Saturday, 1 June 2024 - The first day of hurricane season with none in the short term forecast, thank God. It was also the first Saturday of the month nautical swap meet. Unfortunately, I wan the only seller to show up and no one intending to buy showed up either. Fortunately, a couple new to the harbor happened by and purchased one of my wall hanging storage bags for $20. Then one of the other boaters that was walking by saw some scissors that I had and I gave him a pair just to get them off my boat. An hour later he came by with $5. I told him I had intended that they be free but he insisted I take the money because he needed a pair. Since no one else had wares to sell, I didn't spend any money or end up bringing anything back to the boat that I didn't take to shore with me. This afternoon I went to Home Depot and purchased two gallons of Rotella Diesel Lubricating Oil so I can change the oil in the engine and two gallons of Prestone Antifreeze. I am amazed that Americans have gotten so lazy that they would rather spend $13 on a gallon of antifreeze that is half premixed water and antifreeze than $16 on a gallon of pure antifreeze that they can dilute to 50/50 themselves. The premixed was all they had on the shelves. I asked one of the employees about it and he said they only stock the premixed but I mentioned my surprise to another and he tracked down some "concentrated" for me. Not only do I not want to pay $13/gallon for water, but I don't want to have to store twice as many jugs on the boat.

Sunday, 2 June - I spent most of the day today changing the oil in the engine. It took waaaay longer than it should have. Unlike on a car, since there is no way to get under the engine, I have to suck the old oil out with a vacuum pump. I had previously done that through a slender, 1/8" tube that fits inside the dip stick tube and I tried that at first today but it was really coming out slow for some reason. After getting about one gallon of the oil out over a couple of hours I decided to try another route. The engine has a 3/8" tube specifically for that purpose. It is on the starboard side of the engine and very difficult to access. I finally came to the realization that if I get in on the port side, then lay across the engine and hang my head down so I can view it upside down I can get to it easier. I hooked up to that and had another gallon sucked out in about one minute. I put two new gallons of Rotella oil back in and was finished just in time to meet Susie at Dockside for the evening.

Monday, 3 June - I played pickleball for two hours this morning then went to the fitness court workout for an hour. When that finished I returned to the pickleball court for a few more games. Back at the boat I spent some time trying to find out why I haven't been given a refund on the Viadana $113 quad block from Vela Sailing Supply that I returned several weeks ago. I hope I got it straightened out, but only time will tell.

Tuesday, 4 June - Two and a half hours of pickleball this morning. This evening I went to Dockside even though Susie is back in Ohio for the week to tend to some of the family's business. I had dinner there then joined Steve Vereen and Mike ? at the bar for a few drinks and conversation. Fortunately, I'm not good at macho bar BS with "the guys", so I just returned to my table and listened to the music.

Wednesday, 5 June - Our fitness slave master had a conflict of schedule today so I played about 3 hours of pickleball instead of two hours and an hour of fitness training. I went by the marina and picked up four pair of shorts that I had ordered from Outdoor Sportsman. The sun really eats everything up, including three pair of shorts of mine recently. They just get to where they rip very easily, especially when I'm soggy with perspiration.

Thursday, 6 June - Pickleball players pooped out by about 10:30 this morning so I took the opportunity to go grocery shopping. On the way, I tried to get cash from a nearby ATM. It couldn't complete the transaction, then kept my debit card. By the time I bought groceries and returned to the boat I barely had time to put away the perishables before I needed to shower and go to the marina's tiki for a pot luck dinner to celebrate the temporary visit of Vicky Nelson, partner of Mike Barber. They were central to organizing many activities here in the harbor for several years.

Friday, 7 June - I played pickleball for two hours this morning, then went to the fitness court for the hour class. Only two of us arrived on time for pickleball this morning so we simply practiced dinking and some serves. At nine a new person showed up and we played two against one, rotating around the court after each person lost the serve twice. The fitness class started at ten and two girls and I were the only participants to show up for that, too. However, between the pickleball, fitness, and high temperature, sunshine, and high humidity, I was thoroughly soaked with perspiration by the time it was all over. I returned to the boat, put away the groceries that I didn't have time to put away yesterday, then went over questions I wanted to ask Raymarine's support personnel about the radar, then called them. Upon their suggestion, I checked the voltage getting to the Radome, 12.69V. I opened the dome and discovered that if I turn the DRIVE CAPSTAN by hand, the RED DRIVE BELT turns the ARRAY, but the BELT is not very tight. If it turns faster, the array may not rotate. Instructions warn about getting within ONE METER of the pod while it is rotating (Transmitting). It can harm you, especially your EYES. That will have to wait for another day. I need to talk to the technician again to find out how I can tell if it is rotating while closed up. Looking at my weather app, it appears that the next ten days will be pretty rainy with a 50% chance each day. I may not get much time to work on the radar, but I'm betting that we still get significant amounts of clear skies. Without the 22 million gallons of water brought in by the aqueduct authority every day, this string of islands and keys would be a desert. My refund for the Viadana quad block finally went through today.

Saturday, 8 June - Today I removed the top of the Radome and examined the inner workings again. I started to use a mirror to see over the top of the Radome with the top removed but realized that I could actually see the array from about 10 feet away without the mirror. The simple repair would have been to replace the rubber drive belt, but that isn't the case. The array is turning so I closed the unit back up and will talk to the technician again on Monday.

Sunday, 9 June - I started to create another gasket for the joint between the male and female connectors on the Yamaha outboard motor today but in the process realized that there is an intended gap between the two. The seal is really the o-ring that is inside the female connector. It seals against the ball bearing when the unit is not connected and against the male counterpart when it is connected. Except this one didn't. When I disconnected the fuel line gas was spewing out. This is about the fourth or fifth one that has had the o-ring tear. I have several different brands as spares and all of them have the same problem. I'm surprised because I rarely disconnect that union unless it appears to be leaking.

Monday, 10 June - Only three showed up for pickleball this morning so we played two against one, rotating positions after only two serves lost (hideouts) by the server. I went to the marina and picked up a package that contains two fuel filters I ordered on Ebay, then returned to the boat. Nelson, the fellow I had talked to on Friday at Raymarine called to inform me that he had asked other technicians that sail about engaging the AutoTack on the 8002 AutoHelm and had determined that even though the instructions describe step by step how to set it up, it isn't possible to engage on except on the 7002. That's not good news.

Tuesday, 11 June - I was the only person to show for pickleball this morning. Susie arrived back from Ohio late last night and we met at Dockside for dinner. I returned to the boat about 11 last night to discover the "Low Battery" alarm blinking. It was too late to start up the Honda generator so I just shut off the refrigeration and all other non-essential systems and went to bed, hoping for the best.

Wednesday, 12 June - I was amazed and pleasantly surprised to awaken this morning to find that the wind must have blown just enough last night for the wind generator to bring the batteries up from 11.9V to 12.1 so the alarm had ceased to blink. When I had gone to bed there was no wind at all. It rained early this morning and I was the only one to show up for pickleball. I practiced my right-handed serves for about an hour and a half then went to the fitness court. Susie showed up to exercise and we were two of the three that showed up. I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a call from my old friends Hook Ershler and Jon Lindgren who were having dinner with more friends back in Salt Lake City this evening. The conversation was brief since they were in a loud restaurant, but it was good to hear from them.

Thursday, 13 June - I skipped pickleball since I figured I'd be the only one to show up again and spent most of the day trying to figure out why my LinkPro battery monitor reports the voltage on my house battery bank properly buh indicates that my starter battery is charged to 14.65V when it is really at 12.83V. Tech support at Xantrex was no help at all. Of course, their suggestion was, "send it in to us and for a very high price, we'll try to fix it but you probably need a new one."

Friday, 14 June - Again, only three showed up for pickleball this morning. I played for an hour and a half then headed to the fitness court to sweat some more for an hour. While central Florida got flooded with up to and over 20 inches of rain this week, I almost, but not quite, topped off my 200 gallon water tank with rainwater this week. I'm not sure all the rain has passed. I may make it yet. Lots of rain passes just north or south of us. We had 50-60% chance of rain predicted almost every hour of every day this week but still didn't get much. Well, we got more than we normally do but not much in comparison to the rest of south and central Florida.

Saturday, 15 June - I changed two of the three fuel filters today, the starboard Racor filter and the secondary filter and started the engine for a short while to make sure that all the recent changes have been effective and nothing leaks. All appears to be fine.

Sunday, 16 June - This morning the net controller's radio died so I had to take over at the last minute. I haven't been net controller for a while but it went smoothly. Susie and I joined Shawn and Sue Crowder and two of their friends at Dockside for the bar's open mic night.

Monday, 17 June - I played pickleball and worked out at the fitness court this morning then went to the marina to check my mail. I have been expecting a replacement debit card replacement for the one that Wells Fargo's cash machine kept last week. It arrived and as I was returning to my dinghy I passed Candace Widgeon who has done some fiberglass repairs and bottom paint on her dinghy. She and Karen Diehl were just about to relaunch the boat so I offered to help. We got it safely back into the water via the marina's manual derrick and needed to move her outboard motor from one she has been using and has just sold to the newly repaired boat. She couldn't turn the transom bolts so I took her place. About an hour and a half later I finally got the four bolts loose enough to lift the engine off the transom and drop it onto the the repaired boat, She broke one of the transom bolt handles off and I broke the other so then she decided to take the engine to the project room to repair those another day rather than have to work on them in a bobbing dinghy on a rainy day. Afterward she took Karen and me out to lunch at the Key Colony Inn. I called Susie on the way and she met us there for happy hour.

Tuesday, 18 June - Only three showed up for pickleball this morning and the other two only lasted about an hour. I returned to the boat and again tried to determine whether I need an eight blade or ten blade impeller for the raw water pump. I have an eight blade in it now but it didn't last long, plus, just because that's what was available for the spare doesn't mean it is the correct one. Unfortunately, the parts book for the engine doesn't list the part number for it. I guess they don't consider that part of the engine. A parts retailer wasn't helpful either. He just wanted to know the part number. I have many parts numbers for it, but don't know which one is the correct one. I also ordered something online that was supposed to be a free sample but the order confirmation indicated that I'b been charged $217 for it. That took about an hour to get cancelled and the charge reversed. At seven this evening I met Susie at Dockside for some dancing.

Wednesday, Juneteenth - The marina was closed for the holiday and the fitness instructor that works for the park had the day off, but we still had access to the pickleball equipment so Phil Vachon and I played a couple of hours. On my way back to the boat I passed Candice. She was trying to get her dinghy started without success. I told her if she needed anything to give me a shout on the VHF. About an hour later I got the call. She needed a ride in to the marina for ice and to get a water separating fuel filter for her outboard out of her car so I took her in and brought her back. I hope that solved her problem. I didn't hear from her again. When I returned to the boat again I defrosted the fridge.

Thursday, 20 June - I thought the rains would pass us by but texted the group on TeamReach to see if anyone else wanted to play pickleball today. The only response I got was from Phil Vachon saying he wouldn't make it, which I already knew because he told me yesterday that he's headed to a diabetes forum for the weekend. He's had diabetes ever since he was a kid and has an insulin pump under his skin to help him control the problem. During play he frequently gets a call on his phone warning him that his sugar is out of balance. I guess he can administer the solution over the phone because he usually continues to play right after putting the phone back in his pocket. Since no one else responded, I stayed on the boat all day even though it never rained at all. There's always something to do on the boat.

Friday, 21 June - Wow! Suddenly we went from three pickleballers to thirteen. It will be interesting to see how many show up Monday. Only three of us showed up for the fitness class, however. The marina had asked that I drop by and show them my boat's current Coast Guard documentation, so I did that before returning to the boat. For the last couple of weeks the weather prognostications have been for from 30-50% chance of rain and the next ten days look the same. Fortunately, most of the rain is very brief or misses us altogether. I think this is the longest streak of moisture we've had since I've been here. I had hoped to take Susie out on the boat tomorrow but she won't enjoy it if it's raining. Regardless, I need to take the boat out soon for another trial run to make sure that all my recent maintenance has cured all the deficiencies.

Saturday, 22 June - Well, this has been an interesting day for me and it's not even over yet. Rain has been predicted all week at about 30-50% and we've barely gotten any. I decided to go out today to verify the maintenance that I've recently. I got out of the harbor and everything I've done seems fine. I had good oil pressure, the engine stayed cool, the autopilot performed as it should, etc. However, the wind indicator seems to be about 15 decrees off and is not registering the wind speed. That's new, and even though the GPS was showing my heading and track properly, it wasn't calculating my speed over the ground. I noticed on my phones radar that some rain was headed my way so I started back but ran out of time. The squall that I had seen on the radar was coming from behind me. Just as I got to the west end of the mooring field I could see heavy rain coming at me from ahead. Halfway there the wind picked up. I had all my windows on the dodger rolled up but didn't want to drop them because with the rain on them my visibility would be impaired. On my first approach to the mooring ball the wind had just shifted from the southeast to east but I had my alignment right but the wind picked up just as I approached. I came up just short but was able to hook the ball'l pennant but couldn't hold on and had to drop it and go around again. By the time I circled two boats for my second approach the wind was out of the northeast and I overshot by about eight feet. I hoped that I would drift back to it but I got too far away so I ran back to the cockpit just in time to see that it got closer with another wind shift, but it was too late. I made another approach and hooked the pennant again. The normal procedure is to pick up the pennant with my hook and pull the eye to me, run my line through the eye, run the end of the line back through the haws hole, and quickly pull the line in and tie a cleat hitch onto the cleat. The wind and rain was blowing hard so this time I took no chances. I had slightly overshot again so I simply pulled the pennant's eye onboard and quickly hooked the eye onto one horn of the cleat. I got it on just as the boat drifted back and tightened the line but at least I was secured. Once that was done I had all the time in the world to bring the port mooring line to the starboard side, thread it through the eye and take it back to the port side, run it through the have hole and cleat it off. After that I removed the pennant's eye from the cleat and ran the line through it properly and cleated off. Only then did I shut the engine down and start putting things away. Since the windows were rolled up, everything in the cockpit was soaked, but nothing ruined. It'll all dry out eventually, as will I. Once I got most things put away that don't have to dry out I needed to get the rainwater out of the dinghy. It had about 4 inches in it. Rather than bail it out, I simply attached the davit hooks and lifted each end just out of the water, pulled the drain plug, and let gravity take over. I think we got as much rain today as we've gotten all week. At 6:30 I'll go meet Susie at Dockside.

Monday, 24 June - As usual, I played pickleball and worked out at the fitness court. I planned on returning to the courts but the remaining players left just as we finished exercising.

Tuesday, 25 June - I saw a somewhat unusual shark on the way in to the marina today. It was a bonnethead shark, rather rare. I was the only one to show up for pickleball today. I arrived at 8:30 and practiced serves until 9, then decided not to wait any longer and left. Back on the boat I attended to several small chores, then met Susie at Dockside for the evening.

Wednesday, 26 June - Seven showed up for pickleball this morning and four for the fitness class. I found weevils in my spaghetti again this evening. I know they are coming with the fresh spaghetti when I buy it. I wonder if they or their eggs are arriving in the boxes from the factory or living on the shelves at Publix and re-infesting boxes as they hit the shelves. I see that Africa has started sending storms that could possibly develop into hurricanes across the Atlantic. I also heard that the Sahara is soon to send huge amounts of dust across. That tends to temper the storms. I hope that's true. I'd much rather have dust than hurricanes.

Thursday, 27 June - I took the boat out again today. I, again, wanted to test the wind instrument. I made two small, slow circles with the boat which is supposed to linearize the wind vane, making it send the correct signal to the display. That seemed to work but the anemometer is not sending any signal to the display so I don't get a wind velocity and speed over ground can't be calculated. It appears that I am going to have to replace the printed circuit board a fourth time. They should last much longer. Upon returning to the mooring field in very light winds this time I managed to pick up the mooring pennant and secure the boat on the first try. I had hoped to make use of the camera that Hook Ershler and Jon Lindgren gifted me to simplify backing my motorhome up to my trailer before I left Salt Lake City today. I have found that it can be very useful for guiding me to a mooring ball. When I get about 20 feet from the mooring ball I can't see it over the bow so the camera comes in very handy. However, although the receiver and screen charged, the camera itself no longer holds a charge so I couldn't use it today. I see that it works while being charged but that isn't practical while it is mounted on the bow of the boat. I'll open it up and see if the battery can be replaced. Doing so will probably ruin the waterproof seals but it's worth a try.

Friday, 28 June - Only two ladies showed up for pickleball on time this morning but a third soon joined us, then Sean Crowder showed up, too. At 10 o'clock Susie showed up for the fitness class and I quit pickleball to join her. To my surprise, so did all the other players so we had a larger than usual workout class. Again, we had very little wind so both pickleball and fitness class turned very sweaty in the mid ninety temperature and mid eighties humidity. Another tropical storm, Beryl, has just appeared down near the coast of South America and will head west northwest. Only time will tell where it will end up.

Saturday, 29 June - I got down into the engine room again today to photograph the raw water pump. I need to send the photos to Jabsco to determine which pump, and thus, which impeller I need. I also discovered that I have a diesel fuel leak but couldn't figure out where it is. Since I recently replaced the fuel filters and had to loosen the banjo bolt on the fuel system, I checked those but saw no indication of leakage. Later, I did go back down and use the vacuum pump and suck all the diesel I could out of the under-engine drip pan. There was about a quart. For good measure, I did tighten one of the filters and the banjo bolt just a tiny bit. I don't want to break the bolt or bend the lines that are attached to it, that's for sure. After that, I defrosted the freezer. I got so hot in the boat that my iPhone notified me that it shut down the charging system until it cooled down again, so I put an ice pack under it and that worked just fine. I see that tropical storm Beryl has been upgraded to a category four hurricane and traveling fast.

Sunday, 30 June - My timing of the rain here lately has been terrible. It started last week when I ended up trying to hook my mooring pennant during that sudden downburst of wind and rain. Today it looked like I might be able to get to Publix to buy groceries in between squalls, shop while it rained, then catch a ride by taxi and dinghy to the boat dry. That didn't even come close to happening. It started raining when I had walked about two blocks from the marina. I had to duck under the roof overhang at the American Legion and wait about 30 minutes before continuing. I bought groceries and called a cab but it didn't arrive for 30 minutes and when he dropped me off at the dock it started raining again. I was pretty well soaked by the time I dinghied to the boat, then it stopped again. This evening I met Susie at Dockside.