Sunday, 20 November 2021 - First of all, let me apologize for the delay in posting this episode, which I have been trying to post ever since 16 October, and number 250, too. My domain server, Web Intellects, by technical necessity, moved my web files to a new server. Since then, I haven't been able to connect to that server to update or add to the files. They had, because of Covid-19, ceased phone support, their text "chat" was unreliable, and their email support has been virtually useless. I have now finally been able to find a work-around on my own by trying six or seven other FTP programs and changing the FTP program that I'd been using for years, and will, I'm sure, soon be moving my site to another domain server that has much better customer support. Thanks for your patience.

Saturday, 18 September 2021 - Susie wanted to take me to a thrift store today and when we got there she said we needed to get me a bathing suit because we were going to go to a swimming pool at a spa where she recently bought a membership. We found no swimming suit for me there so I suggested that we simply go back to my boat and I'd get one. Before getting there I received a text message from Kate on S/V Mendocino Queen letting me know that someone had been trying to hail me on the VHF radio. I called the guy and got a very pleasant surprise. He was trying to contact me about a ParaTech Sea Anchor that I've been trying to sell for $350 on the Cruiser's Net each morning for about four years. Susie and I went to the boat, got my bathing suit and the sea anchor and met the fellow at the dinghy dock. We opened it for him to inspect, then sold it on the spot. Yay! One less item onboard simply taking up space. I had purchased it after hurricane Irma at one of our marina swap meets for $200 not realizing it was too small for my boat. The spa we went to has an oceanside beach two swimming pools, a workout room and other amenities. We each mixed ourselves a drink to take to the pool since they don't have a bar, then swam and relaxed for about 2 hours before coming home and spending the evening at Susie's.

Sunday, 19 September - We had a relaxing morning then Susie asked me what we should do. I suggested we replace the bulb in her front porch light before we do anything else, which brings up a question. How long does it take a retired photographer to replace a light bulb. Answer, about an hour and a half. The bulb that had burned out was probably original from when the house was built and everything about it was terribly corroded, so much so that I couldn't figure out how to get it apart. My first assumption was the finial at the lamp's top, but it wouldn't turn, so I assumed it was something else. There appeared to be a retaining spring or clip at the top but visibility through the glass was poor so I wasn't sure. I tried unclipping it with a screwdriver and a slim scraper, but couldn't. Okay, there were six nuts on the bottom. We could unscrew those and get it apart. No I couldn't. Back to the spring clip. I finally got the top to move enough to realize that it wasn't a clip. Okay, back to the finial. I prayed it wouldn't break and forced it to turn. The finial finally turned and we were in. I reached in and unscrewed the bulb...but the base stayed in the socket. With needle-nose pliers, after about 15 minutes, I got the base out, Susie put grease on the base of the new bulb and I reassembled the lamp, then flipped the switch. Yahoo! Let there be light. Dinner and dancing at Dockside.

Monday, 20 September - I spent most of today examining my insurance policy for the boat, then called the insurance company, GEICO, to see why they have dropped the value of Island Time by $18,000 for this year. According to what I see CSY's for sale, she't held her price well, but they say I need to get her surveyed to verify that. They also told me that next year they won't insure her at all. They have decided to only insure much newer, less expensive boats, so I'll have to change insurers by a year from now which means I'll need to get a survey anyway. Any new insurance company is going to want a recent survey. I think I also got my account with BoatUS and West Marine squared away, They had me down for two accounts where I should only have one.

Tuesday, 21 September - It rained on the weekend, so when Susie dropped me off back at the marina yesterday morning my dinghy had about 6 inches of water in it so I expected my water tank on the boat to be almost full but it had barely caught any water at all, so I blew out the lines and cleaned the filter. Actually, I couldn't find any reason for the failure, so the next rain should prove enlightening. Susie and I had dinner at Dockside and danced a few dances.

Wednesday, 22 September - It rained this morning and I caught about 30 gallons of water, so my cleaning of the system apparently did do some good. It quit raining just in time to go play ping-pong with Walt Avery on S/V Gloaming.

Thursday, 23 September - I spent virtually all day today trying to learn the mechanics of simple options trading online but I did spend a little time trying, once again to figure out how to make a more comfortable seat at the helm. That's one feature on a CSY that is lacking. The cockpit on a CSY walk-over is so deep that if I sit on the bench behind the wheel, I can't see the water in front of the boat. I have to stand for that or move to the, preferably, starboard cockpit coaming to see. That's fine if I have the autopilot engaged, but if I don't, I have to stand at the binnacle and wheel. That's fine when the lobster pots and crab pots aren't out, but they are in the water for more than half of the year, so I have to be at the wheel almost constantly to dodge them.

Friday, 24 September - Susie managed to get away a bit early this evening and we had dinner in the open air at Havana Jack's Restaurant and listened to Randy, Bob Yeager, and Bongo Bob play while we had the dance floor to ourselves. It's a beautiful setting with the sun setting in the west and the ocean in front of us.

Saturday, 25 September - Susie and I went to the Marathon Air Museum today, a small but interesting museum. The docent there owns and flies one of the planes on display so he was very knowledgeable about not only his plane, but almost anything on display there. Very interesting. After that, fish dinner (snapper) ordered to go from the Key Colony Inn and a movie at Susie's.

Sunday, 26 September - Susie's family companies are going through several employee changes and their bank just changed its software, so Susie is having to relearn some of the software that she hasn't used in quite awhile along with the bank's new software so she can catch up where employees left off and run some reports that she's not used to, so she needed to work on that today. Unfortunately, after several hours of trying, she still couldn't make the software run that report so she'll have to try again tomorrow. She had planned to drive me up to Miami tomorrow, but if running than report takes more than about two hours, we won't have enough time to make the run.

Monday, 27 September - As expected, Susie's report took too long so we didn't make it to Miami today. Instead, I used JB Waterweld to plug the lower holes in the transom of my dinghy that hold the 360°: light on and drilled two more about four inches higher, above the waterline.

Tuesday, 28 September - Susie was extremely generous with her time today and drove me the 120 miles to the Miami VA and back just so I could spend five minutes in front of someone that asked me to show them my driver's license, ask me my address, and took my picture for a new VA ID. We left at 11 am and got back around 6 pm. Seven hours for a five minute appointment, but without the new ID I won't be allowed to go to my next VA appointment in Key West next Wednesday. I hope that new ID arrives via the USPS in time. I see the USPS has decided to now allow some First Class mail to take five days to be delivered. When we got back, we took quick showers and went to Dockside for dinner and dancing. There was a nice breeze and the temperatures have already started to cool down, so it was a really nice evening.

Wednesday, 29 September - I recently suggested on the morning Cruiser's Net that it would be nice if we could get enough people to pitch in and buy a drill press for the shop at the marina. I was going to check at the marina office to see if we'd had any donations, but when I walked into the shop to play ping pong I saw the workbench had a brand new Ryobi drill press, still in the box, sitting on it. There were a couple of boaters working on outboard motors there so I asked if they knew who brought it in. They didn't, so I went to the office and asked Sean, the manager. He said that it was someone he didn't know and that isn't on a mooring ball or even in the harbor, but that he posts on the Boot Key Harbor Cruiser's Facebook page about wanting to help with harbor matters. This is truly a great community. He apparently listens to the morning net and heard me ask for donations. I'm pretty sure it is Mike Grady that has a powerboat on the other side of the island and is on the Cruiser's Net occasionally.T hat drill press cost him $170 and he doesn't even get to use it. Wow!

Thursday, 30 September - There was more proof that this is a great community today. I wanted to buy a drill press vise to go with the new drill press so I went to Home Depot to get one. While there, one of the other boaters, Jason on S/V Windy, came by and saw I was looking at one to see what hardware I would need to attach it to the drill press and he volunteered to save me the money by donating one that he has. I bought a few nuts and bolts to bolt the drill press down on the bench, then returned to the marina, opened the box and assembled and bolted the press to the work bench. I'll have to return when the other boater, Jason, brings me the vise.

Friday, 1 October 2021 - I made a stainless steel retention cable for the chuck key for the drill press today to keep anyone from walking away with it, intentionally or not. While there I had hoped to reach Jason of S/V Windy who had volunteered a drill press vise yesterday so I could attach it to the drill press, but I couldn't reach him. Ten minutes after I got back to my boat his girl friend came by Island Time and delivered it. Oh, well! Bad timing, but, later, when I opened the box there was not only the drill press vise, but a heat gun, high speed sander, and a belt sander in the box. I messaged him to make sure it wasn't a mistake, and it wasn't.

Saturday and Sunday, 2 and 3 October - Susie and I had a great weekend doing a whole lot of nothing. Eggs, toast, fruit, and fish fillet for breakfast and Dockside for dinner and dancing.

Monday, 4 October - I put the drill press vise in a pan and filled it with about 15% acetic acid to remove the rust that has frozen it up, along with some chain and a couple of chain hooks that also needed the rust removed. I'll let them soak until they quit bubbling and the rust is gone. The parts that I needed to repair the fuel pump on the Yamaha outboard motor came in today and I picked them up after playing ping pong with Walt Avery. I installed them back at the boat and am happy to announce that I do believe the problem of low rpm coughing and dying and full throttle inability to put the dinghy on plane has been resolved. Finally! Yay!

Tuesday, 5 October - I thought overnight soaking would get all the rust off of the metal in the acid, but that wasn't enough, so I'll let them go another day. Late in the day I received my new VA Medical ID so I can go to my appointment in Key West tomorrow. Dinner and dancing at Dockside's Country Jam night.

Wednesday, 6 October - Susie drove me to the Naval Air Base at Boca Chica near Key West to get a background check that is needed to enter the medical facility at Key West. That went pretty well and I had an appointment to have blood drawn and give a urine sample for my annual checkup at Key West. The background check went so quickly that we arrived in Key West an hour early, gave my samples, then headed to #0 Duval Street for breakfast overlooking the sea and ship channel. Susie is a much better cook than the chef at that expensive restaurant. My toast, eggs, and bacon were all over cooked. We still arrived back at Boot Key Harbor in time for me to play ping pong with Walt Avery. It was too late in the afternoon to clean up the vise, chain, and other parts. As soon as they are cleaned up, rinsed, and dried, they'll need to be painted to keep the rust from returning. Otherwise, they'll start to rust within minutes.

Thursday, 7 October - I defrosted the freezer this morning then started the final cleanup on a short piece of chain, three chain hooks used on the ground tackle, and the drill press vise. The chain and hooks have gone well, although the spray-on zinc coating is barely better than nothing. The vise has most of the rust dissolved but I still can't get the spindle on it to turn. I'm starting to get impatient with it. Had I known that it would take most of the week to clean up, I would have been tempted to just buy the new one at Home Depot.

Friday, 8 October - I got the drill press vise and four chain hooks cleaned up and repainted. To get the vise cleaned up, I had to dig out my big vise to hold the drill press vise, then use my propane torch to heat the part of the vise that surrounds the spindle or screw until it was red hot to make it expand, then it finally broke loose. I was really surprised that neither the acetic acid nor penetrating oil would loosen it. I could have saved a lot of time by heating it first.

Saturday, 9 October - Since Susie has to leave early tomorrow morning to meet her sister, mother, and cousin in Ft. Lauderdale to celebrate her mother's 89th birthday, she brought me home early so she had the rest of the day to prepare and pack. I continued the restoration of the drill press vise and cleaned up the boat a bit.

Sunday, 10 October - I joined a small group of kayakers this morning to take a quick trip through the Boot Key mangrove trails. I cut the trip a bit short, separated from the group and got back by noon so I could go to the marina workshop to finish the drill press vise. I had to make a couple of nuts to go on the wing screws that mount the vise to the baseplates of the drill since I've bolted the drill press to the work bench. Bolting the drill down removes the possibility of accessing the bottom to install nuts or bolts for the vise. The nuts needed to be 9/16ths of an inch wide and about two inches long to fit through the slotted base and drilled and tapped to 1/4-20 threads. The drill and vise came in very handy making those. I finished that just in time to play ping pong with Walt Avery today since the marina will be closed on Monday for Columbus Day.

Monday, 11 October - Columbus Day - I spent much of today cleaning the rust off of and putting tools away and I added several pictures of sailing on Avigna to my last episode. There's a link to that episode near the bottom of this page with a link to the photos at the bottom of that page.

Tuesday, 12 October - After having mentioned to Jay Klassen that I'd never even opened the video app on my laptop, today I decided to compile and edit all the video and still photos that Susie and I shot while sailing with Jay and Tami a few weeks ago. Since I'd never used the app, it took awhile to learn and make an eight minute video. I'm not saying it's great, but it's not too bad. Unfortunately, the eight minute video is 1.2 Gb in size. I'm not sure I can get it onto iCloud to link to in this blog. I know I can't do it from the boat using my data...Later, I was able to add that to the photos of the last episode. There's a link to that episode below. Be aware, that video is only 8 minutes long but is 1.2 GB in size.

Wednesday, 13 October - I did some more stitching on water catchment pocket that I did a couple of weeks ago. The pocket still didn't stay open enough after the previous repair. I also replaced two washers that I had used on the U-bolt on the outboard motor mounting bracket a few weeks ago. At the time, I couldn't find a double washer onboard, but recently did.

Thursday, 14 October - I had my annual physical checkup in Key West this morning. There was good news and bad news. The bad news is that I'm going to die. The good news is that it will probably take another thirty years or so. My previous primary care physician has retired, so the interview today, which involved going over the results from my lab tests from last weeks trip, was done by a doctor in Houston via a video link. I could have done that while at the marina via the internet; no travel involved. The only thing I think I really gained was the opportunity to get this year's flu shot. I didn't even feel the needle go in my arm. For some reason, my potassium level is a tiny bit high and she wanted me to get another blood test done. The lab, which is right there, didn't want to do it today, so I would need to make another trip, so I said, "No Thanks." We'll just check it next year. My body must be good at retaining potassium because I don't eat many fresh green vegetables. Is there a lot of potassium in Margaritas?

Friday, 15 October - Since I'm running low on food and the freezer is frosty again, I defrosted the freezer this morning then walked to the grocery store, bought groceries, and took a cab back to the marina.

Saturday, 16 October - I had, half heartedly, planned on cleaning the bottom of the boat today but I got a reprieve. Some city north and east of us is dumping enough fecal material into the ocean that Key Largo and the beach here in Marathon, Sombrero Beach, and all points in between I assume, have warnings to stay out of the water. I'll take that to mean the harbor, too. I'll put off getting in the water to clean the boat for a while longer and hope that the situation gets better soon, not worse. Since I opted out of that, I decided to add the dried fruits that I bought yesterday to the bulk cereals that I bought about 5 years ago knowing that large bags would be impossible to purchase further south than Ft. Meyers Beach. Food stores down here are too small to carry everything a big city store can. I like mixing several cereals together with what most people would call gorp or trail mix. That way I'm benefiting from not one single grain. Today I mixed in cereals made from oats, wheat, rice, and barley with dried fruits that included cranberries, cherries, raisins, and a few other things like peanuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, and ginger. All together it tastes way better than just a one cereal meal and I'm sure it's way better for me, too. I mixed it all up in a Tupperware container that holds about 3 gallons, should last me about a month, and I still have the ingredients to make up about two more batches.
                    Well, I'd planned on sending this post out today, but it's not going to happen. my FTP program doesn't connect with the server my site is on. Web Intellects, because of Covid 19 has all their support team working from home and, although I emailed them and got a response, probably automated, I haven't heard a peep out of them even though the response said, "We are working on it now." I may not hear from them until Monday...or later...if at all.