Thursday, 23 June 2016 - I went over to my boat around 9:30am and restarted reading, re-reading, and researching more about the refrigeration again. There are so many articles on the web that if you read enough, you start reading contradictory information, even from seemingly expert professional sources. I eventually get tired of reading and decide I need to do something, even if it's wrong.
                  One of the items I read was an email from the previous owner, Rick George. He reads my weekly reports and graciously (Thank God) helps me out when he can. He sent me information that I hadn't come across anywhere else stating that my refrigeration compressor controller will send out error signals if you connect an LED across two of the contacts. I had read something similar, but didn't know it applied to my unit. I hooked up an LED and, sure enough, it blinked three times. Unfortunately, I now have two different articles saying that that can either mean that the controller is faulty, and controllers can run from $150 - $300, or that the compressor needs excessive torque in order to start up. Which one should I believe?
                  I chose to go with the one that would cost the least to test, excessive torque. According to the article, that can be caused by excessive refrigerant in the system, and the readings I got the other day seemed way high to me. What I don't understand is how the pressure got higher or what caused it. I decided to hook up the pressure manifold again and lower the pressure by letting some of the R134a refrigerant out. I lowered the pressure to 50 psi. No difference. 30 psi, nada. 20 psi. Zilch. 15 psi. It still wouldn't stay running. I lowered the pressure while running to 10 psi and the compressor came on and ... Yahoo!! It worked! But now it won't cool. I'll add a very little bit at a time until I get some freezing, then shut it off for a while, then back on and see if it will stay running. At least I've made some progress!

Friday, 24 June - I turned the refrigeration unit off, then, after a few minutes, back on. At 15psi, 20psi, 25psi, it would restart, but not cool. I went higher, and finally reached a point that it started cooling partway up the coils. I added just a bit more to get the unit to cool on the full coil and that worked, but it wouldn't start when I tried to restart it about 5 minutes later, so I left to leave it overnight. That worked. It restarted this morning and the coil was frosted to the top, but only on one of the four sides, the side that is against the adjacent cooling compartment. I think that the insulation just isn't sufficient for the temperatures we are getting here now. The unit uses the fresh water in the water tanks to cool the hot refrigerant where it comes back to the compressor, so I also thought that might be a factor. I only have 85 gallons in the water tank, so perhaps adding water will help.
                 I talked to Steve Luta today and he said that he'd reached the entrance to Charlotte Harbor at Boca Grande on Tuesday evening, but the tidal outflow was too strong for him to make it through the pass. He had given up and headed out to deeper water to stay the night and apparently didn't anchor. When he awakened the next morning, he was about 25 miles out and he shortly received visitors. One at a time, throughout the day he was visited by a sheriff's boat, a Coast Guard boat, a helicopter doing a close circle around him, and a Coast Guard airplane checking him out; all making sure that he wasn't the sailboat that was missing with a family of four or five onboard. I know that some of the people were found, but I guess they'll never figure out what really happened out there to sink the boat and have no survivors. Since Steve was the only boat in the vicinity, they all had to take a close look at him.
                  Steve Monaghan was due back on his boat this evening so I quit early, went back and cleaned up, and, when he arrived, he brought a few things aboard, then we went out for some dinner and entertainment. The restaurant had a pretty good country singer playing, but he wasn't feeling well and quit early. He mentioned that the band for Saturday night would be a group that has opened for the country-western band "Lady Antebellum" so we decided to return the next evening, too.

Saturday, 25 June - I went to my boat and since there were no workers in the boatyard, I added 115 gallons of water to my freshwater tank thinking that might help out the refrigerator. I did a bit of inventory, then, since Steve is here, headed back to the marina. Most afternoons here in the summer, clouds build and squalls may move through. This afternoon, I got a message from Steve Luta, who headed up to Charlotte Harbor, saying that his boat had just gotten stricken by lightning. It apparently ruined most of the electronics on his boat, but he is unhurt.
                  Steve and I headed over to the Salty Crab restaurant for dinner and to listen to the band. I had assumed they'd be playing country music since they open for "Lady Antebellum," but they weren't. I don't think I knew even one song they played all evening. Steve enjoyed them, but they just weren't my cup of Tequila. Shortly after we arrived, Steve realized that Mark and Pat, from the boat next to Steve's, were sitting only a couple of tables away, so he invited them to join us and they came to our table, which made the evening very enjoyable.

Sunday, 26 June - Steve and I had breakfast, then, since both of us needed a few things from hardware stores, we headed out to find them. We went to ACE Hardware, Harbor Freight, and finally, Home Depot. That was much easier to do with his car than me trying to do it via the bus system. Thanks, Steve. On arriving back at the boat, Steve started work on resealing the hatch over his bed in the aft cabin, which has been leaking, so I headed back over to my boat with the items I had purchased and put them away. It was very hot on the boat. Since I have to close it up because of the chance of rain each day, the boat was 107°F inside when I opened it up. No wonder the refrigeration can't keep up.
                  Strong winds picked up and rain seemed imminent, so I soon returned to the marina. I ride the dinghy standing, but the waters were so choppy that I still got wet clear up to my waist getting back to the marina. Steve was finishing up with the hatch and headed home for the work week. I went to the sailor's lounge to read a book, but Mark & Pat were there watching TV and when a James Bond movie came on, I joined them. During the movie, we had a very unusual cloud formation and a rainbow appear shortly before another beautiful sunset. They are mamulus or mammatus clouds and I got a picture or two even though I had to miss James Bond winning a hand or two of high stakes poker. Pat soon gave up on James Bond and Mark and I finished watching two of the movies, finishing the night off at 1 am.

Monday, 27 June - After fixing myself an egg for breakfast, I headed over to my boat and checked out the refrigeration system. It was running fine, but certainly struggling to keep up with the hot weather. I'm fairly sure it never shut off all night. The batteries were run down to almost 50%, and soon after I arrived they went below that mark, which set off an alarm. I shut it down and realigned the wind generator propeller so it would face into the wind and add its energy to the battery bank. I left the refrigeration off for about an hour, which let the batteries recoup some of their energy, to about 55%, then turned the refrigerator back on. I was glad to see that it restarted and stayed on. During the hour that it was off, I removed the existing gasket material on the middle refrigeration compartment and replaced it with a new one that I bought yesterday. That will have very little effect on the refrigerator that is running now, but should help with the refrigeration system that runs when the engine is running. They are totally independent of each other, but share adjacent compartments.
                  I returned to the marina a little earlier than usual to shower before going to Ghost's Monday night jam session. While on the boat, Pierre and Jessy came by to say "Good Bye" since they'll be heading north tomorrow to go to the Tampa area. Since they are aliens (French) they have to leave the country occasionally and renew their visas before they can come back. They'll be missed.
                  Just after arriving at Bonita Bills for the evening, it started to really pour down rain. A fellow sitting in front of me get up to take a picture of the downpour in the river and just as he took the picture, a bolt of lightning struck nearby. He about jumped out of his skin and checked the crotch of his pants to see if they were dry or not.
                  It was another great night of music, although there were no musicians that I hadn't heard before. I got in a little dancing late in the evening and won another bandana in the music trivia contest for knowing what singer, age forty two, had a #1 hit with the song "Sixteen Tons" in 1955. I was surprised to finally get one. I had been right with a couple of answers, but a fraction of a second too slow earlier in the contest. A good night, even though I had to go it alone. I'm sure there will be many more.
                  When I approached Steve's boat in the marina I was surprised to see that the LED lights in the boat were changing rapidly from Red to Green to Blue, then repeating. I certainly hadn't left them that way when I left the boat. I guess the lightning storm played a part in that ...or am I already in the Bermuda Triangle?

Tuesday, 28 June - Ever since having the boat pulled from the water this time, I've felt there was something wrong with the look of the propeller shaft where it exits the boat, but I couldn't put my finger on it. Today I did. I realized that I had taken a photograph of the propeller while it was being worked on back in November at Snead Island Boat Works in Palmetto, and that one of the pictures had the cutless bearing in the photo. The cutless bearing is the sleeve that surrounds the propeller shaft as it exits the shaft log in the keel. In the picture of the newly installed cutless bearing, it is clearly visible, and now it appears to be missing. It is not missing, of course. If it were, the shaft would wobble horribly and the space that it should occupy would let in so much water that my boat would probably sink within hours, maybe sooner. When we pulled the boat out, one of the first things I noticed was that two set screws were very loose and had backed out about an eighth of an inch, but it didn't dawn on me then what they were for. It appears that they were retaining screws for the cutless bearing and the bearing sleeve has now vibrated and moved up into the recess of the shaft log, which surrounds the propeller shaft where the shaft as it exits the hull. I would have thought that the cutless bearing would have had a shoulder built into it or a retaining mechanism of some sort other than the retaining screws on the sides, that would not allow it to be pulled or pushed too far into the recess, but apparently not. I had watched them remove the original and they had merely put a very large pipe wrench on it, twisted it while pulling, and eventually slid it out. To put it back in, they merely drove it in with a large mallet, but I didn't realize there was no shoulder on it nor washer slid on that would retain it. Now, it is going to be VERY difficult to remove. In fact, the manager of the boat yard here was talking of totally sawing off the bottom of the back of the keel to get at it. Surely there will be a way to remove the propeller shaft and drive it out from inside the boat. I hope so. I really don't want them removing a chunk of the keel 8" high X 2' long X 6" wide and replacing it. Today was not really a great day in paradise. We'll see how this all shakes out in the next few days, I'm sure.
                  I'm sitting in the captain's lounge writing this at Moss Marina. Looking out the window at boats going by, I'm reminded of my days as a youth. Dad bought a ski boat when I was about 15 or 16 years old that had a 65hp Mercury outboard motor. Yippee! At that time, the largest outboard made was either 115hp or, maybe, 125hp. Now I realize that was only a ski boat and we were on lakes, not the ocean, but I'm amazed at how many boats down here, in fact, most, have three, and some have four 250hp or 350hp outboard motors. Wow! That's a lot of horses.
                  In fact, the two Steve's and I witnessed a short display of that horsepower recently here at the marina. A fellow with his wife and daughter about 20 years old had just filled their tanks at the gas dock. He put the boat in reverse and apparently lost his balance with his hand on the throttle pulling it all to full throttle. The boat leapt backwards, ran its right side under another boat at the dock, then, another 10 feet back, it hit a one foot thick wood piling, like a telephone pole, that was the end of a dock and broke it below the waterline. The dock is all twisted and broken up and the piling now sits at about a 30° angle in the water. Amazingly, no one was hurt, but the fellow driving the boat sure was shaken up. We were all amazed at how little damage the boat sustained. The driver's side windshield was crushed where it had passed under the other boat, but the swim platform on the transom had absolutely no visible damage to it, and that's what came in contact with and broke off the piling. A very well built boat, indeed.

Wednesday, 29 June - It seems as if everybody is leaving to head north. First, Steve Luta, then Pierre and Jessy yesterday morning. This morning Mark and Pat, the couple on the boat next to me here at Moss Marina left to go back to Regatta Pointe Marina where I bought Island Time and had briefly met Mark, although it took a while for us to realize that. They'll take a couple of days making their way the hundred miles home, motoring most, if not all the way, I'm sure. We've been having very light winds here lately.
                  It's been a beautiful day here today, with big, fluffy cumulus clouds to the north, and very hot. I went to the bank to deposit the $9000 check from the insurance agency this morning on my bicycle, then retreated to cool of the sailor's lounge to do some reading. I also intended to refresh my charts for the boat via the internet, but realized that the memory cards are over on the boat. I'll have to remember to get them tomorrow when I go over there.
                  I was pleasantly surprised to find a favorable response to my email to Snead Island Boat Works about the cutless bearing. The owner called the management here at Gulf Marine Ways and made arrangements for the work to be done here and the bill sent to them. That's exactly as it should be, but I was surprised that it came so easily. I also got a very informative answer back from Rick George, Island Time's previous owner, in regards to an email about the refrigeration on the boat. He's been very helpful, and I'm grateful for that. Thanks, Rick.