Thursday, 1 December - The snowbird pickleballers have started returning from up north. We had about 15 people show up to play today. Afterwards, I returned to the boat, installed the new registration stickers on the dinghy and boat, then continued moving everything that had to be moved for the boatyard work back into place. I reinstalled the cover for the life raft and the sunshade at the aft of the cockpit and many of the books and glassware and small items that go in the saloon cabinetry, but there's still a lot to replace. I also ordered two new replacement springs for the hatches and a new seat post and head and tail lights for my bicycle online. In the evening, I finished reading Fredrick Marryat's "Mr. Midshipman Easy".

Friday, 2 December - We had a good showing at pickleball again today. Almost every game I played had a very lopsided score. Phil and I couldn't seem to make any of our shots in the first game and we got beaten 11 to 1. In my next two games my partner and I won 11 to 0. It was very windy which really blows the pickle (whiffle) ball around but that wasn't the only reason I was missing my shots in the first game. Two or three of the other games I played today still had lopsided scores, but not as bad.
                    I returned to the boat, added more refrigerant to the 12V refrigerator, put many things away, and drilled and mounted two brackets to stabilize the vertical divider in the anchor locker in place. As I was closing that compartment up I realized that the two screws on one of its hinges were pulling out. I removed one screw and as I tried to remove the other, the head broke off of it leaving the shaft of the screw in the wood. That's a project for another day.
                    At 5 o'clock Phil and Carol texted for us to meet them at the Florida Steak and Lobster so I called Susie, who was taking a nap after having returned from her week of radiation treatment, and told her to meet me at the restaurant, then I hustled to clean up to meet her. We finished up the evening at Overseas Pub next door.

Saturday, 3 December - Susie and I ran some errands. We went to Home Depot for a couple of large, square planter pots, Publix for some bananas and an apple for breakfast, and to Specialty Hardware for a special drill bit to drill around the broken screw in my anchor locker hatchway. Specialty Hardware has changed hands after many years being owned by a couple that knew everything in the store, how to use it, and where to find it. The three people in the store today didn't have a clue about any item I needed. What a shame.
                    Dinner and dancing this evening at Havana Jacks.

Sunday, 4 December - I helped Susie repot a large aloe vera plant today and later we spent the evening dancing at Dockside.

Monday, 5 December - We had 23 or more pickleball players this morning and for the first time, I believe, I didn't stay until the last game had been played. At about 11 o'clock I got a call from the Curt Johnson, the rigger at Keys Rigging saying that there would be a spot at the boatyard quay at 1:30 and that I should come to reinstall the genoa. I had had trouble raising the sail before and had had them climb the mast the day we took the boat out of the water so that they could correct any problem. We needed to reinstall it to see if a problem still existed and Curt was not feeling well the day we put the boat back in the water. Since I had left the gauges on the refrigeration over the weekend, I needed to remove them to start the engine to go to the boatyard. I returned to the boat, removed the gauges, put things away, reinstalled the steering wheel, prepared docking lines, and dropped the mooring lines about 1:15. Reinstalling went well and I was back on the mooring ball about 3 o'clock. The refrigerant pressure had dropped from 10 pounds of pressure on the low pressure side of the compressor to 16 pounds of vacuum. I really need to find that leak but have tried every way I know several times. I also need to get new lettering made for the stern and bows on the boat. The name had to be removed to paint the dark blue stripe around the top of the topsides, so I spent some time searching my computer for the, or a similar, font for the lettering so I can tell the sign maker exactly what I want when I order it.

Tuesday, 6 December - After pickleball today I immediately got to work repairing the holes for the hinge on the hatch for the anchor locker. I used the 1/4" bung cutter that I purchased at Specialty Hardware on Saturday, which is a very special drill bit that cuts a 7/16" hole but has a 1/4" hole in its center. I used that to cut out around the broken screw that was still in the bulkhead (wall) by putting the hole in the drill bit around the broken screw and drilling the 7/16" hole around it. I then glued a 7/16" hardwood dowel back into the hole and will let the glue cure overnight.

Wednesday, 7 December - Pearl Harbor Day - Since I can't find the leak in my refrigeration, I stayed onboard long enough this morning to ask for help on the morning Cruiser's Net. The Net starts at 9 AM each morning but I've been leaving for pickleball for the past summer season in order to arrive at the courts by nine o'clock. Diesel Don suggested I call Onboard Rigging for the job. I had assumed by their name that the are simply riggers, but apparently, they do wiring, refrigeration repairs, work on engines, and just about anything else needed on a boat. I called their number but their answering machine was full so I simply left a call back number and went to play pickleball. They haven't returned my call yet.
                    After pickleball I talked to Tom and Kim of S/V Barefoot and discovered that, although from my boat the harbor mooring balls seem to be full, there are indeed many empty moorings left. The mooring ball that I have just been assigned is quite far from the marina and appears to have been skipped over this summer during the cleaning and inspection. Thot makes me wonder if it needs repair so I talked to the office and asked for a different ball. It so happened that my old ball, M-6, was available so I said I'd take it. I returned to the boat to prepare to move and called Phil Vachon for help moving but he didn't answer the phone so I called Roland Kok. The reason I required help is that it's quite windy today and the distance to the new ball is short and as soon as I drop the lines from the ball I'm on I must quickly return to the wheel and start moving before I hit a nearby boat as Island Time drifts back., This might not give me time as I zig-zag through the other boats to prepare the mooring lines again to attach to the new ball. I might have been able to do it myself, but having Roland aboard arrange the lines and pick up the new ball's pennant truly reduced the anxiety for me.
                    Once I had returned Roland to his boat I finished the repair of the anchor hatch by cutting off the extruding down that I glued in, pre-drilled the holes for the screws, then held the hatch in place with my foot and screwed the hinges back onto the bulkhead. That worked out fine and I'm sure it will last for several more years now.

Thursday, 8 December - I had to quit pickleball a bit early today to listen to a conference call about a stock I own, RECAF. When that call was over I went to the marina, traded my recently acquired tag for the dinghy showing my ball number to be "U4" for a new tag for "M6", since I moved the boat yesterday back to the mooring ball that I had before I took Island Time to the marina about 9 weeks ago. This afternoon I finally managed to get the last of the large items in the boat back into place and am able to access my tools and all the parts of the boat again. There's still lots of small items out of place and my mainsail and staysail still need to be reinstalled, plus the refrigeration needs to be repaired. I've called Onboard Rigging, who I am told repairs refrigeration, but they don't return my calls, so this evening I accessed their website and emailed them telling about my problem. I hope they get back to me soon. I'm totally out of fresh food and have nowhere to put any that I might buy until the refrigeration is fixed.

Friday, 9 December - Susie finally finished her radiation treatments today in Miami and returned home. We certainly hope that's the last she had to deal with it. I think she's pretty sore but that should go away in a week or so. She picked me up at about 5 pm and we went to Fish Tales restaurant for dinner then her house to watch a movie.

Saturday, 10 December - Susie and I added three glitter covered reindeer to the posts on her patio by the channel this afternoon, then cleaned up to go to Catherine McCole's, whose apartment is right on Boot Key Harbor, to watch the Boot Key Harbor Christmas Boat Parade. I'm amazed at how much trouble and expense some of the boat owners go to to decorate their boats each year, and I'm sure that taking down and putting all the lights and decorations takes way more time than putting them up.

Sunday, 11 December - This evening Susie and I walked to the other end of the Sadowski Causeway to watch the Key Colony Christmas Boat Parade then returned and went to Dockside's open mic night where we joined Leta and Rowland Kok, Phil and Carol Vachon, Ted Williams, Anne Mullet, and others for cocktails and dancing.

Monday, 12 December - I played about 2 1/2 hours of pickleball this morning and this afternoon I took the new seat post for the bicycle ashore and replaced the old one that had broken. I had to take a few tools with me because I had to drill a couple of holes in the post to stabilize the rack and basket that is mounted over the rear tire. I also added a new head and tail light to the bike and lubricated the bike well. I still haven't been able to contact anyone about finding and repairing the leak in my refrigeration system.

Tuesday, 13 December - I still can't detect the leak in my refrigeration. I got hold of Tim on S/V Slacker. I'm told that he may be able to help me out. He said he'd need to locate his freon detector and will get back to me tomorrow. Susie and I went to Dockside this evening but were surprised to find almost no one there that we know.

Wednesday, 14 December - Roland Kok's 86th birthday, and we celebrated it with about 40 or 50 of his "closest friends" from 3 till 6 pm at Dockside. He had invited the whole harbor to help him celebrate while listening to Donnie McDaniel, Mike Vee, Chris and Candace, and others play. Unfortunately, Susie wasn't feeling well and, although we showed up, we didn't dance much today. The burn from the radiation treatments is bothering her still.

Thursday, 15 December - We have several new pickleball players now so most of the games aren't as competitive but it's still fun. I heard back from Tim Hayes on S/V Slacker today and I'm going to pick him up tomorrow to help me find the refrigerant leak.

Friday, 16 December - I cut pickleball short this morning so I could pick up Tim Hayes at noon but he called about 11:30 and said to pick him up at 1;30. He has a very expensive and good sniffer for refrigerant and we quickly pinned the leak down to either the high pressure Schrader valve or something close to it. I'll try to tighten it tomorrow or, if it can't be tightened, replace it. Then, since replacing it involves letting all the R134a escape, I'll have to draw all the moisture and air out of the system with my vacuum pump and refill the system with refrigerant.
                    Since Susie is still recuperating from her radiation treatment she wanted to stay home so I went to the marina to partake in the Friday evening hors d'oeuvres gathering at the tiki hut from about 4 till 7 PM then came home to do some reading.

Saturday, 17 December - I replaced the Schrader valve on the high pressure side of the refrigeration compressor, drew 30 lb. of vacuum on the system with the vacuum pump, then recharged it, but with no confidence that it will be repaired and work properly. When I shut the vacuum pump off, the gauge went from 30 lb. to zero within about 3 minutes. It should have held at 30. We hadn't planned on going out tonight but Susie called about noon and asked if I'd like to go to the playhouse this evening to see the Christmas talent show. Mike Wagstaff and Bev Fowers had tickets but couldn't attend so they offered them to us. We attended and really enjoyed it. We both thought that the little kids, although not terribly talented, stole the show and were the most entertaining acts.

Sunday, 18 December - The refrigeration is cooling but not freezing. I also woke up to find that the bottom of my mattress was wet so I had to set the mattress on edge and set up a fan to dry it out. There are two drains in the aft chain locker that when plugged with small bits of trash that gets blown or washed off the deck, cause the leak into the aft stateroom. The water runs down the wall, then under the bed. I put the mattress on edge with a fan under it to dry it out. I spent the afternoon trying to get the refrigeration to work by drawing a vacuum on the system with a vacuum pump, then recharging it with R134a refrigerant. It still won't freeze, in fact, it's barely getting down to 40°F.

Monday, 19 December - I played pickleball this morning after setting the mattress on edge with a fan under it to dry it out again, then spent the afternoon trying to get the refrigeration to work by drawing a vacuum on the system again with a vacuum pump, then recharging it with R134a refrigerant. I also replaced the Schrader valves and failed to really improve the efficiency of the system. It still won't freeze. I feel like I'm really spinning my wheels with this refrigerator but since I just spent over $90,000 on the boat, I don't feel like spending several thousand more on a new refer system. I'm also, now, pretty sure that there's more wrong with it than just a leak. When shut down, the high and low pressure sides should equalize in pressure but they don't and I don't know why that can happen.

Tuesday, 20 December - As usual, pickleball this morning. It's interesting that all those players that were so good last season but left to go north for the summer and have returned seem very mediocre now. I guess I've improved a bit or they all got rusty. Again, this afternoon was spent on the refrigeration. The last two days, when I removed the high pressure line of the gauge, the valve didn't close and a considerable amount of the freon that I had just put in escaped, so today I didn't attach the high pressure line at all when I charged the system. I'll know in the morning if this worked better, but I left the gauges attached in case I need to add a bit more refrigerant in the morning.
                    It rained this evening and I was still working on the refrigeration at six o'clock. I called Susie to see if she was still planning on going to Dockside this evening. She said yes, if I felt like it. We watched the radar on our phones to see when a weather window would let me get there in my dinghy without getting soaked and I met her there at 8 o'clock. We had the whole dance floor to ourselves since not too many others braved the weather. My water tank filled up this evening from the runoff of the bimini top. That saves me a couple of trips to the marina to buy water.

Wednesday, 21 December - Upon return to the boat after pickleball today I got out my bucket full of straps and went through it to find a replacement for the strap that the boatyard had cut of the swim platform that keeps the dinghy from catching on the its edge as I raise and lower the dinghy with the davits. I decided to use one of the automobile seat belts that I've saved, but it was too short by about 4 feet. I had to remove stitching at both ends of the belt so I didn't finish with the extension.

Thursday, 22 December - After pickleball this morning I headed back to the marina and checked my mail. I wasn't really expecting anything but got a Christmas package from Mike. While there Jay Klassen saw me, came over and said he'd talked to the refrigeration repairman at S.A.L.T. and he'd said that it sounds like I have a blockage in the evaporator in the refrigeration system and that the sensible thing is to simply replace the whole system. That, however, would be very expensive and I'm not likely to do unless as a last resort, especially after having spent so much money on the boat recently.
                    I returned to the boat, spent about 2 hours finishing the strap of the swim platform by hand stitching the splice with a "Handy Stitcher" and then found where some of the water was leaking into the aft cabin and sealed around a couple of wires that pass through the deck in that location.
                    My boat seems to be falling apart suddenly. If it's not one thing, it's three or four others. I noticed that my fresh water pump is coming on intermittently so there must be a leak somewhere. I believe it is literally the galley sink faucet. There are beads of water that are forming on the outside of the faucet arm itself. It seems to be literally oozing water through the bronze. Time for a replacement, I guess. I hope that stops the pump from running intermittently although my water pressure doesn't seem to be up to par either. I can barely get around in the boat. I still haven't gotten everything put away from the 9 weeks of maintenance and now I have wet wash cloths, sponges, scrubbers, and lots of other items that got wet under the sink strewn all over to dry out.

Friday, 23 December - It looked a bit cloudy this morning so several people got scared away from pickleball this morning but we still had enough for three courts. I returned to the boat and spent about two hours online researching to find a new galley faucet and couldn't get one locally like I'd like to have. The marina called and asked that I come and stuff brochures into bags to be handed out to boaters as they check in for a mooring. I have been doing that for several years as need but missed for the two months that I was out of the water at the boatyard. I used to have everything organized to make stuffing the bags easy but while I was gone things got moved and it's a total mess over there now. What I thought would take about twenty to thirty minutes took about an hour and a half, cutting short the time I had to ride my bike to Home Depot to see what faucets they had. I had checked out what they had online but they had some confusing information listed on their site that I needed to verify. Unfortunately, the information was wrong and not in my favor.

Saturday, Christmas Eve - It's what we call very cold here in the Keys, about 55°, as my friends in Utah are dealing with mid-30s, relatives in Texas with the same, and Susie's relatives in Ohio with near zero. There is a company here in the Keys that offers free snow removal, but I don't think we're going to have to take them up on it in the next few days. We're headed to Havana Jacks for dinner and dancing this evening and to be entertained by Ty, BoB, and Bob; the Ty Thurman Band.

Sunday, Christmas Day - Susie got up this morning and baked a cherry pie to take to the harbor Christmas party at the marina today at 2 o'clock. We had planned to go and had reservations for dinner this evening a 7 o'clock at the Key Colony Inn but we were too stuffed from the marina party to go out this evening. We watched a movie on Netflix and had popcorn and ice cream for dinner.

Monday, 26 December - It rained or threatened to all day today and was still cold and windy. I made a quick run to see if anyone else was foolish enough to show up for pickleball but no one did. I also made a quick run to the sign maker's but they, although usually open Monday through Thursday, were closed for the holiday. I need to get new lettering for Island Time since they had to remove the name to paint the strip around the top of the topsides because they had to sand six spots to find and drill holes for the top bolts in the chainplates at the boatyard.
                    There has been a huge increase in immigrants from Haiti and Cuba lately. As I understand it, the Cuban government is actually encouraging their citizens to leave because hurricane Ian virtually destroyed their water and electrical systems and they can't take care of the people. The people are really desperate and come in all kinds of jury rigged boats and, in fact, many don't make it the 90 miles from Cuba to the Keys. I've included some pictures of one of the boats that showed up here in Marathon recently in a link below. It's made of galvanized sheet metal and oil drums with a huge old Russian diesel engine for propulsion. Over three hundred Haitians showed up in small boats at the Dry Tortugas National Park in boats recently, forcing the facility to close so they can be processed. Some get to stay, others are sent back. I don't know what the parameters are for deciding who stays and who goes home.

Tuesday, 27 December - Susie took me to Key West today to have my annual lab work done in preparation for my annual checkup in a couple of weeks. I also spent several hours online looking for and ordering a faucet for the galley. Mine is leaking at the base and, amazingly too, all along the sides of the spout itself. This salt air is tough on everything.

Wednesday, 28 December - We had about 30 pickleball players show up today and some great games were had. Upon return to the boat reviewed what little food I still have onboard then walked to the grocery store about a mile away. I outdid myself once again. If they'd had eggs I would have spent over $300, but the only eggs they had were one half dozen quail eggs. Six of those would, perhaps, equal one of the usual jumbo chicken eggs that I buy. Their being out of eggs means I'll have to go to the store in about a week when all my bananas are gone. I usually have bananas with my oatmeal at breakfast for about a week then switch to eggs scrambled with Rotel tomatoes with peppers for about two weeks. The grocery store was really busy. It's easy to see that the snowbirds have arrived for the holidays and, for that matter, for the winter.

Thursday, 29 December - The faucet that I ordered has already arrived so I spent from two o'clock till six removing the old one, installing the new one and changing two water filters in the system. I also discovered that I've accomplished that, the fresh water pump that supplies pressure to the system is not working properly and leaking. These only seem to last about a year and cost about $100 each so I order a new one as a spare each time I replace one. Oops, my memory is failing. I just checked my records and the last time I replaced this pump was four years ago.

Friday, 30 December - We had about thirty pickleball players this morning. This afternoon I installed a new ShurFlo Fresh Water Pump and took apart the old one to see why it had failed. It had gotten water past the seals and into the motor. One of the four lobes in the pump had worn through. That's the first time that's happened with one of these that I've seen. Susie and I joined Pete and Dee Schwarz and Gary and Marsha at Barnacle Barny's for dinner.

Saturday, 31 December - Now Year's Eve - Susie's house still has termites and she's going to have the house fumigated. This time they'll enclose the whole house, including the other half of the duplex, in tarps and Susie and her neighbors will all hove to move out for at least two nights. In order to seal the house up we needed to move plants that would be killed on the back patio and pull part of her fence down. This evening we started off at Skipjacks listening to Donnie McDaniel and Four Sheets To The Wind and having pizza, then moved to Sparky's Landing which is right across the street from her house. That let us simply walk home after the New Year's party at midnight. Sparky's had a DJ supplying the music.