Wednesday Afternoon, 7 October 2015 - Right after I sent out my last episode, Kevin McGary came to my boat to explain what he'd found out about the parts needed for my boat's cooling system...a few cheap parts with a $50 shipping fee or more AND four or five weeks turnaround. Yikes!!! I'm out of commission 'til then. The rest of the afternoon I'll be digging around in the bilge and engine room looking for those lost parts. One piece is iron, the other is a black rubber bushing. Maybe I can find the metal bushing with a magnet, but I've already tried that. Gotta try harder. Gotta go!
                Okay, I'm back. That news was great incentive to find those parts, and after two hours of searching on the starboard side of the engine, under the engine, under the counter in the galley where fluids pass going to the bilge sump, draining the sump, and searching in it, I opened the port hatch to the engine and found the parts laying on the sole of the engine compartment. Whew! What a relief.
                I called Kevin to tell him not to order the parts and within an hour he was back to the boat to install the coolant tank. Everything went fine until we poured the antifreeze in. Now there's a leaking water hose at the top of the engine, and it's attached permanently to a very unusual fitting. He's not sure he's ever seen one like it, but apologizes that he's only been a diesel mechanic for about 45 years. He'll try to find one or jury rig something. Neither will be easy. He also discovered that the temperature sender on the top of the engine needs to be replaced. So we're still waiting on parts.
                I had complained to him that the prices on brass plugs for my seacocks were outrageously high at West Marine and the hardware store than I check at: $3.50/plug. I thought the retailers could make plenty of money selling them for $.50-$1. He agreed and said to let him look into it. He brought me 14 of them at $.75 each and I took out the Zerk fittings that I had put into the seacocks a couple of weeks ago and replaced them with new brass plugs. They needed to be replaced because they are iron, which would chemically and electrically react with the bronze seacocks, and soon rust out.

Thursday, 8 October - At this point, I have a confession to make. I don't always type these entries up the evening that they occur. I got a little behind and now I have no clue what I did on this day. I probably worked on the boat, like I do every day. My mind is like a steel trap. The problem is, the trap has been sprung and I can't get it set again.

Friday, 9 October - I had contacted a fellow that owns a sailboard shop in St. Petersburg about either consigning or buying my sailboard equipment, so I headed up there to meet him at 10am. I hoped to sell it so I can put the cargo trailer up for sale. Didn't happen. He decided not to take even the new equipment. I didn't really think he would be interested in my old boards, even though they sail beautifully, but I thought for sure he'd want a lot of the masts, booms, some of the sails and other accessories. I'm back to square one on that idea.
                Since I was up that way, I decided to stop and check out several sail lofts. I need to have some work done on three of my sails on the boat. One shop, I couldn't find, one shop, I couldn't park near, and I looked at two others. There's one more to the south of me that I want to visit before committing my sails to one.
                I returned to the boat about 1:00pm, hoping that Kevin would show up to finish working on the cooling system and temperature sender, but he never showed up.

Saturday, 10 October - I spent part of the day trying to research to whom I can donate my sailing gear to that will make good use to it. There don't seem to be any windsurfing clubs here locally, nor BSA Explorer Sailing Squadrons; not even sailing clubs for kids that are interested in anything except sailing dinghies and Sunfish sailboats.

Sunday, 11 October - In my search for sail repair lofts, I discovered I'd been passing a small one every day and night as I drove to Walmart, right on the way, but with almost invisible signage on the front of the building. I'll stop in there tomorrow. As expected they're not open today.

Monday, 12 October - I stopped by the small sail shop to see what they offer. Of course, their sales pitch and experience "sounds" good, but I'm going to think twice about using the fellow. He's had a captain's license for many years and says that he used to deliver new CSY sailboats for the company all over the Caribbean and even one to South Africa. Unfortunately, although he may be great at using sails, that doesn't mean that he knows how to sew. I have one more shop to check out down south of here. Interesting fellow though. One of the larger lofts in St. Petersburg looked like the size of the loft would make it easier to handle larger sails, which could cut down on the man hours involved in the project, and thus make it cheaper overall. But who knows!

Tuesday, 13 October - The boat mechanic, Kevin McGary, came to the boat about 1:00pm and quickly had the hose and temperature sensor replaced, so we started the engine to make sure that all was right. It was not. The temperature sensor that he put in is, apparently, the wrong one, or defective. As soon as we started the engine the "Overheat" alarm went off and stayed on as long as the engine was running.

Wednesday, 14 October - At about 11:30am, Kevin surprised me by calling to see if I was on the boat and I was. He came immediately to finish putting the new, and hopefully, correct temperature switch on the engine. It all seems to be working right now. He's now cleared me for sailing again.
                  I guess I'd better get back to work. I brought another pair of milk crates full of "stuff" from the motorhome that I need to go through and either find places for it or decide I don't really need each item or have the space available.

Addendum - Wednesday Afternoon, 14 October 2015 - Well, that was interesting. Ten seconds after I sent this episode out, I got a message from AOL that all of my friends who are serviced by them wouldn't be allowed to receive that email message. I called AOL about it and they said they'd put resolving the issue on "The Fast Track" and get back to me. Should I hold my breath until it's resolved? I don't think so. I wait with bated breath. If you know Tina Kruscamp, Derrall Rikli, or Jon Lindgren, tell them they may get this a little late, or not at all.

            Until next time,
                        I hope you're having a great day.

                                          Rick