Saturday, 28 August 2021 - Susie's back home and I'm visiting her. Since she's been out of town for several months there were lots of things at her house that needed attending to. The kayak needed to be removed from in front of the TV and moved to the dock, weeds needed to be pulled out of the flower pots, and for some reason, the GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter) on her back porch had gone bad so we had to go to the hardware store, then replace the old one so the lights and surveillance camera would work again. We were both surprised that her plants had done as well as they did. Her neighbor was to water them, but we didn't have high expectations. The moon vine all died, as did all but one of the morning glories, but her bamboo cane looks great, as does the banana plant. In fact, the banana plant has sprouted a sucker at its base. All but one of the marigolds got eaten by the iguanas and we expected the zinnias to come to the same end. All the zinnias on the back porch are gone, but the ones along the front of her house look great. The big surprise was the frangipani. The had been doing very poorly in the sunshine on the back porch and were leafless stubs. We moved them along with several other plants to the side of the house, which gets less sun, in case of high winds. Now they have grown about a foot each and have up to 16 new, huge, fifteen inch leaves on each stalk. Obviously, they don't need as much sun as they were getting before and Susie will leave them where they are now.

Sunday, 29 August - I'm definitely glad that hurricane Ida missed us, but also feeling sorry for the people in Louisiana that are in her path. It was a beautiful day here and Susie and I were pretty lazy today, but did manage to unload all the stuff from her minivan that she brought back from Ohio. Later, we headed over to Dockside for dinner and music to see how crowded it would be. It's outside seating with lots of fresh air, but still, with the Covid situation as it is ... Well, we had a great night. There weren't too many people there, but the beginning was interesting. Before we got seated, Bruce and Kindra of S/V Southern Cross, who are right next to me in the mooring field called me over. Among other things, Kindra asked me when Susie was coming home. Susie happened to walk up right then and I pointed to her. Kindra immediately stood up to greet her with a hug and Susie, somewhat jokingly said, "I'm not allowed to hug anyone right now, because of the Covid problem, then added, "Have you been vaccinated?" The woman acted as if she'd been insulted and didn't answer, and the conversation was over. Susie said, "Well, I guess I asked the wrong question." I said, "No, you asked exactly the right question." I'm almost positive that Kindra and Bruce have not been vaccinated and they hang out at bars a lot, plus, she's a real hugger. No telling how many people she's been in close contact with. The conversation was quickly, temporarily, forgotten and we had a great time at a table by ourselves but did get to see several other friends that we hadn't seen in quite awhile.

Monday, 30 August - About 11 o'clock this morning Walt called and suggested we cancel ping pong since he needed to go pick up his vehicle from his mechanic. He was expecting a phone call telling him it was ready and wanted to get it as soon as he got the call. We don't play until 3 pm so I said if he got the call soon, he could get it and we could still play at 3, and if not, we could play until he got the call, then go get the car, no problem. Well, guess what. We played from 3 till 4:15 without a call, then at about 4:45 the mechanic called to say it won't be ready until tomorrow. I think that's standard.

Tuesday, 31 August - I took the dinghy in to the docks to meet Owen of S/V Ryan's Freedom, who professes to be an outboard motor repair specialist and expert. At the dock we checked the compression and spark plugs, which I'd already done, although this time the compression indicated 120 psi and last time, with a different gauge, it measured about 100 psi. Then he suggested we take the carburetor off and take it to his shop in a storage area nearby. We did and he drilled out the cap over the main fuel jet screw and checked everything else that he could on the carburetor. He reset the jet at 2 1/2 turns from all the way in and we returned to the marina and reinstalled the carburetor. He later said that that screw should be about 1 1/2 Full Turns out. Upon reinstalling the Carburetor, the engine ran worse than ever. I played with the Pilot Screw and was able to get the dinghy back up on plane with the Pilot Screw 1 1/4 HALF TURNS out from all the way in. The only thing I can imagine about that setting is that, over the last 23 years, that screw, even though capped off to insure it wasn’t inadvertently adjusted, it had vibrated out too far. I, also, suspect that, at some point and somehow, the hole in the Pilot Jet itself, has become enlarged. Otherwise, the setting of 1 1/2 turns out should be correct. I also replaced the Spark Plug Coil that I had added the Silicone to with a spare. Now the engine coughs and dies at low RPMs.

Wednesday, 1 September - I talked with Owen again about the problem with the engine coughing, actually almost like a sneeze, and he immediately said that was caused by the engine running too lean. That made sense, since I had screwed that screw in so far, creating a leaner fuel to air mixture. He said to simply open that up more by backing the screw out a quarter turn at a time until the sneezing quit and I'd be good to go. Since I only had the screw backed out 1 1/8 HALF turns, I took the dinghy out and backed that screw out in only 1/8 turn increments until it quit wheezing, then gave the engine full throttle. It was at one full turn out and right back to where it started, with no power. I gave up, set the screw back to 5/8ths of a turn out so I'll have power and speed in spite of the fact that it may die once in awhile at idle. Again, the only thing I can imagine is that somehow the orifice in the main jet has enlarged, letting too much fuel through. That's not likely, but I can't think of anything else. I'm baffled, as I so easily and frequently am, but I don't feel too bad, everyone else I've discussed it with is too.

Thursday, 2 September - I glued the cloth strip that covers the outside of the zipper on the port dodger window back on. The thread that was used to sew it on had apparently rotted from exposure to the sun and since I don't have a way to re-sew it, I used vinyl glue, which I suspect will do just fine in this instance.

Friday, 3 September - I had a fairly short Cruiser's Net this morning. Shortly after noon I tackled a project I've been putting off for awhile; cleaning the bilge, bilge pump, and bilge pump switch. A while back the Automatic switch hadn't turned itself off. After cleaning it all up today, it seemed to work fine. Perhaps some of the gunk floating in the bilge water had gotten into the float's hinge and kept it from dropping down as it should to turn the switch off.

Saturday, 4 September - Collected seeds from the morning glory and moon vines on her fence that hadn't survived her trip to Ohio, then went in search of a computer table for Susie to use at home at The Nearly New Thrift Store since she got a big, new computer screen. We found something that "might" work, but hope to find something better. Susie had an evening planned to have dinner out with a girlfriend, so she dropped me off back at the marina.

Sunday, 5 September - I came across several facts that would make good trivia questions for the morning net and wrote them down for future use, then spent a little time cleaning up a sea shell that I got awhile back. Susie picked me up later and we had dinner at Dockside but she is so worried about the fact that her Facebook account has been kidnapped and someone is running a business in Tailand through it and appears to be withdrawing money through a Visa account to fund the advertising for it, that we called it a night early and headed home. She can't log onto the account and Facebook apparently has no solution, meaning you can't contact them for help, at least she can't figure out how to do so.

Monday, 6 September - Labor Day - Planted seeds and weeded Susie's driveway. The marina was closed so I couldn't play ping pong today.

Tuesday, 7 September - I modified the batten that is inside the pocket on the starboard quarter of the bimini top water catchment system because it still wasn't staying open enough to catch all the water running off the bimini top.

Wednesday, 8 September - I played ping pong with Walt at the marina today, returned to the boat and put the dinghy up on the davits just in time to have Jay Klassen call me from the marina in distress. Tami couldn't get their dinghy started to go pick him up at the dock when he returned from work and he needed a ride out to their boat, S/V Avigna.

Thursday, 9 September - Tami Shelton and I went out in my dinghy today just beyond West Sister Rock, a small island off the south shore of Boot Key to spearfish and catch lobsters. That area seems to, indeed, be overfished. We came home empty handed, but in the process discovered that my Yamaha engine has reverted to not only dying at low RPMs, but won't put the dinghy on a plane, either. I had half of the fish that Tami gave me on Tuesday for dinner and it was Deeeelicious.

Friday, 10 September - Fifth anniversary of hurricane Irma hitting Marathon and Boot Key Harbor. I ran the Cruiser's Net this morning then, once again, totally disassembled the carburetor on the Yamaha outboard motor, blew out all every orifice and made a near disastrous mistake. I took the fuel pump off the carburetor and disassembled it. The fuel pump has three very thin gaskets or membranes in it and I had one of those and the metal cover plate laying on my left thigh. When I blew into the carburetor with an air hose, the wind was deflected back toward me and blew one of the gaskets into the water. I saw it blow away with the corner of my eye and whirled to get it. It was about six inches under water and I reached in to get it, but it being so thin, it slipped through my fingers. I could still see it even though it was now deeper, so I grabbed for it again...and again. Now it was gone and I realized that I couldn't use that engine until I could order another gasket or carburetor rebuild kit. Not good. How could I be so stupid?
                    Wait! I have some gasket material onboard. It's one of those things in the database that I brought from home realizing I might or might not ever use. Dad had it. It's probably 50 years old. Great, I'll use that. It's mil spec. To what spec I don't know, but at least it's worth a try. Forty five minutes later, after checking the database to see where it was stored, I had another perfect gasket made and installed. I was super lucky that the aluminum cover plate didn't fall into the water with the gasket as I turned to grab it. I hadn't even missed it until I saw it laying in the bottom of the dinghy as I started reassembling the carburetor. That would have been much harder to re-manufacture. Anyway, I got it all back together, the engine started, and took it out for a trial run. After some adjustments, it seemed to run fine, put the dinghy up on plane...and still cough at low speeds. I put the cover back on the engine and the boat wouldn't plane anymore. I took the engine cover off...and it still won't plane. Baffled again.

Saturday, 11 September - Twentieth anniversary of destruction of the Twin Towers. Susie and I went sailing on S/V Avigna with Tami Shelton and Jay Klassen. Tom and Kim from S/V Barefoot were also along and we all helped fly the modified four-line traction kite on their boat for the first time. It was a chance for all of us to see how to, and not to, rig and fly that sail. Just rigging it was quite a feat. Thank goodness Jay knew where all the lines needed to go and how and where all the blocks needed to be. We had some good moments with it flying perfectly and others where we just couldn't control in and didn't know why. I think, however, that we all learned a lot and that a second attempt will be much better. All in all, at least for Tom, Kim, Susie, and I, it was a very relaxing and enjoyable day. Fortunately for the four of us, about all we had to do was haul in and let out a line each while Tami steered through the lobster pots and Jay raise, lowered, and adjusted sails with the winches when the traction kite wasn't up all day. I'm sure he slept well that night. We had raised the sail and sailed down wind quite a way, then doused it and brought it back on deck safely with the intention of sailing back upwind and trying it all again, but the wind picked up and remained too strong to fly that light sail again. Maybe another day. It was a wonderful day on the water. Snacks on the boat, then dinner at Spark's Restaurant across the street from Susie's later.

Sunday, 12 September - It rained all day while we were at Susie's, but not terribly hard, but when I returned to the dinghy it had several inches of water in it. I wish I'd foreseen that and re-rigged the water catchment system.

Monday, 13 September - I spent much of today reading my boat's insurance policy and going over the rate changes that have occurred over the last several years. For some reason they unilaterally dropped the agreed value of it by $18,000 dollars this year, but other portions of the rates have been raised so that I still paid more. I was also notified by Jay Klassen, who also has insurance through Geico, that the company probably won't renew our policies when the renewal date comes up. That's not good news. Apparently, Geico only wants to insure newer, cheaper boats from now on. I checked online to see how well CSY's are holding their value and they seem to be doing fine. It rained a bit again today and I caught about 12 or 15 gallons of water.

Tuesday, 14 September - I went to a dive shop today to get a new regulator hose for my hookah setup. I had broken off one of the connectors on Saturday as I changed the hookah's dive hose so I could use it with a nozzle for blowing out the carburetor. The hose is only about three feet long but I still spent $35 on it and two bronze connectors. Back at the boat I reinstalled the parts so I can use the hookah to clean the bottom of the boat again.

Wednesday, 15 September - I'm amazed at how much time I end up spending online trying to find things these days. Well, I shouldn't say it that way. It's easy to find things. I just typed in "carburetor rebuild kit for Yamaha 63V-14301-00 and got several hundred possibilities, all different, ranging from $26 to about $120. None of them looks like what I would need to rebuild my carburetor. Finally, after a couple of months of trying to determine exactly what Yamaha engine I have, I believe I've done it. I found a site that lists Yamaha International parts lists and have ordered a head gasket and several individual parts for my carburetor's fuel pump. I became convinced that the carburetor itself is not the problem I'm having with the engine not running properly and the membranes and gaskets in the fuel pump look like they've seen better days. We'll see.

Thursday, 16 September - Since I'm on a boat in a small town and the grocery store here doesn't carry bulk foods in bins, like the items you'd find in trail mix, I spent a couple of hours on Ebay and Amazon thinking I might just order online and save some money. Wrong. After looking for several items, I double checked the local store and found one item that was listed on Amazon at $24.12 was for sale here at Publix grocery store for $13.89 online, which is more expensive than their in-store pricing. I decided to forego any hope of saving money on online food delivery, even if you do get "free" shipping.

Friday, 17 September - I ran a 40 minute Cruiser's Net this morning, then started trying to figure out how much I needed to send to the IRS for my, late, 15 September quarterly payment. I finally got it sent off at 3:30 this afternoon. I don't mind paying my share of the tax burden, but I sure hate figuring them out. Since we're only required to do them four times a year, and at intervals that vary from one month to 5 months, I totally forget how to do them. I make notes and expand upon the notes each time, but months later, I either forget that I have the notes or I forget how to find them in the computer. I'm going to Susie's this evening and get to meet her brother over dinner. He came to Florida to go visit the Dry Tortugas this last week.