Friday, 7 October 2016 - I think the brunt of what I will be feeling from Matthew is already over. It never came closer to me than about 150 miles and is now about 200 miles away to the north and headed north. I didn't know what to expect, so the move to a mooring ball was just cheap insurance since I didn't consider the anchorage I was in would protect me with winds over 35-40 kts. This way, I didn't have to worry about my anchor breaking loose and setting me adrift. I think I would have been alright at the previous anchorage since I don't think the winds got above 35 kt. here, and that was only briefly, yesterday afternoon. Of course, just because the weathermen were saying it would run up the east coast didn't mean Matthew couldn't change course and head this way, either. Today the winds are in the 20 kt. range and we're even seeing some sunshine. I had hoped to try out my new water catchment system. The rains didn't even last long enough for that, but if any more bands of rain come through, I'm ready to top off my tank.
                  Steve Monaghan needed to run some errands, so I joined him and we went to the marine hardware store where I bought some chemicals to treat the diesel fuel in my tank and some spare zincs for the propeller shaft, then to Walmart for a few groceries. It's so much easier when you have access to a car! Later he and I had a bowl of clam chowder at the Matanzas Inn, dinner at The Cottages, a couple of terrible drinks at The Mermaid, then followed the girls that had waited on us at the Inn and joined us at the Mermaid over to the Tiki Bar.

Saturday, 8 October - In this neck of the woods, hurricane Matthew is a thing of the past. It really amounted to almost nothing here, one short blast and done. Not that I'm disappointed, on the contrary, I'm totally relieved. Moving to the mooring field was still worthwhile. Cheap insurance, peace of mind, and a learning experience, too. I can see picking up a mooring ball by myself in a crowded field is going to be very challenging. The biggest problem is not only in the approach, but getting the boat to stop in exactly the right spot. Too short and you can't reach the ball, and if you overshoot, you can't hold the 40,000 lb. boat back when you hook the ball or pennant and are trying to get attached to it. As I understand it too, almost every mooring field has different conditions, arrangements, and hardware, but at least now I have a much better idea of what I'll need to do and how to accomplish it when I approach another mooring field and mooring ball.
                  Speaking of mooring balls, I don't think I need to stay on the ball or in the field anymore, so after going to the bank for some cash, I dropped the pennant and moved back out to my old stomping grounds at my anchorage on the other side of the bridge. It's quieter there. The shrimp fleet runs generators and machinery all night long across from the mooring field, plus there are just lots of other noises in the mooring field with boats close by and housing within about 100 yards. Out here on the hook (anchor), there's no one near me unless they're just passing by.
                  There's a big "Pirate Fest" celebration in Ft. Myers Beach this weekend. Because of the hurricane warnings, I'm sure the turnout is much smaller than usual, but it is still pretty fun. Lots of people in pirate attire roaming the streets and filling the restaurants, stores, and bars, and attending the Pirate Fair with lots of pirate attire, guns, knives, jewelry, and other trinkets for sale in the booths in the streets, etc. Of course, there are cannons being fired and other battles and reenactments going on, too. Even a pirate wedding. I never realized that all pirate women were so busty, either, but I don't mind.
                  Perfect pirate weather today, too, perfectly blue skies, just enough breeze to push a pirate ship along at a good pace, and about 89°F.

Sunday, 9 October - I tinkered with the Evinrude engine for the dinghy almost all day, trying to determine why it has been stalling on me. Thinking the problem might be water in the fuel, I drained fuel from the bottom of the tank, expecting to find condensation there, but I didn't. Next, I thought I'd drain fluid from the bottom of the carburetor, but there's no drain there. I think it's a pretty poor design to not have a float bowl drain, but mine doesn't have one, and there's nothing I can do about it. To inspect the float bowl, I'd need to disassemble about half the engine, so I passed on that for the moment. I did, however, discover that a gasket for the thermostat is broken and needs to be replaced, along with the thermostat's cover plate, which is chipped off on one edge and, thus, let the gasket protrude. I'll order those tomorrow. I, of course, thought this might be a simple, quick job, but no, just figuring out what the thermostat was took about 2 hours. I have the Evinrude service manual for the motor, but absolutely nowhere in the book is there any description or labeled photo of the thermostat. There are, indeed, pictures of it, but they are not labeled. When I took the cover off, I thought it was a small pump. The only mention of the thermostat simply says, "Inspect the thermostat for proper operation." and is accompanied by no illustration whatsoever. Well, now I know.
                  Now that I have taken the thermostat off and it can't be put back on until fixed, I spent the next hour taking the Evinrude off the dinghy and replacing it with the Yamaha. When I do that, I also have to switch the tanks, because of the different oil/gas ratio, and switch the connector on the end of the fuel line.
                  Wow! Later this afternoon two pirate ships sailed past me here at Matanzas Pass and attacked one of the town parks here with their cannons. The battery on shore responded and the battle went of for about 45 minutes. One of the pirates ships, the Black Duck, is a cat ketch, which is a fore and aft rigged sailboat with two masts like a regular ketch or yawl, except that the forward mast is right up at the bow instead of being near the center of the boat like most. The other was square rigged with a high poop deck aft that I see frequently called the Pieces of Eight. I know the shore battery had about 7 or 8 cannons, but, even though I had a pretty good view here in the bay, I couldn't tell how many the ships had. I know there was sure a lot of cannon fire, and I could here men on the shore battery, and, I believe on one of the ships firing arquebuses. The battle was at pretty close range so there must have been a lot of damage on both sides, but neither of the ships sank, and they eventually quit firing and sailed away. I guess they either ran out of shot or they just realized they couldn't win. I suppose it was a draw with no true victor. Sure was exciting for a while, though!

Monday, 10 October - I ordered the parts for the outboard motor this morning, then checked the level of my diesel fuel tank and treated the 75 gallons of fuel with an anti-bacterial stabilizer. I'm sure I should have done this sooner. Next, I started making a mount for the dinghy that will support a red/green navigation light. I'm supposed to have that for the Evinrude, and since I just took it off the dinghy, I won't need it until I put it back on, because the Yamaha has a built-in light set on it, but I have the hardware and Steve Monaghan brought me a board to use for it recently, so I might as well make it now. I've just been lucky to have gotten away without it until now.
                  Oops! It's Monday night, gotta go to Bonita Bill's for dinner.

Tuesday, 11 October - It doesn't seem like I got much done today. All I did was rig a mount for a red/green bow running light for the dinghy by drilling a few holes in a board and smoothing the edges with a wood plane, then attaching it to the dinghy with some cord. After that, I spent considerable time looking online for a 12V photoelectric switch to turn my anchor light on at dusk and off at dawn. What I need doesn't seem to exist. I need something like is on most home yard lamp posts, but all those are for 120V. I know they must exist, but I can't believe one is so hard to find. I also spent some time editing some of the photos that I took this week.
                  I guess that fall has finally arrived here in Florida. The temperature got all the way down to 72°F. last night! I had to sleep under a sheet all night last night, and it only got up to 84°F. today. Oh! and guess what! My refrigerator actually shut itself off once today, and I think it must have shut off last night, too, because when I went to bed the batteries were at 76% and when I got up, they were still at 61%. They usually drop about 20% or more overnight. It got eerily quiet when the fridge shut off and I thought, "Oh! No!, the refrigerator has broken down." To make sure, I got up, opened up the refrigerator and grabbed the thermostat sensor to warm it up. I was very relieved when it came back on. It hasn't shut off by itself in a very long time. I guess its shutting down is another sign that winter is just around the corner. Although the days are getting shorter, the wind has been blowing enough during the day that, along with the solar panels, the batteries have recharged back up to about 75% each day, so I haven't had to start the generator in three or four days now. That's nice.

Wednesday, 12 October - I cleaned up some of the paper work that has accumulated on my saloon table over the past few weeks, then spent the afternoon sorting out the international courtesy flags that were left for me by the previous owners, Rick and Gay George, and by my parents. These are flags that need to be flown on my sailboat after checking into countries in my travels and flown during my stay there. I find that I have over thirty countries' and island groups' flags, plus a couple of dive flags and a cocktail hour flag, which I've already put to good use, and signal flags for the complete alphabet. If I'm going to visit all thirty countries, I'd better get started pretty soon.