Friday, 1 March 2024 - Workout at the park led by Melanie at 10 o'clock this morning seemed a little easier today. However, immediately afterword my left shoulder started hurting. That's a problem with this shoulder, many times the things that make it ache don't hurt while I'm doing them. It doesn't hurt until afterward. The workout session ended at about eleven fifteen and my physical therapy session didn't start until 12:30 so I decided to just walk as much of the five miles between them as I could, then call a taxi for the rest of the way. i walked about two miles knowing that I couldn't complete the trip in the time allotted then called a cab. Unfortunately, it took the cab almost 40 minutes to arrive and I didn't get to Island Physical Therapy until I was about 15 minutes late. I might have made it on time if I'd kept on walking. After I finished my therapy session I decided to walk part of the way back to the marina and I walked about two miles again then stopped at Specialty Hardware and called another cab company because I thought the first taxi overcharged me. I wasn't in a hurry on the way back and the taxi came quicker but I believe he overcharged me, too. I believe each one charged me for the distance that I would have ridden if I hadn't walked the first two miles. One charged $10 and the other $9, but arguing with them does no good. While at the hardware store Donnie McDaniel, the lead singer of Four Sheets To The Wind came in and told me that they'd be playing at Dockside in the evening so when I got back to the boat I called Susie and talked her into meeting me, Roland and Leta, and others for some dancing. This is the first time in about three weeks that she's felt good enough to go out.

Saturday, 2 March - We had our monthly nautical flea market at the tiki today. As usual, I sold nothing and came back to the boat with something new to me. The master power switch on Island Time works but can't be mounted properly. I found one that I believe can and arranged to try it out before I have to pay Jay on S/V Foggy for it. Right after the swap meet I called Susie and she came to the marina and we went for a dinghy ride around the harbor, into Sister Creek, then through some of the canals near Sombrero Beach. On the way back we stopped at Island Time for a quick margarita, then went to dinner at the Overseas Pub.

Sunday, 3 March - I switched out a battery selector switch that I acquired yesterday at the harbor's nautical flea market for my older one that was good but didn't fit the opening that was cut out for it well. Since it didn't I was a bit anxious that, since the back of it was exposed, I might accidentally short circuit two of the connectors and thus all my batteries at once. That would quite likely cause a fire onboard. I had to disconnect all five batteries and the solar and wind generators to swap the switches out, I also added water to my starter battery. The evening was spent at Dockside with Susie, Leta and Roland.

Monday, 4 March - I got two surprises this morning. Susie showed up at the exercise class to work out was one and the other was that this is the first time I didn't complete all four rotations of the seven exercises. It was quite a bit warmer today than the previous two sessions but I usually handle the heat better than other players. In fact, historically, I've been the last person to want to continue playing pickleball, outlasting all the others, especially during the summer's heat. I don't know why I did so poorly today. It was really good to see Susie show up. She really gets very little exercise other than occasional walking and for the last two or three weeks she's felt terrible and done almost nothing.
                    Right after exercise class I crossed U.S. Highway 1 and caught the Lower Keys Transit bus to Key West for a dermatology appointment. The nurse froze several small spots off my scalp, and one on a leg, my chest, and a more serious one on my upper left shoulder near the point of my scapula. They'll recheck them in October when I go for my annual checkup. I arrived back in Marathon at 4 o'clock and decided that since I hadn't eaten lunch I'd cross Highway 1 again and have a late lunch / early dinner. Jeff and Sheila Gordon were there so I joined them and when we returned to our boats I had Jeff winch me up the forestay so I could measure the circumference of the furled genoa. It is 22 inches in circumference and ATN will need to know that measurement to modify the genoa sleeve that I need to return to them tomorrow. The sleeve is 30 inches and I think they'll cut about 6 or 7 inches off along the whole length. I wouldn't want to be the one that has to rip 46 feet of stitches on those zippers. I'm sure each side of the zipper has at least two rows of stitching, maybe more.

Tuesday, 5 March - When I got up this morning the Low Battery Alarm was going off on my LinkPro battery monitor. Upon inspection I discovered that the solar controller's breaker had been tripped in the starboard battery compartment. I know that I had reset it after the installation I did Sunday so I suspect that one of the boxes that I store in that compartment was pushed against it as I reloaded all the equipment back into that space. I reset it, hoping that the batteries would fully charge during the day. Actually, we had a thinly overcast day and there was no wind for the wind turbine to help out and the batteries didn't quite make it to full even though the solar produced more today than it ever has before to make up for the batteries being so low. They should top off tomorrow.
                    I met Susie at Dockside at 6:30. The place was packed with snowbirds from up north and we ended up a couple that wo didn't know that had a table for four to themselves.

Wednesday, 6 March - After I had installed the new battery switch on Sunday I realized that the wiring in it is opposite of the previous model. I had installed the cables on the two identically, but the banks ended up opposite of where they had been. Since I had run so many tests on the batteries yesterday I hadn't closed everything back up and put my tools away so this morning I went ahead and switched the cables so they would match the markings I had before.
                    Kim Brown-Stamp was having a yard party this afternoon at 3 o'clock till dusk with members from three or four bands playing that we are familial with for our entertainment. I needed to mail a package so I walked to the post office to do so and Susie called while I was there and picked me up to go to the party. Kim's house was bought in 1964 by her grandparents. It's very quaint and in a beautiful junglelike setting with very "Tropical Island" decor. It was a pot luck dinner with lots of good food and snacks. I think about people must have showed up.

Thursday, 7 March - First thing on the agenda today was to send my ATN genoa sleeve back to the manufacturer for modification. Jeff and a visitor that he and Sheila have came to my boat later this morning and borrowed my two kayaks for the day. I had another physical therapy session for my left shoulder today, too, and when I got back, they returned the kayaks. At 6 PM Susie met me at the nearby library for a Spanish lesson. Neither of us realized it, but we had missed two previous classes so we are a bit behind. Susie's never studied Spanish so she was really in the dark. I had Spanish classes for three years in 8th, 9th, and 10th grades many years ago and still remember a bit, but not enough. This instructor's teaching style is nothing like I had in junior and high school. He's from Bolivia and is teaching a bit of Spanglish along with the Spanish. Afterward, we went to Skipjack Resort to have a bit to eat and a drink but the Rick Lieder Band was there and the place was packed. It took us about 20 minutes just to get a drink at the bar and we gave up on food. We had one drink and left.

Friday, 8 March - Exercise class was first thing on the list today. I returned to the boat and caught up on some communications and later went to the Friday Happy Hour at the tiki hut at the marina.

Saturday, 9 March - Today Susie and I went to the Marathon Seafood Festival and met Mark and Pat Becker there, the big annual event on the island. Good music and decent food at surprisingly reasonable prices. When I left there I stopped by the marino and they asked me to stuff some Cruiser's bags so I spent about 3 hours stuffing twenty seven brochures, flyers, fish rulers, business cards and promotional pens in each of 50 bags. Let me see that's 27 times 50, 1,350 items. Most of them will be immediately thrown away. Oh well! I've been trying to use up some of the older supplies onboard so this evening I opened a ten year old can of cherry pie filling for desert. The "Better By" date was probably right. It wasn't very good.

Sunday, 10 March - I got up this morning and immediately started breakfast as usual. About the time I had it halfway cooked I realized that today is the second Sunday of the month and that means Sunday Brunch at the Tiki Hut at the marina. Jetf Gordon called right after the morning Cruiser's Net and said he'd tail me up the mast to replace the old tungsten light bulbs on the trilight and anchor light at the top of the mast. That seemed to go well and we finished in time to go to the brunch. I returned to the boat and defrosted the freezer. Later I met Susie, Leta, and Roland at Dockside for musical entertainment. On the way back to the boat I hoped to see the mast head anchor light that I replaced burning brighter than all the others and since I had replaced the tungsten lights with LEDs, now blue in appearance instead of yellow. Unfortunately, I was disappointed to find that the light wasn't on at all. I have no clue why, hut it seems that's the way things work for me. The lights I replaced were 10 and 25 watts and the new LEDs are only 5.6 Watts each. That should have been a winning situation since they are advertised as being specifically for the model light that I have. As usual, I'm baffled and disappointed.

Monday, 11 March - We had another good workout this morning. This afternoon I hand washed several shirts and shorts onboard the boat. Last night I was so disappointed that the masthead anchor light wasn't on when I returned from Dockside that I didn't think to turn on the trilight to see if it was working. The anchor light has a photoelectric switch that should turn in on after the sun sets, but the trilight, which is used while motoring after dark and lets others know that you are a sailboat running with your engine on, has to be turned on manually. After dark tonight I looked up to see if either light was on and was delighted to see light at the top of my mast. I can't tell from my own boat which is on so I called Jeff Gordon on the boat next to me to have him tell me which lights lit up as I manually switched them on and off and both are working fine. I have no clue as to why the anchor light didn't come on automatically list evening. I didn't do anything to it today to affect its operation. Tomorrow night as I return from Dockside I'll get to see how bright it is in comparison to the masthead lights on other boats in the harbor.

Tuesday, 12 March - I had physical therapy for my left shoulder today and right after that I returned to the boat, had lunch, then headed to the dock to replenish my drinking water. I needed 150 gallons to fill my tank but since that takes three trips with my 10 five gallon jugs, I only managed 100 gallons before having to clean up before going to Skipjack Resort to hear Donnie McDaniel and Four Sheets to the Wind perform. I had almost forgotten it but Susie called me just in time to get there. It had been arranged for several of the ladies in our group to all wear black and accompany the group as a doowop backup group, the "Donnets". See the accompanying photos in the link at the bottom of the page. I had checked the fuel level in he dinghy earlier in the day and thought I had enough for the day but I was wrong. I started running on fumes on the way to Dockside where I parked to meet Susie, then, just as I approached the dock, I ran out of gas. After our evening out I returned to the dinghy and turned the gas tank around to shift the gas intake line in the tank to the rear since it is lower so that the gas line could pick up the little bit of gas that was left. That's a nice feature of the Yamaha tanks. My new tank has no spare or backup fuel. When I'm out, I'm totally out. It can't be reversed. I made it home with gas to spare.

Wednesday, 13 March - This morning I returned to the dock and got 50 more gallons of water to pump into the boat's tank. At 1:30 this afternoon Susie picked me up and we went across the island to visit with Pat and Mark Becker at Marlin Bay Marina, one of the more upscale marinas on the island. They have a big trawler. We went for a swim and a rum punch each at the resort then went to dinner at Florida Keys Steak & Lobster. Thank you Mark. Back at his boat we shared some of his margaritas. Susie had to leave about 10 o'clock to let her dog out and the conversation (and margaritas) were so good that I didn't make it back to my boat until 1 AM.

Thursday, 14 March - I had to catch the bus and be at physical therapy by 9 o'clock this morning. I was back on the boat by 11 o'clock, had breakfast, then headed to the aft cabin to catch up on the sleep that I missed last night. This afternoon I repaired a fuel filter that I broke in the dark on Tuesday night while turning the gas tank in the dinghy around.

Friday, 15 March - Wow! I've caught some kind of bug that has caused my throat to have problems. At first in was just a cough when my throat was dry but the coughing irritated my throat and now it is extremely sore. Not only that, but when I lay down to sleep my mouth fills with saliva and mucus so I have to clear my throat about every minute to swallow hard. Obviously that keeps me awake. Last night I think I lay in bed for about an hour before I fell asleep, woke up about two hours later, gargled and took 500mg. of vitamin C, and stayed awake for another hour, then repeated the sequence two more times before getting up. My day was spent drinking water, taking vitamin C, and gargling. I accomplished very little else, although I did finish the mid-life autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Saturday, 16 March - Last night was much like Friday night except I got up around 1:30 thinking the sitting up might help keep the fluids from accumulating at the back of my throat. I sat for about an hour but wasn't able to sleep or feel like I was resting so I went back and laid down. Gargling Listerine doesn't seem to be accomplishing anything so what I have might be a virus instead of bacteria. I, again, spent much of the day making up for lost sleep. I started reading the autobiography of Frederick Douglass today and got all but the appendix read.

Sunday, 17 March - St. Patrick's Day - I still missed a lot of sleep last night but felt a bit better this morning. My clogged nostrils are starting to open up, my cough has slackened and my sore throat has lessened in degree, but I still took it easy on the boat trying to catch up on sleep lost last night. I missed a St. Patty's Day party at Bev and Mike's today, but that couldn't be helped. I wasn't about to go coughing on everybody and I'm sure they had just as much fun without me. Susie did call to tell me that everyone wondered about me and wishes that I get well soon. I finished the Frederick Douglass autobiography today. I'm a bit surprised that it isn't required reading for history students. It was very eyeopening for me. I also started and almost finished Mark Twain's "Old Times on the Mississippi River", a short autobiography of his time learning to be a pilot on a Mississippi riverboat.

Monday, 18 March - I get behind on editing my photos so I did a bit of catch-up today, doing a bit of cropping, adjusting, and deleting near duplicates and poor images. I finally got out my blog for February today, too, and caught up on some other communications. Later I finished Mark Twain's story then started autobiographical stories by an American Indian girl in 1902 who was taken from her mother by missionaries to teach her white man's ways and educate her.

Tuesday, 19 March - I decided that I've put off getting the trailboards that I acquired several months ago out of the cockpit. They are 80 inches long and solid fiberglass about 3/4 of an inch thick, so quite heavy. I had to move everything off the port bunk in the aft cabin, lay them on the bed, then put everything back. In the process, I refreshed my memory about what is in one of the boxes. Since I have no other home and no other storage space, everything I own is here on the boat and that box is about the only thing I have left of my past life. As you might expect, there are lots of photographs in there, mostly samples of my commercial work in case someone ever shows interest in what I used to do, but there are lots of photos of friends, skiing, hang gliding, kayaking, motorcycle riding, windsurfing, etc., too. I didn't take the time to look through them all but someday I might want to reminisce awhile longer.

Wednesday, 20 March - It was a physical therapy day again. I'm really starting to wonder if it is doing me any good this time. I made a mistake this morning. I wanted to take in my trash as I headed to the marina and I dropped one of the trash bags into the water as I got in the dinghy. I started the engine with my right hand, as I should, then chased the trash down. As I idled up to it the engine died and I quickly grabbed the pull cord with my left hand and gave it a tug. The engine restarted but I knew instantly that I shouldn't have used my left arm to do so. My arm was pretty sore as I arrived at the therapy center.

Thursday, 21 March - I started on my federal taxes about two months ago but dropped the ball. Today was the day to put all the info together to send to the lady I'm having fill out the forms for me. It took all day to get it all together, scans done of hard copies, and put into some sense of order for her to work with. I don't mind paying taxes but I sure hate dealing with them.

Friday, 22 March - Physical therapy again today. It's very blustery here and tomorrow should be worse so I've raised the dinghy on the davits, pulled its drain plug, and strapped it down so it can't swing in the strong winds that are expected. I also wrapped the mainsail to the mast with my spinnaker halyard so it can't bang in the wind. This evening it rained as hard or harder than I remember for about 45 minutes during which I discovered that one of the screws in my starboard ventilation hatch cover leaks, but that was the only place onboard that I took on any water and that was less than about a cup before I put a bucket under it. During that squall my fresh water tank overflowed. Why can't it rain like that just before I haul 150 gallons of water from shore instead of just after? The overflow does drain into the cockpit but drains right out through the scuppers. I disconnected the water lines to keep the water out totally...just in case. After dark I read the book, "In His Own Words" by Barack Obama, a compilation of selected quotes from before he was elected President, sent to me by my brother, Mike.

Saturday, 23 March - Another very blustery day, as was last night. The boat rocked me back to sleep every time I woke up and I even slept in 45 minutes past the time I usually get up.

Sunday, 24 March - We have beautiful weather today, light winds, very few clouds, and it's about 80°F. I moved some gas from one jug to another and filled the Honda generator with gas, adding a bit of Berryman B-12 to it, too. The gas gap was rusty so I cleaned it with a wire brush and cleaned the filler filter, too. The dinghy hasn't been idling right, dying at idle so I opened up the engine cover and checked the plugs. They were clean but wet and I thought the gap looked wrong on them. I was right. Upon checking them with a gauge I found them to be set at about 30° instead of 40. I can't imagine how I overlooked that when I installed them. The engine was still idling too slow so I adjusted that, too. I'm hoping to finally join the human race this evening. My sore throat feels fine now and I haven't been to Dockside or anywhere else for entertainment in a couple of weeks. It's 4:30 pm and I think I'll head in to the marina to pick up a package of exercise resistance bands that has been delivered so I can exercise my arms onboard the boat. I'll take trash ashore and take a shower while there, too. I haven't showered ashore in a long time. The hot water will feel good I'm sure.

Monday, 25 March - Today being Monday I had an exercise class this morning at 10 AM but I left the boat a few minutes early because I had an appointment with Monroe county's Middle Keys Transit to pick me up at the marina. I could have stayed till the finish of the Cruiser's Net had I known that they were running late. It didn't matter too much because I was supposed to be picked up so early that I would be about 30 minutes too early for my physical therapy session and as it turned out I arrived right on time but my session started 15 minutes late. When I arrived back at the marina I rode my bike over to the American Legion for lunch.

Tuesday, 26 March - At breakfast yesterday I used the last salt in my shaker, then before dinner last evening I started to refill the shaker only to find that I'm totally out of salt. I've been trying to use up most of the food onboard, forcing myself to use up some of the oldest cans of food that I have onboard; some 14 years old or older. I've been pretty successful. I ran out of bread about tree weeks ago, eggs about two weeks ago and milk about the same time, I can do without those because I have substitutes, but salt, no. I'm out of salt so I need to buy groceries. I'm totally addicted to that stuff. I'm addicted to Dr Pepper and chocolate, too, but I can force myself to not buy those and thus not consume them, but salt, I can't do without. I thought I'd rush out right after the morning Cruiser's Net this morning but thought I'd better take a peek inside the freezer first. I thought that since I haven't been opening it much since I've been out of most of the foods that I keep in there, it wouldn't be too frosted up. Wrong! I hadn't defrosted it since the 10th and it had about 3" of frost and solid ice on the evaporator. This is the most ice I've ever seen in it. I obviously needed to defrost it so I can refill it with food when I get back from the grocery store. In the process of searching the underfloor storage I also discovered about 10 more cans of old canned goods, two of which had totally rusted through and although unopened, were empty. One of them I can't identify. Its label has disintegrated. One less can to have to open. Wow! I set a new personal record buying groceries again today. Food prices have gone through the roof since the start of the Covid scare. I spent $381 on groceries and hope I don't break that record for a long, long time.

Wednesday, 27 March - A gentleman new to the harbor came by this morning right after the Cruiser's Net and borrowed my map of the Boot Key mangrove trails. I had to leave immediately to be picked up by the transit van to take me to physical therapy. For the first time in my experience the van was late to pick me up. I ended up with only twenty minutes to get to my appointment and had literally just dialed a cab to pick me up when the van came around the corner. I made the appointment just on time. Susie had a doctor's appointment in Miami today. She called me from there asking that I go to her house, which is only about four blocks from Island Therapy, and check on her dog. She has to keep him in a crate while she's away. I called the transit driver to cancel my return trip, walked to her house after therapy, and played with the dog until Susie arrived home. We watched an old movie on Susie's TV in the late afternoon, then went to dinner at El Molcajete Mexican restaurant.

Thursday, 28 March - I cleaned up on the boat today. It was pretty windy again so I didn't find the need to go to shore.

Friday, 29 March - Susie and I attended the fitness class at the city park this morning from 10 to 11 am and then, since I had a physical therapy session just 3 or 4 blocks from her house, I hitched a ride home with her after the class and we watched manatees in the channel behind her house until I needed to go to my 1 o'clock appointment. Afterward, we went to the "Almost New Furniture Store" in hopes that she might find a used high top table to use as a work station in her house. With no success there we headed to Christina's Consignment Store where she has worked in the past so she could buy some full length jeans for a trip that she's going on with her brother and mother to Sequoia National Park in California next week. Thats a destination that her 91 year old mother wants to check off her bucket list. After the consignment store we bought a pizza at the Race Track gas station for the Friday night happy hour at the marina's tiki hut and headed over there for the evening.

Saturday, 30 March - Roland Kok needed a battery charger for one of his boat's batteries this morning so he sent someone to get mine. The fall on my quad blocks on the port davit is still twisting up when released so I took it down and re-rove it in what I think is a better way. None of the lines cross each other now at all so I'm pretty sure I've got it right now. I had planned on going to the marina for movie night but Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers on S/V Queequeg texted and invited me and Susie to join them at Skipjack Resort to listen to Ty Thurman and Cory Young perform so we went there for the evening instead.

Sunday, 31 March - Easter Sunday - Mike and Bev had an Easter party this afternoon. They always have good food and Mike entertains us on his guitar along with singing, mostly music about the Keys. Mike had a surprise for us, too. He had new, digital accompaniment for his songs. We even had an Easter Egg Hunt. I found two. One had a scratch off lottery ticket in it that didn't have any matches on it and the other has another lottery ticket in it whose value is yet to be determined. It is a PowerBall ticket whose winning numbers will be announced tonight. I've never entered the lottery so I'm not even sure how it's played.