Wednesday Evening, 24 August 2016 - I was racing the clock and the rain storms to get the last episode out, so I really had to cut it a bit short without expounding about one of the few battles that I finally won. This has been a long, dragged out battle and a conquest that I'm finally glad to have achieved. As usual, it was won with nothing but persistence. Those of you who have been following my posts will probably remember me fighting this battle on an off ever since I got the boat. Finally getting the Ubiquity Bullet, a booster that can bring in distant, weak WiFi signals, to work will not only let me quit having to use up so much of my data plan monthly, but will also allow me to use the computer much more, instead of the iPhone. I've been having to supply the WiFi to my computer with the data on my phone, and doing so uses much more data than just using the phone itself, so I haven't been using the computer much for internet research. Of course, it's much easier to use the larger screen and much faster to type on the computer, too. Oh! and not only for those reasons, but I won't have to go track down WiFi hotspots around town in order to update my computer and phone apps as much anymore.
                  Having the Bullet to use lets me reach out to weak WiFi signals, too. I haven't been able to get direct access to any WiFi here at my anchorage at all, even on my iPhone. The signals were all too weak. Now, the Bullet can supply a boosted signal to my router, which then supplies WiFi to the iPhone and the same signal to the computer at the same time. How far it will reach and how much it will boost the signal is yet to be proven, but, at least for now, I'm happy to be bringing in a signal that I otherwise couldn't access at all. Yahoo! Finally a victory I get to really appreciate!

Thursday, 25 August - I finally found out and verified that my Danfoss Electronic Control Module #101N0220 has indeed been replaced by #101N0212 and found a couple of suppliers for it, one of which is local, so I ordered one from the local shop and am told that one of their technician will be in my neck of the woods tomorrow. I'm hoping I can either meet them somewhere or that they will leave it at Moss Marina, just a few hundred yards from my boat. All I could do was leave them a message, and I haven't heard back from them, so this may not be a done deal.
                  Much of the rest of the day, I spent cleaning a few things on the boat and documenting what I've discovered about the settings and hardware connections and backing up the files that control the, finally working, Ubiquiti Bullet M2 and the Linksys Router. I don't want to have to rediscover how to make this thing work.
                  I don't usually have the VHF radio on all the time, but, since the wind has moved me around quite a bit today here at the anchorage, I turned it on to get and plot my exact locations on a chart. While listening to it in the background, a very loud alarm on the radio went off. I was a weather warning about water spouts reported south of here between Bonita Springs and Marco Island, no danger to me, but I think the weather is going to worsen in the next few days. Nothing serious however, I hope.

Friday, 26 August - I awoke a little earlier today because the refrigeration man said he'd be headed this way fairly early this morning. He said he'd call when he left the shop and would take about 30 minutes to get here. I wanted to be ready to head over to the marina when he called. He hadn't called by the time I'd expected, so I lowered the dinghy and went over to the marina so I'd be there if he showed up. Sure enough, I'd been there about 15 minutes when he called me from his truck about 100 feet from me. I got my new electronic control module and gave him a check for the $250. I think if this were in a toy, the whole thing would be about $25 - $50, but it says "marine refrigeration" on it.
                  I headed back to the boat and installed the control unit and ...the refrigeration compressor and water pump came on as they should. Yahoo! I turned the unit off and hooked up the test manifold, then started it back up...not cooling much. I could see that I was going to need more refrigerant, so I turned it off, got in the dinghy and headed to the island hardware store. The store is small and doesn't have much inventory, but I did know that they had refrigerant. While ashore, I went to the post office for some mail that I was expecting and filled three jerrycans with water for the boat.
                  While loading the water onto the boat, I noticed a boat-tailed grackle on the wharf only about 4-5 ft. from me in the dinghy. He moved and I noticed something blue seemed to be attached to his right leg, which was mostly hidden from me, on the other side of his body. I continued to watch him, and sure enough, he had a blue, plastic clip about two inches long on his foot. He must have been exhausted from carrying it around. I stepped onto the dock and he moved away, toward the end of the dock, but didn't fly. I got down on my knees and approached slowly. I think he was almost too tired to fly away, and his only choice was over the water. He turned away from me as if to take off and fly away anyway. While his head was turned away, I grabbed him and simply opened the clip, then set him down. I'm sure the clip had been on his foot quite awhile, he couldn't open it well and stayed there until after I motored away.
                  I think he was there in order for me to redeem myself for not rescuing another grackle about a week ago. That one was in the water, soaking wet and exhausted, but I rationalized that if I saved him I was stealing some other animal's dinner. I've felt bad ever since, so it was nice to be able to mend my ways.
                  Back at the boat, I added a little refrigerant to the compressor, added the water in the jerrycans to the boat's tank, and am now waiting for the refrigerator to cool down so I can determine if I need to add more R134a. I'm sure it will take awhile to cool down. The refrigerator was at room temperature, about 90°F. after having been off for almost two weeks.

Saturday, 27 August - After getting up a little late, I checked the refrigeration. It was running fine, but not cold at all. I'd left the gauge manifold on the unit overnight, believing that it was sealed well, and that that would allow me to check the high and low pressures at a glance. Wrong, the pressures were very low and equal. There had to be a leak. I got out the soapy water and, sure enough, the seal on the hose for the high pressure was leaking ever so much. I opened the low pressure valve on the manifold and recharged the unit a little at a time, waiting between injections for the refrigerant to cool the evaporator (cooling plate). This took up most of the day, but when I was satisfied that the evaporator was freezing to the top, I shut off the valves and disconnected the manifold hoses.
                  Later, Steve Monaghan and I went out to get some clam chowder and spend the evening out on the town. Had a great time.

Sunday, 28 August - I had left the refrigeration unit opened up and the manifold readily accessible, so I, once again checked the refrigerator. It was running great and cooling pretty well, but looked like it needed a bit more R134a, so I added just a little, unhooked, closed up the compressor compartment, the engine room, and put away the tools. Finally! Now all I needed to do is see if the thermostat was going to shut off the unit when the temperature reached a low enough point. It didn't. It stays running all the time, getting very cold. It's time to get another thermostat.
                  This afternoon, Steve and I walked over to the beach, then had a couple of drinks and dinner at The Cottages. Very good, but not cheap!

Monday, 29 August - Up this morning to find out exactly which thermostat I need for the refrigerator. I called Isotherm, the maker of the complete refrigeration unit, and got the number and some other information that will be helpful if there is a "next time." Next, I called the local supplier to see if he had one and would be coming this way anytime soon. He said "Yes" to both questions and said he'd call me before he headed this way, either late this afternoon or in the morning. It's now 5:30pm, so I suspect it will be tomorrow. Tomorrow will be better anyway. It's been windy and rainy off and on all afternoon, as usual. Mornings usually have better weather here.
                  I'm starting to keep an eye on Tropical Depression #9. It's been off the coast of Cuba and drenching them with rain and high winds for the last couple of days, and there's a chance it will change directions and head this way later in the week. They're predicting that it will loop further north of us here, but you never know.
                  I think I'll head over to Bonita Bills for dinner and music this evening.

Tuesday, 30 August - My trip to Bonita Bills was rewarded with another bandana, this time for knowing who had a hit with the song, "You Can't Roller-skate in a Buffalo Herd." - Roger Miller. It's funny how sometimes I'm hot and sometimes I'm not. I hadn't won in a couple of weeks, but last night, I could have won three in a row! Unfortunately, but fairly, you can only win once per night. I not only remembered the answer, but did so in plenty of time to have yelled it out for a win. Such is life.
                  The weather here has been cooler the last couple of days, and I'm certainly glad of it. This morning I waited until 9 am for a call from the refrigeration repairman that was supposed to bring me a new thermostat, but the call didn't come. I called him and discovered that he'd totally forgotten about it. Tomorrow, he says.
                  At least the knowledge that he wasn't coming freed me up to do other things, so I hurriedly dinghied to the grocery store to beat the afternoon rain showers and got back just in time to unload before it started to sprinkle.

Wednesday, 31 August - I called the refrigeration man this morning at ten minutes before eight to make sure he was headed this way. We both arrived at Moss Marina at the same time, at about 8:20 am. I got my part and headed back. He told me to hook up the wires to the outside connectors of three, which is not how the old one was connected, or how the wiring diagram is drawn. I tried that and the way the wiring diagram shows, but so far, neither way is working. I can't imagine why. The thermostat will turn the refrigeration off when I turn the thermostat to the off position, so the wiring is definitely conducting electricity, so why won't the thermostat turn it off when it gets cold enough, which it is. It's 13°F. Down it the freezer. Maybe I don't have the sensor placed properly. I'll continue to play with its location. I know the temperature varies all over the scale in various locations in the freezer, from about 12° to 32° within inches of each other. I'll throw a fan in there to even the temperatures out, that might help. I may not have needed a thermostat to begin with!