Thursday, 20 October 2016 - One of the first things I did this day was go to the post office to get the Evinrude parts that UPS had delivered to who knows where. Actually, what I was picking up was replacements. Once that was done, I headed to the grocery store for some distilled water for my starter battery and got that, then back to the boat. I unloaded the lazarette, which, when I reloaded it yesterday wouldn't hold everything and couldn't be closed. I realized later that I had thrown a couple of extra ropes in the bottom and that was why. I filled the cells in the battery, took out the extra ropes, reloaded the lazerette and closed it up. Everything just fit, but of course, I still have two large ropes in the cockpit to clutter things up.
                  I got bad news tonight. My friend, Charlie, isn't going to make it down here to see me as soon as I thought. The airline ticket prices skyrocketed after he'd checked the prices and he's decided to put it off for awhile.

Friday, 21 October - First thing on the agenda this morning was to fire up all the electronics onboard and practice reading and interpreting my radar. I haven't done that very much and shouldn't wait until I need it sometime in the dark, fog, or heavy rain. I booted everything up and tinkered with it for awhile, but no boats came by to track. I couldn't believe it. It seems like there are always boats coming by starting about 5:30 am. Well, not today at 10 am to 11. A couple of small boats came by and that was all in the hour. I gave up and moved on to the next project, cleaning the anchor chain again. That went much faster this time since it hasn't been long ago that I cleaned it. I hate putting the chain into the chain locker to go sailing when it's covered with barnacles. The whole boat stinks for about 3 days when I do that. I really need to go scrape the bottom of the boat again and was hoping to do that this weekend. However, there are small boat wind warnings out for the next couple of days. I don't think that would be a problem for me sailing, but it would be tough cleaning the bottom of the boat in 4 - 5 foot waves. I'd probably get bonked on the head a few times while under the boat. Maybe Sunday or Monday. By 11:30 there were all kinds of boats going by that I could have looked at on the radar, shrimp boats, kayaks, fishing boats, tour boats, trawlers, tow boats, and cigarette boats. Bad timing and the story of my life. Next time I'll know.
                  Next on the agenda was to install the new thermostat gasket and cover and deadman switch on the Evinrude outboard motor. I'd hoped that if I was careful, I could install it while it was mounted on the outside of the stern pushpit, but the way it is mounted, I couldn't get the engine cover off. Thank God! I'd forgotten that the cover is spring loaded by the thermostat and I'm sure I would have lost parts overboard. Since I couldn't work on it on the pushpit, I had to lower the dinghy and use the block and tackle for it to move the engine onto the afterdeck and work on it there, then put it back and raise the dinghy again. It actually went pretty well, although reading the service manual made it look like I would have to do a lot more work than I actually did.
                  Oh, and there's good news, I shut the refrigerator off the other day because I could tell the house batteries would run too low overnight and after I turned it back on, the evaporator, the part that actually does all the cooling, has gotten frost all over it, not just on two sides as it had been. It might have had some water in it that had frozen in the passageway and blocked part of it up and apparently, letting the whole thing thaw out let that moisture thaw and move on through the system to somewhere else. I believe that was suggested to me by my brother, Mike. I had thawed it before, but hadn't had the success that this time brought. Now if the thermostat in it would work properly. Today is about the second time since I got a new thermostat that it has shut off, unfortunately, it shut off about two or three hours ago and hasn't come back on. Last time it shut off, I forced it to come back on by warming the sensor with my fingers. This time I'm going to leave it alone and see what happens, but I think that after two hours, it should be back on.

Saturday, 22 October - The refrigerator came on after about 5 or 6 hours. I think it should take shorter, but more frequent breaks.
                  Brrr. It got cold last night. I actually had to throw a blanket over me. The temperature dropped all the way down to 65°F. They say it may get to 58° tonight and only 80 tomorrow.
                  I did some reading this morning then dove into the engine room to see if I could figure out why my tachometer isn't working. I found a broken wire right off and fixed it, but realized it was connected to the water pump, a temperature sensor sender, I guess, so that wasn't the right one. Next, I found a loose gray connector that looked like it might be the culprit, so I tightened the connector, started the engine and ....still no rpm's showing on the tach. That made me think that maybe the problem was at the other end, in the back of the control panel. Everything there looked ship-shape. Back to the engine room. I found a wire with a ring connector that was just hanging. I have no idea where it is supposed to go. I looks like it should be connected to something. There are lots of non-connected connectors on and about the engine, many of which are in the wiring harnesses for features that I don't have, but this actually looks like it's been fastened to something in the past. I never did find what the problem with the tachometer.

Sunday, 23 October - My dad's birthday. I wish he were here to share the boat experience with me. Plus, he was a great electrician and I'm not.
                  Because of a miscommunication, I thought Steve Monaghan and I were going to sail out and clean the bottom of our boats today, but he didn't. I tried several times to contact him and waited all day for him to return my messages, which never happened.

Monday, 24 October - I headed out to clean the bottom of my boat this morning in San Carlos Bay. On the way, my chart plotter went blank. I rebooted it and the image defaulted to the base map and when I zoomed in, it just became a blurry blob. I proceeded slowly and carefully just watching my depth finder until I was it 10 feet of water, then dropped my anchor and prepared to dive by setting up the generator and air compressor. I put on my shorty wet suit, booties, buoyancy compensator, etc., then started the generator and the compressor. I let the pressure build it the compressor, then tested my breathing apparatus. When I did, the generator shut off and I could never get it to restart. After fooling with it for about an hour, I gave up, put everything away and motored back into Matanzas Pass using radar for practice, since I had no chart plotter. I was glad it was daylight because if it hadn't been, I would have gone out of the channel and probably run aground, and it wasn't because I don't know how to read the radar screen. The screen only shows blobs and certainly can't discern the difference between a red or green channel marker or any other sign. There was one spot that had a warning sign just where you'd expect one of the red or green channel markers. If you went between them, you'd probably be aground. In another spot, the red channel marker, which is on your right as you come into the bay, is mounted on a wharf, so it doesn't show up on the radar at all. So much for that technology.
                  Steve Luta had called and said that his friend Bill Nolan was going to sail up here today and to watch for him. I had thought I'd be away cleaning the bottom of the boat when he arrived, but since that was a wash, I was in my usual anchoring spot when he went right by me close enough I thought he could have heard me. I waved my arms and yelled at him several times loud enough that I actually heard my own echo. No response, so I called him on the phone. No response, so I called him on the VHF radio on the hailing channel, 16. No response, so I gave up and watched them sail on by, expecting to see him at Bonita Bill's later. I looked and looked, but never saw him at all....but I did win a bandana for knowing the name of the hit song that Gerry Goffin and Carol King wrote for Little Eva back in 1962 - Loco-Motion. Little Eva was their 19 year old baby sitter.

Tuesday, 25 October - I checked on the shipment of the chart card for my Raymarine Chart Plotter today and it's not due to arrive at the post office until tomorrow. That means I won't get it until Thursday. If it doesn't solve the crashing problem on the plotter, I'll probably have to send the plotter back to Raymarine. I certainly hope that doesn't happen. I don't even want to think about how long that might take.
                  On a happier note, replacing the spark plug in my Honda generator seems to have solved that problem. The plug I pulled out only had about 40 hours of use and looked perfectly good, but if replacing it fixes the problem, it's probably the cheapest fix possible...plus it made me aware that spare plugs for the generator were something I hadn't thought of and didn't have. Now I do!
                  Ahha! I just checked the tracking number on the charts again and it was delivered to the post office this afternoon. Maybe I can get it tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, 26 October - I called the post office at 9 this morning to make sure my package was, indeed, there. The woman went back to the General Delivery section to check, then returned and said, "No, there's nothing there with your name on it." and before I could say that the UPS tracking number said it was delivered, she asked, "Who is it coming from?" I told her "Navionics" and she said "Ok, it's here. They didn't put your name on it, just General Delivery." I guess somewhere at UPS thought it was going to some General named "Delivery." I went and got it immediately so they couldn't lose it again.
                  I filled my three jerrycans with water back at the dock, then headed back to the boat in the dinghy. As soon as I got there, I inserted the card and booted the system up. YES!!! Success, and it stayed, no crashed or defaulting to the base map and going all blurry. Yea! Detailed sonar maps in one foot increments, crowd sourced community edits and reviews of marinas, restaurants, and points of interest, and more. Finally! Everything but my routes, tracks, and waypoints. Those needed to be reloaded from the backup. It made sense to me to use the "Restore" button on the chart plotter's configuration page, but that didn't work, so I called Raymarine. No, it's the "Import Button."
                  A great week, or, at least it ends well. The generator is working again, the Evinrude has been repaired, the tachometer is registering, the refrigerator is not working nearly as hard as it has been and is actually cycling on and off which keeps the batteries from draining as fast. It's 5pm, I haven't started the engine or the generator to charge the batteries since Monday, and the batteries are at 90% charge. Plus, I have my navigation back without having to send the chart plotter back for repairs! Yahoo!
                  I'm so happy I think I'll actually get this update out a little early today, then add the water I brought back into the tank.

            Until next time.
                        "Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!" - Hunter S. Thompson

                                          Rick