Sunday, 1 January 2023 - New Year's Day - Susie worked at Christina's Consignment Shop from 10 o'clock till 4 in the afternoon then she met me at Dockside an about 6:45. I had worked on the boat much of the day finally getting things put away after having installed the new galley faucet and water pump. I had dinghies over to Dockside and on the way back to the boat the dinghy appeared to have run out of fuel so I rowed the rest of they back in a light, following breeze, 75 degrees, and a bit of moonlight.

Monday, 2 January - I thought I needed to fill the dinghy's fuel tank after having run out of fuel last night but upon opening the tank I discovered about a gallon of fuel still in there. I tried over and over to start the engine, but to no avail. I rowed in to play pickleball today. As I started to rom back to the boat Diesel Don Shuler volunteered to tow me back with his dinghy and I started trying to find out why the engine wan't start. I found a tiny crack in the primer bulb in the fuel line and also discovered that the connector at the engine was leaking. I replaced both but the engine still wouldn't start so I removed the new carburetor and inspected it, but, of course, couldn't find anything wrong with it, either. Finally, about 6:30 I realized I was getting nowhere and that if I don't want to row to shore for pickleball tomorrow morning I'd better take the 15 hp Yamaha off the dinghy and replace it with the 8 hp Evinrude, which I did, finishing about 7 pm in the dark. To do that I had to switch the fuel line connector, raise the Yamaha to the stern rail of the boat with the engine davit, reverse the dinghy at the back of the boat, then lower the Evinrude from the rail on the other side of the boat and mount it on the transom of the dinghy. Bob Dahmer and I had fogged the engine with Engine Stor Fogging Oil after he last used it so it took a few pulls on the starter rope to clear out all the oil we had squirted in the cylinder, but then it started up and ran well.

Tuesday, 3 January - I still needed to add oil to the fuel tank this morning. The Yamaha uses 100:1 fuel to oil ratio and the Evinrude uses 50:1. I guesstimated that the tank still had about 1 gallon of fuel in it and added about 3 oz. of oil to it then headed off to pickleball. We had over thirty players today. This evening Susie and I met Phil, who is back from a trip to Key West, and Ted Williams at Dockside for a few drinks and Susie and I danced to a few songs.

Wednesday, 4 January - Again, we had about 30 or more pickleball players this morning. We have four temporary courts that we setup and take down each day. There was a couple here today that are from Naples, FL that says they have several facilities, one of which has 160 permanent courts, many under cover. Wouldn't that be nice. This afternoon I replaced a piece of fire hose that I slip over the mooring lines to protect the line from abrasion that went overboard when Roland helped me moore upon return from Marathon Boatyard and I marked the mooring lines at the point that they come back through the house holes so that I don't have to guess at their length and then readjust them several times. Now I can set them once and be done. I marked them previously with a "permanent marker", but that faded. This time I pierced the lines with a fid and ran a slender piece of Sunbrella fabric through them that should stay there indefinitely.

Thursday, 5 January - This is a day I've been waiting for ever since the boat was put back in the water in mid-December. It's the first day since then that there's been little enough wind to allow me to reinstall the mainsail by myself...less than about 5 mph. It's a lot of sail to deal with if there's more wind. Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers messaged me this afternoon saying they are a little under the weather with mild coughs so they can't use their tickets to the playhouse to see "Return To Sunset Village" which is about some of the antics that occur at a huge senior retirement community in northern Florida that is rumored to have the highest per capita STD cases in the country. I think it may be a bit bawdy, but we'll see. I gladly accepted their offer for Susie and I to use their tickets.

Friday, 6 January - This afternoon I pedaled over to Home Depot to see if they might have the converter that I need to be able to use my existing Instant Off water valve on the new galley sink faucet but, even though they had several similar adapters, they didn't have the one I need. I, also, patched one patch on the dinghy that has been leaking for quite awhile but I'm afraid the epoxy that I used may have been too old. The epoxy on the mixing pad that I used doesn't seem to be curing properly. There's another spot that needs to be patched, too, but am pretty sure I'll use a different batch of epoxy for it.

Saturday, 7 January - The cruisers had another nautical swap meet this morning. I sold a cushy seat that was taking up way too much space in my cockpit for $40. It was a good item to sell because of its size. I have more valuable items to get rid of but they don't take up nearly as much space onboard. When I got back to the boat I called Susie and we went to the Gaelic Festival at the city park next to the marina in the afternoon. We watched the women's caber toss, a bit of an exhibition of sheep herding by a border collie, the Florida Firemen's Drum and Bagpipe Corps, and some Gaelic music on the center stage, plus walked through the vendor's booths. There was a lot of junk and trinkets, but also some absolutely exquisite art that makes me wish I had more space onboard to display some of it. We finished the evening at Havana Jacks listening to music by Tye, Bob, and Bob and had dinner there, too.

Sunday, 8 January - Susie worked at the consignment store today and I put another patch on my dinghy. That's very time consuming because the 5 minute epoxy that I have takes about 5 hours to cure for some reason. I also discovered another tiny leak that needs to be patched. It's going to be hard to repair because the air is coming out where one patch crosses a glued on handle so the air travels along the tiny gap at the edge of the lower patch. I've had this problem before. At 6:30 I met Susie, Leta and Rowland, Anne Mullet, Ted Williams, and others at Dockside for musical entertainment and dancing.

Monday, 9 January - The Evinrude outboard is acting up and getting hard to start. I replaced the fuel line connector, checked the engine's fuel filter, replaced the spark plugs, and now I am onboard and neither the Yamaha or the Evinrude engines will start. I'm depressed and baffled.
                    I saw and heard something very unusual this afternoon. While I was working on the Evinrude outboard motor a couple of porpoises passed not too far away and passed from M row over to K row in the mooring field. On a boat in J row, two small dogs saw them and started barking. The porpoises hung around for about 20 minutes and the dogs continued to bark as long as they did. I wasn't really paying much attention as the porpoises headed back by me, but I though I heard a dog bark near me. I looked up just in time to see one of the porpoises breach and "bark" just like one of the dogs. Amazing! I didn't know they could do that. Then he did it again, but they passed on by and I lost track of them. Cool!

Tuesday, 10 January - Susie and I left at 8:30 to go to Key West for my annual medical checkup. Since there is only one road from Key Largo to Key West if there's an accident anywhere between you and your destination, you have to allow plenty of extra time to get there. We arrived 45 minutes early and they were running about 45 minutes late. My new primary care physician went over my laboratory results from two weeks ago and said that everything looked good. He also gave me a referral for dermatology and for a hernia surgery again. We returned to Susie's house because she is having her house tented tomorrow to correct a botched termite removal job from a few months ago. She had lots to remove from the house, including her Christmas lighting, and we needed to pull the rest of the fence down to enable the exterminators to seal off the house with their tenting.

Wednesday, 11 January - I kayaked to pickleball this morning since I can't get either of the outboard motors to run, then this afternoon Susie shuttled me to get some fresh marine, non-alcohol, gasoline to see if bad gas is my problem with the outboards. She'll be staying at the Fairfield Inn across the street from her home for the next couple of nights while the house is having termites exterminated. They have to do the whole duplex, covering it with tarps that make it look like a circus tent.

Thursday, 12 January - After pickleball I rode my bike to West Marine and bought a spare primer bulb for a fuel line and two more fuel line connectors for the Evinrude. As I walked back to the kayak Kevin Garthwate offered to help me get the engines running and he seems to know a bit about them. I, of course, accepted his offer. He came to my boat in his dinghy and we dropped the Yamaha form my pushpin directly into his dinghy and took it to the project room at the marina. We actually made some progress. The last time I tried to use it, I couldn't get it started at all. We checked for spark on both plugs and found one weak so we changed the grounding wire on its coil to a better spot. Eventually, we got the engine started but not running well. We ran out of time and I paid $5 to leave it in the project room rather than haul it back and forth. We will pick up where we left off tomorrow morning.

Friday, 13 January - Kevin picked me up at 9 o'clock and we found a few things wrong. One, I had replaced the carburetor since I couldn't find anything else wrong, and since it was straight out of the box, I assumed that all the screws were tight and adjustments made. That proved to be untrue and the drain screw in the float bowl was loose. We replaced the new carburetor with the original because Kevin seriously doubted that the carburetor is the problem. Next, we tested the two ignition coils and, even though I had replaced both coils with new ones, one was giving a very weak spark, if it fired at all. At least it is running and I can get to and from shore again. Paddling the kayak is really aggravating the shoulder that needs rotator cuff surgery. Someone recently asked me to guide a tour through the mangroves in Boot Key but just paddling the 300 yards to the dock hurts significantly.

Saturday , 14 January - Susie got to move back into her house yesterday once the exterminators removed the tarps and aired the rooms out, so today I reinstalled the fence between the two sides of the duplex and we moved all the plants back where they should be around the house. We've had a cold front move through but despite that Susie and I went to Havana Jack's this evening to listen to Ty, Bob, and Bob and do some dancing. We reserved a table with couches hoping we would have guests, but no one showed up and it was a good thing...the band had cancelled because of the weather. Susie and I enjoyed ourselves anyway.

Sunday, 15 January - Susie went to work at Christine's Consignment Shop today. I had been called by the marina to ask if I would stuff more Cruiser's Bags so I went ashore and stuffed 1000 flyers or brochures in 50 bags for them. Susie met me at Dockside for their open mic night in spite of it being so cold, about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It's an outside venue but they do have vinyl walls that roll down, as most of the outside restaurants do. The music was good even though it was the first time we'd seen all the band members but one wearing shoes. I was really nice...there were only a couple of songs that we didn't have the whole dance floor to ourselves.

Monday, 16 January - It has warmed up a bit, into the 60s. so we had 30 players at pickleball this morning. As I left the park today I heard a strange noise coming from the restrooms. I went in to see what it was and the toilets were bubbling loudly, but not overflowing. I went outside and realized that a manhole about 20 feet from the building was overflowing so I tried to inform the office about it, then realized that it's Martin Luther King holiday so they aren't there. I called the city water department and they said they'd send someone to attend to it. I had hoped that I would hear back from two companies that I contacted on Friday to find out if they have the ignition coils in stock that I need to order, but it's 3 pm and I haven't heard back so I guess I'll have to wait until tomorrow. Until they respond I can't order the parts and I'm waiting for warmer weather to apply one more patch on the dinghy. The epoxy might not cure with the temperature at these levels.

Tuesday, 17 January - After several more hours online and on the phone tracking down two ignition coils, which I think ought to sell for about $20 to $30 each and I had to pay $137 each for, I finally placed the order and they said they'd arrive on Thursday. The temperature was in the 70s today and this evening I took the dinghy to Dockside to meet Susie for some dancing even though the outboard seems untrustworthy. It got me there and back, but I was glad there was no wind in case I the engine died and I had to row the rest of the way.

Wednesday, 18 January - The Yamaha outboard seems to run poorer daily. It starts but barely runs, with a top speed of about 4 or 5 knots, but at least it has gotten me all the way to my destination each time. Today's destination was all of, perhaps, three hundred yards from the boat to shore and back to play pickleball. The galley faucet switch that I ordered and was expecting to arrive yesterday or today still hasn't shown up. I loaned Anne Mullett of S/V Meherio one of my kayaks today so she can run through the mangroves tomorrow with several other boaters. I sure wish I was going with them, but the shoulder injury won't allow that yet. I got in some reading this evening: John Steinbeck's "Cup of Gold".

Thursday, 19 January - The ignition coils for the Yamaha arrived this afternoon and I installed them. In the process I discovered that the positive wire to one of the coils had gotten up into a position that let it rub against the flywheel and was worn through, although I know that is from our working on the engine and not the basic problem. I started the engine and started to take it for a test run but noticed that, while behind the boat and out of gear, although it seemed to be running smoother, the water pump has ceased to function, cooling the engine, so I shut it down and will deal with it tomorrow.

Friday, 20 January - Kevin Garthwate towed my dinghy to shore again and we dropped the lower unit on the outboard and changed the water pump's impeller. The old impeller, which should have six blades on it, had only one left. I don't know how or where they go or how they disappear, but when we finished, the engine started right up and water was flowing nicely out of the exit tube just as it should. There was a weekly get together at the tiki hut at the marina this evening as I started back to the boat at about 4:30 so I hung around there until about 7 pm then motored back to Island Time in the dark. Within the harbor we're not allowed to go more than about 4 mph in order to keep our wakes from rocking our neighbors so I didn't get to test the engine out on the way back.

Saturday, 21 January - I took the dinghy out for a test drive this morning and discovered that, alas, even after all that has been done to the engine, it still has the same problem...it won't get the hull up on a plane. Most of the rest of the day was spent re-checking things I've already done: checking the spark and replacing plugs, removing the carburetor and disassembling it to inspect it, adjusting the pilot jet and idle speed settings, etc. Amazingly, with the help of Kevin again, we discovered that it runs best when the main fuel jet, the pilot jet, is closed off all the way. It shouldn't even run at that setting much less, run better. I'm truly getting depressed about this engine and its problem...not to mention that I've spent over $500 on parts alone trying to get it to run properly. Even Kevin, who seems to know a lot more about these engines that anyone else here is totally out of ideas now too.

Sunday, 22 January - I took the carburetor off the Yamaha outboard and inspected the fuel pilot screw, thinking it might be damaged but it was fine. I, also, disassembled the fuel pump and rechecked it. Next, I removed the reed valves and took a look at them. Again, they look fine. I could see no light coming through any gap in the reeds and that is as it should be.

Monday, 23 January - Kevin had suggested that, perhaps, since we can't find anything else wrong, the laminations of the fuel lines are separating and when the engine tries to pull fuel into the carburetor, the inner lining of the fuel line collapses and causes the surging and lack of power of the engine. To me that doesn't seem logical. It would have to be happening to two totally different fuel lines, each one attached at different times...but, hey, I'm desperate. I rode my bike to West Marine today and bought four feet of cheap (only $5/foot) fuel line and added a primer bulb and Yamaha end connectors to it, installed it, and started the engine. The surging had gone away so adjusted the pilot fuel screw to specification, 1 1/2 turns out from all the way in, I took the dinghy for a sea trial in Whisky Creek. The engine was running better but still not good. I still had the cowling off the engine so I tweaked the pilot fuel screw in and out a bit to get the engine running better and...lo and behold...I got the dinghy up on plane for the first time in about a year! I was successful three or four times so I reinstalled the engine cowling and headed back to the boat, but the dinghy, again, won't plane up! I removed the cowling and tried again. It won' plane. I tried again. Yes, it planed. I tried again, it planed. I put the cowling on again and it planed. I took it off and it wouldn't. I put the cowling back on again and it wouldn't plane so I returned to the boat and gave up for the evening. At least I seem to have made some progress. The fuel line that I made up today is a temporary line for use with either the Yamaha or Evinrude with a gas tank in the back of the boat. I ordered 12 feet of fuel line that I'll run under the sole of the dinghy for the tank that I store in the bow. Not surprisingly, the cheap fuel line I bought at West Marine today is twice the price per foot of the premium, heavy duty fuel line that I ordered online this evening. I saved about $54 buying it online even though I paid $10 for shipping.

Tuesday, 24 January - The refrigerator has been running for a couple of days without the water pump running. I replaced the old pump with a new one, but may not have needed to. The compressor was running hot as it would be expected to and that can't be good for it. I replaced the pump and the new one didn’t come on immediately. I started to run tests on the Controller, but the Water Pump came on. It may have merely need for the Compressor to cool down for the pump to engage. This evening I met Susie, Ted Williams, and Garyy and Marsha at Dockside to listen to the music.

Wednesday, 25 January - Snowbirds from up north are arriving in full force. We had about 30 pickleball players for games today. This afternoon I decided to get started pulling together tax files and paperwork for last year's taxes.

Thursday, 26 January - I continue to deal with taxes this afternoon. Some of my confusion has been because some of the account ID numbers have changed and it took me considerable time to get them straightened out.

Friday, 27 January - After pickleball this afternoon I returned to the marina hoping that the fuel line that I ordered and was supposed to be delivered by the USPS yesterday would arrive today. Tracking on the package indicated that it was out for delivery and the mail truck usually arrives by about 1 o'clock, but not today, I foolishly waited about 3 hours before finally giving up and returning to the boat. Susie picked me up at 6pm and we went to dinner at El Molcajete Mexican restaurant near her home, then watched a couple of episodes of "Black List" on TV.

Saturday, 28 January - Susie's queen size bed frame had a nut missing in the frame that held the middle support foot in place. That let the middle of the bod sag and we needed a 1/4 X 20 nut to fix it. I was amazed to find that she has absolutely no spare nuts in her house at all. Well, actually, she does; English walnuts, but that's all. We had to appropriate one from the door on a cabinet she has to repair the bed frame. I invited Joe and Esther La Corte, a couple that plays pickleball with me each morning, to join us for dinner this evening at Havana Jacks and we had a good time visiting with them even though they left right after dinner and didn't partake in the dancing afterward.

Sunday, 29 January - I picked up the fuel line at the marina and spent the afternoon changing out the under-floor fuel line hoping that, since I've replaced virtually everything else on the outboard, the fuel connectors, tanks, etc,, perhaps the fuel lines were delaminating and closing off the fuel to the engine as the engine drew fuel into the carburetor. No such luck. I know, I'm getting desperate. There was absolutely no improvement after having replaced the line. I'm at wits end about this problem. I met Susie, Kim, Anne Mullet, Ted Williams, and others for music at Dockside this evening.

Monday, 30 January - This afternoon I loaded up the gas jugs and dinghies to the marina at the outer edge of the harbor and bought 33 gallons of gasoline for $170. Ouch! In the process, I discovered that one of the jugs has sprung a leak. Luckily, if I lay the jug on its side, the hole is on top and won't let gas spill out, but I'll have to keep it like that until I use up file gallons of fuel because I just filled all my containers.

Tuesday, 31 January - Yesterday I noticed a small hole in the upper casing right below the lower cowling that I hadn't noticed before. I took a closer look at it today and believe whatever caused that hole must be my problem. Water, a little bit of oil, and quite a bit of air are being blown out of that hole. A new upper casing would cost me over $300 and that doesn't include whatever is inside that has caused the hole to form. I think it's time for a new engine.