Sunday, 17 October - Susie's back from celebrating her mother's birthday in Ft. Lauderdale with family! Yay! Dinner and dancing at Dockside.

Monday, 18 October - The termite exterminators that I contacted several weeks ago never returned my call so I called them again today. The fellow said they'd be in touch near the end of this week to make arrangements for an inspector / estimator to meet me at the dock so I can bring him out to the boat. Ping pong at three.

Tuesday, 19 October - I've seen an adult, and shortly thereafter, several baby German cockroaches onboard, so today I mixed up some honey roasted Peter Pan peanut butter and boric acid for them to feast on. I wouldn't want them to starve.

Wednesday, 20 October - A pretty frustrating day. The termite exterminator finally returned my call and wants me to take Island Time to the dock on Saturday. It would be a lot easier to pick the estimator at the dock and bring him here with a five minute ride in the dinghy. I had tried to contact them about a month ago when my hull and propellor were clean. Now it needs to be done again and I don't have time to do it today. The next several days are predicted to be pretty rainy and windy. I'll have to figure out a way to keep the generator dry while I dive on the hull. I could put it in the cockpit, but that would put it pretty close to the intake for the air compressor. I might kill myself with carbon monoxide. The exterminator wanted some photos of the boat and the email appeared to not send, but after about an hour, during which I was trying to contact my domain name server, Web Intellects, the email finally went out. This blog episode continues to grow longer, too, because I can't upload the file to my server. Web Intellects, supposedly because of Covid-19, currently has no phone support and, I just discovered, their "chat" line isn't operable, either. I tried to open a service ticket with them last Friday, but haven't heard back from them at all. I tried again today. No response.
                    Dealing with the email really slowed me down and this afternoon I realized that I really have to get the bottom cleaned; at least the propeller and hopefully, the rudder, if not the whole thing. I left a phone message for Tom Crank of Dependable Divers, hoping he can squeeze me in. Shortly after that, I realized that I have scuba tanks that I might be able to use for the air instead of the generator and compressor. I took a look at my gear and needed some different connectors to attach the hookah hose to the tanks. I went to MDEA Divers and acquired the connectors for $38 then returned to the boat. I checked the air tanks' air pressure and found that one is empty even though I haven't used it since refilling. There's a leak there somewhere, but one tank will let me clean most of the boat, I'm sure. Shortly after that realization, Tom Crank called and said he'd find a way to work me in, so I'm off the hook for that. I'll play with the hookah/air tank setup sometime when it's not so critical/rainy.

Thursday, 21 October - Contact with exterminator and he said we'd need to find a time that I can get Friday and Saturday night dockage at a marina and that he can be there to gas the boat. That will be more difficult now that more boats are arriving from up north. This afternoon I spent some time refreshing my memory of OpenCPN charting program using the Bad Elf GPS and adding to and updating my inventory database.

Friday, 22 October - I got the hull cleaned and moved the boat back to mooring ball M-6 since they repaired the mooring. I finally received response from Web Intellects, my domain name server, but they didn't give me a solution to my problem.

Saturday, 23 October - I went to a meeting of about 15 concerned boaters at the city marina's tiki hut and we discussed ways to mark the harbor's two seagrass flats with buoys to keep newcomers to the harbor from running aground as they come in. The harbor master, the Coast Guard, nor the Florida Wildlife Service will take responsibility for marking the flats properly so we are going to do something ourselves. The city marina has just replaced about 8 or 10 big buoys and about 50 mooring balls, but the harbor master doesn't want the "responsibility" of letting us acquire them for our purposes. One of the members of the group said he'd look into going over his head and talking to the city manager about getting them. These buoys are large and would be a bit of overkill for marking the dinghy channel through the grass flats, but, even though they'd take some cleaning up, would be a lot less money than the alternative, buoys from West Marine that cost $130 each.
                    Susie bought tickets to the local playhouse and we went there to see several short skits similar to the ones you'd see on the old Carol Burnett Show, They were very funny and enjoyable.

Sunday, 24 October - Susie needs a way to keep her dog from accessing part of her small property part of the time so we went to Home Depot and bought some flexible fencing, a couple of downs, and some wire and came back to her house and made an easily removable gate. I need to bring some small, non-stretch line from the boat on Tuesday to hold the top and bottom edges taught so the dog can't either pull it down if she puts her front feet on the upper edge or crawl under it at the bottom.

Monday, 25 October - I don't have a clue what I did on this day. I must not have accomplished much.

Tuesday, 26 October - I went out on deck this morning to open the pump-out cap and noticed that hundreds of mangrove propagules were floating by the boat. Propagules are pods produced by the mangroves that hang from the limbs, then, when mature, drop into the water to drift away until they arrive in water shallow enough to take root. A local group is collecting them to transplant along shorelines throughout the Caribbean that need to be protected from erosion. Lots of young fish hide among the mangrove roots to avoid the larger fish, too. While I was scooping up some of the propagules with a net, I saw a small shark several times that seemed interested in the commotion that I was creating. He was so light in color that I thought he might be white. Very unusual.

Wednesday, 27 October - I guess my problems with the Yamaha outboard aren't over yet. It was hard to start this morning so I took its cover off and reset the pilot screw on the main jet, then took it out for a test run. Again, it wouldn't get the dinghy up on a plane. It's frustrating. I adjusted the carburetor until it would plate up, put the cover back on it, and then it wouldn't plane again. I tried numerous settings, but never could get it right. I'm starting to suspect the fuel now because I'm all of other explanations.

Thursday, 28 October - I went kayaking through the mangrove trails with Thomas Slezeviscous of the sleek S/V Sputnik and his friend today. Before leaving I had noticed a liquid on the floorboards under the galley sink. I thought I must have a leaking bottle of fluids, so I put them into the sink for the day and left the cabinet open so the floor could dry. Upon returning, there was more fluid on the floor. In reality, the sinks drain was leaking. I tightened the nut under the sink but that didn't stop the leak. I'll have to get new gaskets and renew the plumber's putty; an easy job in a house, but not so easy here. The bottom of the drain is actually right at or below sea level, so if I take it apart, the sea can rush in. There is a seacock on that line in the engine room. I'll have to close that first, but I'm sure there will still be plenty of water spilled out of the pipes and hoses when I remove the drain. Since Susie and I are going to Key West this weekend, I think I'll put this off until the beginning of next week. Tomorrow I have to renew the registration on the boat and dinghy.
                    It looks like we may be in for a wet, windy night. A slow moving cold front is just north of us and I see lots of lightning off to the north, too.

Friday, 29 October - I renewed the Florida registration on both the dinghy and Island Time today, then rode my bike to Home Depot and bought two new sink drains for the galley sink.

Saturday, 30 October - My birthday, and boy was it ever great. The first part, not so great, but after that it took off like a rocket. We left Marathon about 7:40AM expecting to arrive in Kew West around 9AM. We got about 30 minutes away and the traffic stopped. We sat there for about an hour and a half. We had just come off the west end of Seven Mile Bridge when we hit the end of a line of traffic, then watched in the rear view mirror as traffic backed up out of site on the bridge, where we could see about 4 miles back. A semi had hit a small car head on and, obviously, the small car lost the battle. Susie treated me to a luxurious weekend at Fantasy Fest in Key West. In case you don't know, Fantasy Fest is similar to Mardi Gras, except instead of wearing extremely ornate, expensive, costumes that took a year to create, thousands of people fill the streets to show off how little clothing they can wear. Every kind of "outfit" imaginable is on display from fancy to totally naked, only if you're totally naked, you have to have some kind of "suit" panted on your body; and many of those, you can't tell if it's clothing or paint...and, of course, there's every age group and body type from awesome to "ought to be outlawed." Neither of us had been to Fantasy Fest before and both of us wished we'd been to it every year we've been in Florida. We quickly discovered that the best way to take in the scenery was to simply find a good spot, stand there and let the parade come to us. Not only that, but nobody was shy, they all wanted their picture take. What a scene! I really tried to get Susie to join in the fun and take her clothes off, but she wouldn't go for it, but then, neither did I. I think I saw more naked boobs and awesome tushes (and horrible ones, too) this weekend than I have in my whole previous lifetime put together. The mansion we stayed at was absolutely beautiful, too. I was built in 1892, with lots of gingerbread and heavy solid wood doors throughout, and lots of beautiful, ornate furniture, chandeliers, and very detailed, hand carved woodwork everywhere. They had a "free" happy hour in the evening and very good, to order, breakfast in the morning. Not only that, but we were only 57 steps from Duval Street, where all the action is.

Sunday, 31 October - Halloween - While in Key West, we not only took in the "parade of thousands" of Fantasy Fest, but had some great meals, saw the Customs House art exhibits, and the Butterfly Conservatory where thousands of butterflies of many different types and colors flutter by you constantly. They also had an Atlas Moth that has a wingspan of about 10 inches, Flamingoes, ducks, turtles, tiny Chinese quail, and lots of very small, bright yellow, incredibly purple, and vibrant blue birds; none of which, I am sure, eat seeds, not butterflies. After arriving home, we went trick or treating, kind of. Marathon has a section of town that everyone is invited to come to to trick or treat. Susie and I just went to see the kids and their costumes. We bought a bunch of candy to donate to the cause, then had dinner at one of the houses that serves the adults and had a DJ blasting music for everyone to enjoy. After that we walked around the neighborhood to see the decorations. Some of the houses had really gone all out to celebrate the occasion. After that, we headed over to Dockside for some music and dancing. We were totally surprised, after dancing one dance, to hear some calling my name. It was Roland and Leta Kok, friends that we've always enjoyed that had just arrived back it the harbor for the winter.