Saturday, 1 July 2023 - I spent about half of the day making two runs in the dinghy to get gasoline and diesel fuel and topping off the boat's fuel tank. Filling the tank takes quite awhile because I filter all the diesel fuel through a Baja Filter that removes particles and water that may be in it and is very slow and messy. I still haven't figured out how to fill the tank without spilling some because when I lift the filter out of the fill hole it is still dripping even hours later. Susie and I went to Havana Jacks for dinner. It's an outdoor bar and Susie takes her new dog, Pika (pronounced Peeka). Every time we get up to dance the dog barks and barks, so we don't dance much.

Sunday, 2 July - I took a slingshot to Susie's to teach her how to run the iguanas off but she can't pull the rubber bands back very far and gave up quickly. I practiced a bit shooting things floating in the water so I could see where my hits were, but I still need practice. I could probably hit an iguana at about twenty feet but not much further, yet. We went to a matinee at the movie theater and saw the latest Indiana Jones movie returned to her house and did some yard work, then headed to Dockside for dinner and entertainment. We had the same dog problem and only danced one dance during the night. That dance was the last dance of the night and quite a few people had left so we were able to dance in the isle right next to our table so the dog wouldn't feel abandoned.

Monday, 3 July - This afternoon I put Star Tron Diesel Fuel Treatment, an enzyme additive designed to stabilize diesel fuel, into the tank and jugs that I bought on Saturday. It's buried under about a thousand feet of rope in my port lazerette so it takes awhile to get out and it only takes 1 ml. per gallon of fuel but I had to add it to 5 jugs and the tank. I also filled four empty quart containers that I keep in the dinghy from a gallon jug of Penzoil that I keep in that lazarette. Later I went to Overseas Pub for dinner and on the way back from the worst enchiladas I think I've ever eaten, I stopped my dinghy in the middle of the harbor to watch the almost full moon rise to the southeast, fireworks to the east and a great lightning show to the northwest on a beautiful, clear, but warm and windless evening.

Tuesday, 4th of July - Independence Day - We had seven players for pickleball this morning then I returned to the boat and added 2 ml of Biobor per 5 gallons of diesel as a biocide to deter and kill organisms that grow in the border between diesel and any condensation that gets into my fuel and tank. Once that was all done I could finally put away everything in the port lazarette including the 1000 feet of line. I met Susie at Dockside for dinner and about 9:30 we got in the dinghy, motored out into the harbor and watched the fireworks all around us. What a great viewpoint! Fireworks were launched from about 7 different spots around the island and from the center of the harbor we could see them all. The moon came up about an hour later than I expected and, unfortunately, we had gone ashore and Susie had already left to go home. It looked really huge from my boat and bright orange.

Wednesday, 5 July - After pickleball today I cleaned up the filtering system for my water catchment system. Rain here is so unpredictable that I leave the system connected too much of the time. If the filter sets on the deck in the sun too long algae starts growing in it. I cleaned the filter and housing with fresh water then soaked it for about an hour in a Clorox solution and rinsed it again. That first filter is there just to remove particulates before it goes into the water tank. I then treat the water with Clorox to kill bacteria. After it goes into the tank it gets filtered again twice, once with a course mesh basket and then with a carbon drinking water filter. I've been keeping separate maintenance logs for most items and systems on the boat but decided I really ought to have a log with all items in one place, too, so I created a spreadsheet with 20 items listed this evening. I think this will make it easier to detect when I'm overlooking maintenance on systems. I hope this will remind me about maintenance rather than me trying to remember or just working on things when something goes wrong. It's 10pm and I just got a notification that the trailboards I had shipped from the Netherlands has cleared Customs and will be delivered on Friday. If that really happens I'll be amazed. That's faster than ordering something from almost any place outside of Florida. Since I don't have any idea how the trailboards are packaged I really figured they would get held up in Customs and maybe have to pay extra, too.

Thursday, 6 July - This afternoon was all spent remedying a small leak in the boat's head. That's the toilet for all you landlubbers. The head has a manual pump and the pump shaft has a small leak at the top. I have two spares but they are used and both leaked when I switched them out. About 7 this evening when I was really tired of dealing with it, I realized that I might be able to use the mechanism from my other head. It hasn't been used in several years because it would dump right into the ocean but it was worth a try. Eureka! It worked fine. Now all I have to do is order a replacement for it.

Friday, 7 July - I heard the high water alarm going off and a look into my bilge let me know something was wrong. It had too much water in it and it was filthy. Shortly thereafter I heard the pump for the shower and bathroom sinks running, quickly opened the bilge hatch and saw water pouring out of the pump into the bilge. I unmounted the pump and took it apart. The rubber diaphragm has ruptured. I spent about two hours online trying to find someone, anyone, that sells that diaphragm. The only way to buy it apparently is in a "repair kit" with a bunch of other junk that I don't need. Oh well! I need it so I ordered one just before closing time from a company near Tampa. In the meantime, I may need to go ashore to shower so I don't fill the bilge up.

Saturday, 8 July - I talked to the refrigeration repairman again today to make arrangements to replace my refrigerator then spent time catching up on maintenance records for the boat. My iPhone is having a hard time charging because, at 95%deg;F in the boat, charging is put on hold. Later I headed to Susie's to go to dinner at El Molcajete.

Sunday, 9 July - During the heat of the day Susie and I watched a movie and later went to Dockside for musical entertainment. The dog still barks when we dance but not as much, although that might have been influenced by the fact that there were very few other dogs there tonight.

Monday, 10 July - I finally found out why the package is being held in the UPS warehouse in Lexington. It had passed customs in the Netherlands but is being held for US Customs to inspect it.

Tuesday, 11 July - Well, we're having a heat wave but surprisingly we're back up to eight players for pickleball from four. It does get hot on the court. We're starting at 8:30 each morning to avoid the heat but the humidity is usually around 60 to 70% and we quit at around 10:30 with our clothes soaking wet from perspiration. I think we had a record high temperature today and I see that a lot of the rest of the country did, too. Today was Susie's birthday so we went out and had a nice dinner at the Florida Keys Steak and Lobster House instead of going to Dockside like we usually do on Tuesday nights.

Wednesday, 12 July - Another hot day but we still had eight players at pickleball. I discovered a drip of gasoline at the connection between the fuel line and the Yamaha engine. It was dripping about once every two seconds, twenty four hours a day, and has drained most of the tank. It was easy to fix with a couple of rubber o-rings but it's aggravating. I have replaced the hose's connector numerous times and the engine's connector just two or three months back. It's a poor design that has been in use for many, many years and I don't think they've changed it yet on their small outboards. Susie headed north in her car with Pika this morning around 6 AM to visit family for about 6 weeks.

Thursday, 13 July - Marathon has set new "Hottest Day Records" everyday for the last week and today, we did it again. We had six pickle ballers today and played for two hours. I was hoping to get the two seals for the head today but they didn't come in, nor did the s get released by Customs at UPS in Lexington. We heard thunder for about a half hour and radar showed storm clouds headed this way about 5 o'clock but the storm simply skirted the island to the north over the Gulf. We had lightning within three miles but not a drop fell here.

Friday, 14 July - I checked on the tracking of packages that I'm hoping to get soon. No good news there. There was some good news, however. The refrigeration unit was delivered to S.A.L.T. today, so I hope to get it installed next week.

Saturday, 15 July - One of the packages that I was expecting but could not track came in today, the two seals for the pumps on the head and a diaphragm for the grey water sump pump. This afternoon I went to the store and bought some groceries, all canned goods since my 12V refrigeration is not working and I don't wish to run the engine for the other refrigerator. I learned something useful today. The milk crate on the back of my bicycle wall hold 32 canned goods. I discovered that shortly after I purchased 42 cans of groceries, then had to make my way back to the marina with bags full of canned goods dangling from each handlebar.

Sunday, 16 July - I installed the repair kit including the diaphragm for the shower sump pump that I received yesterday and one seal assembly for the pump for the forward head today. Since the aft head can't be used within ten miles of shore there's no sense replacing it now. I had a quick dinner onboard and went to Dockside for the evenings entertainment.

Monday, 17 July - I pumped up one of my boat's fenders today. I've never had to do that before. I can't imagine why it has leaked. After that I installed the new Mantus US2 stainless steel anchor chain swivel that came in this afternoon. I also prepared docking lines on the starboard side of the boat because I need to take the boat to Marathon Boatyard tomorrow to meet with the workers that will be replacing and insulating the 12V refrigeration unit so we all know what the project includes. Every boat is different and they need to see what they'll be up against before the work starts.

Tuesday, 18 July - I thought I'd be taking the boat to the boatyard this morning but one of the important workers wasn't available so the meeting has been put off until tomorrow morning at 8AM. We had six pickleballers this morning. With two teams of two that's nice. Play two games sit out one to cool down and hydrate. I guess it's a good thing I didn't go to the boatyard this morning. Not doing so gave me more time to prepare the boat. Airing the fender up yesterday didn't do any good. It was flat again in the heat of the day today. I found the leak and may be able to repair it in the future but I just replaced it with a spare that I found during the last harbor cleanup. I also moved everything out of all the refrigeration compartments and surrounding area. That will save some time at the boatyard tomorrow. Since I'm not using a refrigerator, I can only eat so many meals out of a can so I'm headed to Dockside for a short evening dinner.

Wednesday, 19 July - I was up at 5:45 this morning so I could arrive at the boatyard by 8 AM. I thought I might be just going to have a planning session but Bob Williams, the refrigeration guy, really came to deliver the new unit and tell Chris Jasinski, the boatyard's worker what needed to be done and Chris started working on it immediately. I thought that was great until Chris said at about 10:30 that he needed to run to Home Depot for some insulation panels for the job. He was gone about an hour so I decided to go inside the office and talk to the seamstress about some repairs that I should get done while I'm here. I came back to the boat about thirty minutes later and Chris was driving away and said in passing that he needed to go to Home Depot for some insulation for the job. Huh? I didn't see him again until after 1 o'clock. I mentioned that I was looking for him to another yard employee and that I hadn't seen him in a while and the guy said, "Well, that's Chris." Chris reappeared and worked on my boat until 2:30 and left for the day. I'll be staying at the dock for the evening hoping it doesn't rain because with the dodger removed from the boat to be repaired by the seamstress, if it rains, everything in the cockpit will get wet, and that's a lot. I've had to move lots of stuff into the cockpit to get it out of the way for the refrigeration replacement and insulation. Chris upset me again when he pulled the old refrigeration unit out, too. The old water pump on it worked fine and he removed it. In the process, he cut two wires off to about a foot long that were almost 30 inches long and could have been simply unplugged from the unit. Now, if I need to use as a spare, I'll have to splice new wires and blade connectors back on. He offered to put new connectors on but that would probably take 30 or 40 minutes to get the parts and splice them on...at $150/hour. Thanks but no thanks.

Thursday, 20 July - We drilled test plugs into the refrigerator's inner walls to test the foam insulation for moisture and found very little so Chris sealed it up again and proceeded toward finishing the installation of the new refrigeration unit. He bent the evaporator which comes as a straight plate and must be bent into a rectangle but so far I'm not satisfied how it turned out. It is bent such that the ends don't align properly. Again, he left at two thirty. I also got the dodger back from the seamstress. She replaced the stitching in several places and also replaced about 20 of the female snap buttons that needed it. I had to reinstall the dodger mid-day and the temperature was registering higher than my outdoor thermometer has ever indicated, 103°F. Thank God for my ice maker. I sure hope Chris can finish the refrigeration installation tomorrow. If not I'l be sitting here at the dock over the weekend with nothing to do.

Friday, 21 July - The seamstress finished the little bit of restitching I needed done on the aft deck awning or fabric extension of the bimini top and I installed it today. About noon today I started realizing that Chris Jasinski wasn't going to finish the refrigeration compartment insulation and when he went to lunch it gave me time to think about the project. I decided that what was left was too complicated and not worth doing so when he arrived back on the job I told him to simply finish making the new bottom plate for the evaporator and I'll finish the rest. I really don't want to sit here over the weekend paying to be at their dock only waiting for them to return on Monday. He finished the bottom plate and we turned on the refrigeration to make sure it was working properly, picked up most of his tools and left. I still needed to wait for the seamstress to finish the foredeck awning so I went to lunch then returned. She had finished it, I paid my bill, and I had the dock hands shove me off to return to the mooring field. I was back on the mooring ball by 5 o'clock, cooled off for a bit, then started working on the insulation of the refrigerator. Until I get that finished I still can't use the refrigeration. I finished the first of three compartments, closed the pass-through windows between the first two compartments and turned the refrigerator on before going to Dockside for dinner.

Saturday, 22 July - The first thing I did this morning was to install the foredeck awning to cool the boat down during the day. That took about an hour and a half. I worked most of today on the insulation of the 12V refrigeration. At about 5 o'clock in the afternoon I finally got a chance to take a break and discovered that the trailboards that I'm expecting from the Netherlands has arrived at the marina after having set in some warehouse in Lexington, Kentucky for fourteen days. I wasn't really in a hurry to receive them, but I was starting to worry that they might have gotten damaged. Later, I headed to Dockside for dinner and to listen to Popeye and the Easy Street Band.

Sunday, 23 July - I worked on the insulation in the middle refrigeration compartment until about 4 o'clock, finally turned on the refrigerator/freezer, then headed to the marina to pick up the tailboards that finally arrived. The sender in the Netherlands had actually packed them pretty well and they were in good shape. I returned to the boat to unpack them, then showered and headed to Dockside for their Open Mic Night music and shared my table with Slim Jim, Catherine McCole, and Natalie Cash. Didn't dance even one dance. On a sadder note, while at Dockside Kenny and Sharon Crockett notified me the their beautiful young daughter, Jennifer, has just been diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma, a brain tumor that took the life of a VERY good friend, Ned Keys, about thirty years ago, way too early. My thoughts and best wishes go out to the whole family. They have some tough decisions to make and some tough times ahead. I wish them all well.

Monday, 24 July - Pickleball in the morning, then since I now have refrigeration again, I headed to Publix to buy groceries. I bought groceries not too long ago, but they were all canned goods that don't need refrigeration. Now I have meat, bananas, milk, eggs, and other items that need to be kept refrigerated; but I forgot butter. Dang.

Tuesday, 25 July - After pickleball this morning I returned to the boat and spent some time doing a computer illustration of my new trailboards so that I could quickly change colors on the borders, background, and scrollwork in order to pick a good color scheme to contrast with the boat's navy blue topside stripe. Later I went to Dockside, but didn't stay long.

Wednesday, 26 July - It's finally dawning on me: the best way to make it rain so I can fill my water tank from the water catchment system off the bimini top is to top the tank off with fresh water from shore. As soon as I do that, rains that I no longer need will come. Speaking of which, now that I finally got the foredeck awning repaired and installed, as I was preparing to go to pickleball I realized rain was imminent. Rain won't hurt the awning but the frequently accompanying strong winds could certainly damage it so I went on deck to furl it amidships. I got a bit wet in the process but expect rain and brief, strong winds throughout most of the day, but no pickleball. This rain is nice because of the cooler air it brings. Each morning this last few weeks by 9AM it's been about 92%deg;F. but it's now 10 o'clock with an air temperature still just 77%deg;F. Of course, with half the boat sitting in 91° water, the temperature in my saloon is 85 degrees, but that's significantly better than the usual 94 degrees of late.

Thursday, 27 July - It was raining off and on throughout the night and this morning when I got up so I assumed that this would be another day without pickleball. After breakfast I checked the radar and it looked as if the rain had just passed beyond us and we'd have a clear morning session. Just to make see if anyone else was planning on playing I texted Joe and Esther and Phil. They're tho only ones whose phone numbers I have. Joe and Esther said they were coming so I committed, too. We dried the court out with a push broom and roller squeegee and there were still only the three of us. Just as Phil texted that he wasn't coming, Sonya showed up. It was a bit cooler than it has been lately and we played six games before calling it a day.

Friday, 28 July - Eight of us showed up today for pickleball in spite of the threat of rain. We got in about 5 or 6 games before it started to rain. Four stayed because we thought the rain would pass quickly and we were right. We use roller squeegees to dry the court and just as we finished with the squeegees, it rained again, so we gave up. I went to the marina to drop off 5 of the 6 historical, nautical fiction books by David Donachie and discovered that over 50 other books that I've donate to the library there in hopes that others could enjoy them are all gone. They included all 18 of the Lord Ramage books, all of the Horatio Hornblower books, 14 of the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patric O'Brian, all of the Bolitho books by Alexander Kent, and others. That almost wiped out all the nautical books in that library. What a shame that someone is so selfish.

Saturday, 29 July - Today I spent about 4 hours sanding one of the trailboards in the workshop at the marina. The paint on it is in pretty good condition but a few scratches needed to be sanded out and the whole surface needed to be roughened so the new colors will adhere well. I also paid another months rent for the mooring ball.

Sunday, 30 July - The cruisers and boaters here in the harbor have a library that we contribute to and borrow from that probably has about a thousand or more books in it. The intent is for the boaters here in the harbor to have a wide variety of books to borrow and return, or, on occasion, cruisers passing through to take a book or two to read and trade while traveling. I've been reading books that my brother Mike has sent me and then, when I finish a series, donate them to that library. I've probably donated 60 or so books. Most, since they are sets and some of those sets contain ten to twenty in the series, I've kept an eon to see how often they go and return, just out of curiosity. Most come and go individually within about a week or two. I was recently shocked to realize that all of the full sets have suddenly disappeared. I found that out when I was delivering another set of five. I must say, I'm disappointed. Someone probably took them to sell on Ebay, robbing the locals of the ability to enjoy them.
                    Speaking of that library, we don't have a librarian to keep it organized. Instead, if you donate or return a book, you're supposed to file it by author's last name. Pretty simple, but nobody does, making it almost impossible to find anything. You have to walk along with your head twisted toward your right shoulder reading the totally mixed library. I thought it would be a groat idea to get about 10 volunteers to remove all the books from the shelves and organize them quickly by author and then put them back up, so I announced during yesterday's and today's Cruiser's net that we'd meet at 10 o'clock this morning and get it done. We usually have a pretty good turnout for projects like this so I expected between 5 and 10 volunteers to show up. There was only one, me. I guess in wasn't such a good idea after all.
                    Since no one showed up to organize the library I returned to the boat, got my trailboard that hasn't been sanded, sand paper, orbital sander, and headed back to the workshop and spent four hours sanding it down.

Monday, 31 July - I unfurled the foredeck awning again today after pickleball. It definitely keeps the boat a bit cooler. I turned on the refrigerator on the 23rd of this month and it already had an inch of frost on the evaporator so I defrosted today.

            Until next time.

                        "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson

                                          Rick