering and the connector at the tank, which I had already replaced. When I connected the fuel line, gas squirted out and kept leaking. Normally, there is no pressure in the tank, but since I had closed the vent to install the tank, there was a bit of pressure, so I realized that if fuel can escape at that connector, air can be sucked in, too, as the engine draws fuel. I replaced the connector again and the bubbles finally went away,,,but the engine still doesn't run well. Every time I make a change, I believe I'll have found the cure for the poor performance...and I've been disappointed every time so far. I'm really running out of ideas.
                    On closer inspection, the weld on the bracket for the outboard motor mount on the stern rail is in much worse shape than I had realized previously. The stainless steel tubing is actually torn. I've got to come up with a fix beyond just getting it re-welded. It definitely needs to be supported better.
                    As I write this, there is one heck of a good light show of to the north of me in Florida Bay tonight, but it looks like the storms may simply slide by without getting us wet here in the harbor. About every 20 minutes the alarm on the VHF radio goes off as NOAA broadcast warnings to get to shelter quickly. The broadcast covers all of the Keys, but I think it will miss us or barely skirt by. The Boot Key Harbor Bubble really works but oohs and aaah rise from the decks and cockpits of boats in the harbor as long, horizontal bolts of lightning streak across the sky as electricity is seen jumping between clouds instead of the mere, instantaneous glow within the clouds themselves.

Wednesday, 4 August - I replaced the recently repaired ignition coil with a spare I had today and thought it seemed to be running better at “no-wake” speed so I added six ounces of Sea Foam to the gas tank and took it out to East Sister Rock, which is about 2 miles away, at full throttle. It did seem to run a little better at first, but still not running as it should. Top speed estimated around 15 mph. Should do 25 or more. Ping-pong at three o'clock.

Thursday, 5 August - Oops! I got behind on this blog and have no idea what occurred on this day. Anybody else have a similar problem?

Friday, 6 August - I ordered another Yamaha Service Manual online this morning, for the 15FMH. The link I received downloaded one for the 15V. There might not much difference, but I want to receive what I ordered. One of the main things I wanted to know is what I should expect readings to be when I run a compression test on the cylinders and this book doesn't have that anywhere in it. I also, after having cleaned the spark plugs on the Yamaha engine and having thought that should be sufficient, broke down and replaced the newly cleaned set with new ones. That didn't help, either.
                    About 4:30 this afternoon I heard a request for help moving a boat from one of the marinas back onto a mooring ball. Easy job, just dinghy over and tie up to his boat, then ride back into the mooring field, walk to the front of the boat with a boat hook, reach down with the hook and snag the mooring lines, bring them on deck and tie off. At least that was the plan. I tied up to the back of his boat, cast his boat off with his engine running and warmed up, went about 10 feet forward...and the engine died and wouldn't restart. He started his auxiliary generator to boost his batteries to restart again, but no go. There was almost no tide, so I offered to actually tow his boat back with my dinghy. That's not as easy as I would have thought. With his boat behind me, I couldn't steer mine. After three tries, we were out in the channel with the tide slowly taking us out to sea. We then tried tying my boat up to the side of his so I could push it with him steering with his big rudder. My dinghy just turned him away from the side I was on and we were getting nowhere. Luckily, some visiting fishermen in a big twin engine powerboat passed us in the channel and realized we were having problems. They asked if they could help and I asked them if they were ready for an adventure. They said, "Yes," and they towed us back to the mooring field, saving Stitch a couple of hundred dollars that he doesn't have for a tow job, and got him back to the mooring field, too. A tow from a towing company would have only towed him back into the marina where he came from. My one hour trip only took four hours, but I learned how NOT to tow a sailboat with a dinghy. All's well that ends well.

Saturday, 7 August - During a conversation with Tami Shelton yesterday I mentioned that there had been four fuel filters within the system on the Yamaha, but one of those wouldn't count because it was in the fuel filler neck of the tank. She suggested that, just perhaps, those filters were creating too much resistance and were restricting the flow of fuel. Just on the chance that she might be right, and hoping she was so that I can move on to other projects, I removed the inline filter today and took the dinghy for a spin once again. No (good) luck, no improvement. After that, I decided that it was possible that the one ignition wire that I replaced wasn't problem but that the other one was, so I replaced the upper ignition wire with the one that had been the lower. No change.
                    I see that a long, stretched out storm in the Atlantic that left Africa several days ago has split and may turn into three different storms to threaten us one right after another. We were lucky all during July with not even one threat.

Sunday, 8 August - I noticed that the spring clip leading to the fuel pump on the Yamaha was not as strong as others on the engine so I hoped that it was letting air into the system there and fixing that would solve my problem. I didn't have a spare clip so I wrapped three coils of small wire around it, then twisted the ends tight hoping that would cure my problems. No luck there either. I've wasted way too much time on this and need to move on, problem solved or not. After that, I removed the three U-bolts that attach the wooden 2 X 8 to the engine bracket on the rail in preparation for having the tubing welded. I'll be calling welders tomorrow morning to try to get this done as soon as possible. I want that engine on the rail when I sail to Little Shark River if I need to make a run from any to the storms headed this way.

Monday, 9 August - There was a bake sale at the marina to benefit Mike Barber who is having to go through chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants. There will be a lot of travel involved with his recuperation over about a six month period or more, After that I went over to the Tax Assessors office to clarify what boaters in the mooring field need to do to be allowed back into the area if an evacuation is mandatory. If that happens, at first only essential workers will be allowed in, then later, others including residents, and you need proof that you live here. For us, our paid receipt for the mooring field is sufficient. Then, with the approaching storm on my mind, I totally forgot ping-pong with Walt and went and bought groceries just in case the island has shut down like it happened after hurricane Irma.

Tuesday, 10 August - In anticipation of making another run to Little Shark River, I jumped into the water for two and a half hours today and cleaned the bottom of the boat. Apparently, however, the consensus of opinion now seems to favor the approaching storm not being too serious here. I certainly hope they are right. This will allow me to get the motor mount on the railing welded on Thursday morning and when the parts arrive, to get the support for the mount installed.>
                    I have two leaks in the dinghy. Actually, one of them is a series of leaks that I put a patch on this evening. I had to jury rig a curved pressure plate on the round tube by making a hook that fits a groove on the rub rail of the dinghy, attaching a line to the hook and tying it off on the other side to hold pressure on the patch while it cures overnight. An interesting thing happened when I tied it off. I tied it to a grab handle next to the other, larger leak and it made it quit leaking. Of course, when I release the tension on the line, the tube will slowly deflate again, but this may help understand why I haven't been able to make that leak hold air.

Wednesday, 11 August - I was amazed. Both the patched and unpatched tubes on the dinghy held air all night long. I removed the pressure pad on the repaired leak this morning and it still held. Next, I tore off the old patch on the other, applied a new patch with padding again and let it cure for almost three hours before I needed to go to shore to meet Walt for ping-pong. Walt was playing poorly so we had some of our closest games but I still didn't beat him at all. On returning to the boat I removed the pressure pad from the patch and, so far, it looks good. Flexing it during use may change that. As always, time will tell. After that I removed the awning from the foredeck, rolled it up and stowed it away in anticipation of strong winds this weekend and because I have to have Island Time over at Marathon Boatyard by 8 am to have the outboard motor mount on the railing welded.

Thursday, 12 August - I got up at 6:15 this morning, which is early for me, cooked breakfast, dropped the lines off the mooring ball and arrived at Marathon Boatyard at about 7:30. This was the first time I've had to parallel park the boat at a dock. Luckily, there was very little wind in their little marina and with the help of one man on shore I pulled right in between two big, pretty motor vessels with about ten feet between us. I had time then to lower the dinghy and get it and other items on the deck out of the way. The welder showed up at five minutes to eight and the welding was done by 8:30. Back on the mooring ball I raised all the fenders and secured them on the safety lines and replaced several cable ties that I had to cut off to move things for the welder. Next, even though there was a bit of breeze, I lowered and folded the staysail and put it in a bag to lower the wind profile. Even though it was tightly furled, high winds could possibly open it up causing it to put a severe strain on the boat and the mooring, or just beat itself to pieces like a flag eventually does. The furling mainsail I have hides behind the mast, plus I also stabilize it by wrapping it with one of my spare halyards. The genoa furls, too, but I have a sleeve that fits over it so it can't possibly unfurl. My dinghy is holding air well and I usually raise it overhead each night, but because stronger winds are expected, I'm going to try to figure a way to stow it safely much lower to create less wind resistance. I need a couple of parts for the newly welded engine mount and they were supposed to arrive by mail today. Mail usually arrives around noon to 1 pm. I purposely waited until about 2:30 to make sure it was here before I went in to get it. No luck there. I had to kill time till after 4 o'clock before it arrived. I could have probably finished the repair if they had arrived at the normal time. As it was, I tried to finish after dark and immediately dropped a small piece in the ocean and gave up for the evening. It was a long day anyway. Tonight we're getting lots of small, fast, strong, rain storms with lots of wind and lightning.

Friday the 13th of August - After I ran the Cruiser's Net this morning I immediately restarted working on the engine mount on the railing. Since I dropped a part overboard last night I had to drill a couple of holes larger in two washers, then get everything fitting smoothly so I wouldn't drop anything else. I got it all together about 1 o'clock, then started getting things put away. The one inch stainless steel tubing that I had to cut had been buried under and behind everything in that half of the forepeak and needed to go back there, so I had to wait until I knew how long it needed to be and made the cut before I could start putting things away. Not only that, but I'd had to get into several tool boxes that were under other items in their compartments, so it took me the rest of the day to get everything back in place so I could move around the boat and sit down in an empty seat again. I was busy and hadn't been keeping up with tropical storm Fred, but about 2 o'clock someone came on the VHF and announced that it has changed directions and we are no longer expected to be in its path. It was supposed to be windy and rainy today, but we got very little of either one they're still predicting a forty to fifty percent chance of rain tomorrow, but that may change, too. Maybe I'll still get a chance to fill my water tank. So far I've only caught about 20 gallons or so. I could use another 100.

Saturday, 14 August - Well, the predictions of rain almost all day here didn't change, but all we've gotten is a few short sprinkles. It looks like we've dodged another big storm. Tropical storm Fred moved to the west overnight and probably won't be bothering us much. Yay! I went to the marina, stuffed a few Cruiser's bags, spent a little time organizing part of the library there, then returned home. Here, I did a small repair on one of the pockets that funnels water off the bimini into water lines to the tank. Finally, about 6 o'clock we really got some 40 mph winds and a good downpour that lasted about a half hour to 45 minutes. I checked the water level in my tank and thought I should have more. Perhaps the filter off the bimini, before going into the tank was clogged, so I replaced the filter. Just a day or two sitting in the sunshine without fresh rainwater passing through seems to grow enough algae to plug it up.

Sunday, 15 August - I announced during Diesel Don's net this morning that I'll be at the marina organizing the library at 2 o'clock and would appreciate some help. If enough people care enough to show up we can get it organized pretty well in two or three hours. It will be interesting to see how many are willing to put in some time. It's been overcast enough lately that the solar panels haven't been able to keep up with my usage of electricity, but it's been windy enough that, by turning on the wind generator, my batteries are still topping up each day.