Friday, 2 October 2015 - Today I went to West Marine to get some items for the boat; extra stainless steel screws for the stanchions and 130' of line for my staysail sheets, which I did get, and bronze zero fittings and brass plugs for the seacocks. I had put automotive zerk fittings in the seacocks last week to get them lubricated, but they are made of steel which over time will cause galvanic corrosion because of the difference in the metals, so I'd hoped to find bronze or brass fittings to more closely match the bronze seacocks. I'm beginning to think that no one makes zerks of brass or bronze, which makes no sense to me. If I couldn't get bronze zero fittings, I was going to replace all the existing plugs with new ones, but at $3.50 each at West Marine, I decided to wait and get them at a regular plumbing supply. I'm sure they'll be half that price or less, and since I need 14 of them, that'll be a savings worth waiting for. They ought to be about 50 cents each, but they're designated "marine", thus the astronomical pricing. After all, these things are basically a chunk of brass a 1/4" square on one end and 3/8", round and threaded at the other.
                  I also went to pick up the filters for the Hookah underwater breathing system that I ordered about 3 weeks ago. Taking that long, they must have had to ship them twice, once to the national distributor, then to the local distributor. Anyway, they called to tell me they finally came in so I picked them up and I'll finish putting it all together and testing it tomorrow.

Saturday, 3 October - I started to assemble the Hookah system this morning and decided that I'd better inspect the generator first. I'd been keeping it in the trailer for safe keeping and so it didn't take up room onboard. Well of course, it needed work, or shall I say, parts. The air filter had disintegrated and has probably been sucked through the cylinder. Not good! That happened on my motorcycle once a few years ago and it cost me $400 to get the engine rebuilt. My Yamaha motorcycle was probably built to much tighter tolerances than this Honda generator, so maybe that's why it survived. Anyway, I had to spend a couple of hours tracking new filters down and going to get them. It turns out that they are simply cheap foam cut to shape, but it cost me $20 to find that out. I won't be buying any more with the Honda name on them. I already have the knife. When I returned, I assembled everything, started up the generator, turned on the compressor, breathed through the diving regulator on the other end of the hose, and as far as I can tell, I'm ready to go scrub my bottom...of the boat, that is.

Sunday, 4 October - I had hoped to get out on the boat to scrub the hull today, but rain is predicted on and off all day. That, along with the wind and tides both out of the west when I'd be returning could cause me problems docking, so I'll postpone. It might push me into the boat next to me as I come into the slip. Under normal circumstances, I could just anchor out overnight, but since I can't leave the motorhome parked where it is overnight for fear of being impounded, that's out of the question. I'll find other things to do today, maybe catch up on some reading.

Monday, 5 October - Wow! Today was certainly a learning experience, which is what I set out to do, but what I learned wasn't what I was expecting. I sailed out to test out my new Hookah equipment and to clean the bottom of the boat, so I expected to head out to Tampa Bay, which is much clearer water that the river here is. However, about a mile downstream from the marina, I saw smoke wafting out of the cabin. I took a quick look and realized that it wasn't actually coming from the cabin, but was coming through the cabin from the engine room. I grabbed a fire extinguisher, shut the engine off and opened one of the cockpit hatches which is access to the engine room. No fire, thank God, but lots of smoke. The engine had obviously overheated, but why, and to what degree.
                  Okay, I'd better drop anchor. I was in about 17' of water and well out of the channel. Thank goodness for that. I'm glad it didn't happen right in the channel where I'd be blocking traffic when I dropped anchor or where I might swing out of the channel and be aground.
                  I assumed that perhaps the seawater intake in the hull had picked up significant trash, seaweed, or silt and had clogged the intake filter, so I removed the lid on it and removed the mesh trap. There was a little in there, but certainly not enough to be a problem. I looked around, but didn't see any cracks or holes in any of the hoses, but I did find a couple of hose clamps that could be tighter, so I tightened them, but really didn't think that that was the problem. I got out a book on diesel engines and checked out the trouble shooting section. By this time, the engine had cooled significantly so I could open up the coolant reservoir. Empty.
                  Now the mechanic had just recently been into this system, and I watched him pour almost 4 gallons of water/antifreeze into it, so where the hell did it go and how? I decided to fill the reservoir and try to make it back to the marina, after all it was only about a mile. (Didn't get very far, did I) My biggest fear was that I'd make it almost back to the marina, then overheat in the channel or in the marina before I got docked. I poured a gallon of antifreeze in, then started pouring in a gallon of water. About a quarter of a gallon into the process, water started pouring out of the front of the engine, actually, the coolant reservoir. Aha! That's where it went. On closer investigation, there was a 3/8" bolt missing that holds the reservoir on. This is not good. The chances of me having a bolt to replace it are slim. I realized that it actually had to be still onboard. It couldn't escape completely, and after looking and looking and feeling, I got out my handy dandy magnet-on-a-stick. Within 5 min. I had it in my hand, but I still never found the washer that goes with it, but that, I had a replacement for. But it turns out, I needed two. I had to ream out a second because one wouldn't seal the gap...and it still didn't. When I poured in the water again, it still drips profusely. This doesn't make sense. How can it seal perfectly for years with one bolt and one washer, but when the bolt drops out, it needs two or three?
                  The tide is just starting to come in, so I have a little time to kill. This gives me time to get at least one thing done that I intended to do, check out the rudder support, so I got out the snorkel, face mask, weight belt, and flippers and went overboard. I wanted to make sure I knew exactly how many bolts I might need to replace and on exactly which location. This is weird water in the river. It's not too murky, it's just pitch black. Anything that is not within about 5 feet of you is just pitch black. Anyway, that done, it was time to weigh anchor and head back to the marina.
                  I poured in two more gallons of water, closed up the engine room, and started the engine to head back. I was so glad when it started up. I'd been afraid that it might have overheated to the point that it wouldn't, but now there was still a dilemma: do I go fast to get there before the engine has time to overheat? Going faster produces more heat. ...or do I go slowly to produce less heat, but giving the engine more time to get hot?
                  I chose slow...and made it back...and my parking job was picture perfect! I didn't touch the dock, the finger pier, the pilings, or the boat next to me. The first thing to touch anything was my foot on the finger pier as I stepped off to tie up. Of course, it helped that there was very little wind or current.

Tuesday, 6 October - I put away all the diving gear that I had pulled out of the lazarettes yesterday. In the afternoon, Kevin McGary, the mechanic that had done work on my boat about 2 weeks ago came to take a look at the coolant situation. He took the tank off and discovered that not only had the bolt and washer fallen out, but so had a bushing. We didn't find it, so he's ordered a replacement.
                In the evening, I went for a beer or three with my next boat neighbor to the west, Danny, an ex-school teacher and currently school administrator. He's been here in the marina for about 5 years living on a Morgan 38 that he bought in the Caribbean.

Wednesday, 7 October - I spent about an hour looking for some paperwork that I had been reading recently about my Single Sideband Radio (SSB). I just couldn't find it anywhere, then realized that it wasn't paperwork, it was a PDF file on my computer. No wonder I couldn't find it on the boat! Now I can quit admonishing myself for not putting it away when I was through with it.
                I spent a couple of hours reading the instructions recently and again this morning, but am not really much closer to figuring out how to use it. I can't even pick up any signal from anywhere, much less make a call. It can receive transmissions on about 1000 channels, send and receive email, weather info, faxes, etc., and reach all around the world, but I get nothing. All the manual tells me is what the buttons and programs do, not how to actually put them to use. Very frustrating!

            Until next time,
                        Dream BIG, or Live Bored.

                                          Rick