Monday, 1 July - My house batteries were down to 11.9V this morning so right after breakfast I started the engine and ran it for a little over an hour. That charged the batteries to about 90%. Even though it was raining, I figured that the solar could eventually top the batteries off throughout the day, which it did. After running the engine the engine room would be very hot so I left the hatch open to let in cool down before getting back in there to see if the work I did yesterday stopped the fuel leak. I busied myself by opening up the binnacle and lubricating the throttle control and fuel shutoff which seemed a bit sticky. After that I cleaned up some metal files that I have used recently and made new sleeves for them to keep them from rubbing against each other in storage. I also repaired the 2 gallon gas jug that I had patched with JB Weld epoxy awhile back. The JB Weld didn't adhere to the plastic jug well enough. This time I used my electric soldering iron / plastic welder and some strips of plastic I cut from a milk jug to weld the hole closed. We'll see how that works. It looks Ok.

Tuesday, 2 July - Only two girls and I showed up for pickleball today. Denise Vereen is a good player and she brought a new friend with her. The friend Sue had, according to her, played before some and taken some lessons but I must admit, she was terrible. But hey, we all started somewhere. We played longer with her than we would have without her.

Wednesday, 3 July - At 7:30 this morning I sent a message out to the pickleball group to see if anyone was going to play, but got no response so I didn't go ashore until ten o'clock for the fitness class. I returned to the boat at 11:30 and picked up where I left off trying to stop the leak in my plumbing line. I tried two applications of JB Water Weld that I had onboard, each of which were perhaps too old. Then I tried three applications of "self bonding" tape that you stretch to apply. None of the above worked so I went to Home Depot and bought two new applications of JB Water Weld. It was much more plyable and I was sure it would work. I let it set up for 50% more time that indicated but it also failed. I gave up on that for today after trying to figure out how to cut the plumbing out and rebuild a duplicate. It is a very complex set of pic tubing and elbows made of very short pieces in two spaces each on opposite sides of a bulkhead, one of which is in a very tight space. I suspect it was all installed before the countertop was installed. That would have been a piece of cake compared to now. It's going to have to be installed in a very specific order or it can't be installed at all. I may call in a plumber to do this.

Thursday, Independence day - 4th of July - Four showed up for pickleball this morning but one only played for about an hour so the three left played two against one for another half hour. Back on board Island Time I got a call from a long time friend, Jay Bowman Kirigan, and we caught up since our last conversation for about two hours. He now has his Phd. and is doing research. He has about four or more years left in his studies and research, but amazingly, will finish with absolutely no debt from all the years of education. Later, Susie met me at Dockside for a drink and a dance or two before we got in the dinghy and motored the short distance to the middle of the harbor, tied up to an empty mooring ball and watched all the fireworks being fired in all directions around the island. The middle of the harbor is really a great location to take in the celebratory fireworks.

Friday, 5 July - Again, no one returned my post to see if anyone was going to play pickleball this morning so right after breakfast I tried for about an hour to find a plumber to work on the water leak on the boat. Apparently, all the land based plumbers here think there is a difference between the pvc pipe in a house and on a boat. They don't work on boats. Ugh! After that I got down in the engine room and vacuumed about a pint and a half of diesel fuel out from under the engine. I removed one of the hoses from the seawater intake to the reverse gear heat exchanger so I could access the nuts on the high pressure fuel pump to make sure they were tight. I thought I could see a tiny bit of fuel on the bottom of one of those lines, but all four nuts were very snug. I replaced the hose and tracked every fuel line from one end to the other but still wasn't able to see a definite leaky spot. There was one more possibility and that was the lift pump hidden on the other side of the engine. That didn't make sense since it is on the opposite side of the engine from where the spilled fuel pools. There are three channels in the drip pan under the engine and that side stays dry, but I cleaned and checked the lift pump out anyway. So! Again, all that work and I still don't know where the leaked fuel comes from. That took all day and I had just enough time to clean up and go buy a hot pizza to share at the Friday night happy hour at the tiki hut at the marina.

Saturday, 6 July - Today was the first Saturday of the month so we had our monthly nautical flea market at the tiki. It was a good day. I sold nothing but also took nothing home that I didn't take to the swap. I returned to the engine room to search out the fuel leak. I could see nothing wrong but when I started the engine I finally saw fuel exiting a small hole on the edge of the plate that mounts the fuel pump to the timing case. I assume that must be similar to the hole on an automobile's water pump to notify you that the pump's seal has failed.

Sunday, 7 July - I tried to raise Larry on M/V on the VHF radio to discuss helping me with my fuel leak problem but could not, so I decide to swing by his boat. He wasn't there so on the way back to my boat I stopped at Diesel Don's boat to ask him a question or the. That developed into about a two or three hour session about all things happening in the harbor. It was, however, productive. He said he'd help me with it, "as soon as he can." That may be awhile. He's in high demand but I need to get this done before the next hurricane threatens. The pump will need to be removed and shipped to Fort Lauderdale to be rebuilt, shipped back, then reinstalled.

Monday, 8 July - No one indicated they were going to show up for pickleball so I skipped that but went to the fitness class at 10 AM. After that, I defrosted the refrigeration. It doesn't seem to be freezing as hard as usual although it's still getting plenty of frost.

Tuesday, 9 July - Three showed for pickleball this morning and I picked up a backup raw water pump impeller that had arrived at the marina. While there Adam Bilik of S/V Tapestry saw me and volunteered to help replumb the leaky fresh water line tomorrow so I went to Home Depot to buy the parts needed. I got back just in time to clean up and head to Dockside to see Susie. The usual band, the JibSea Cowboys have had a falling out with one of their members recently. He was booked in their place this evening, so the falling out wasn't too bad, I guess.

Wednesday, 10 July - Immediately after breakfast I started getting ready for Adam to come over and help with the plumbing. I decided to lay out all the pieces needed to replicate the existing hodgepodge of CPVC that I thought we needed to replace, but discovered that one piece seemed to be missing so I made another trip to Home Depot. As soon as I got back I started removing all the stowed items from under the sink and all the pots and pans from the under countertop area that also includes the plumbing with the leak. Adam arrived aboard about 1 o'clock and while he was familiarizing himself with the project, he had me reach under the counter and push the 3/4" pipe toward the other compartment. We realized that gave just enough extra length to that line to be able to cut in off and attach a threaded reducer on it. That would, in theory, allow us to use much of the pre-existing pipework and significantly shorten the repair time. While trying to retain as much as we could I tried to unscrew what I thought was an iron reducing elbow and heard something snap. We could see no faults, so we proceeded and within a short time had the repair done. I turned on the water after letting the solvent dry and, lo and behold, water went everywhere! We were back to square one and had to rebuild the whole complicated system as we first intended. Adam hated the way the original layout was done because all the joints were butted against each other to save space. That left no way to replace any single section so he talked me into rebuilding it differently. When it was all done I realized that it was so large that I wouldn't be able to get all the items back into the storage space that I'd had in there previously, but decided since it had taken all afternoon, I'd let it go and deal with it somehow. I thanked him for his help and offer to pay him but he wouldn't accept any payment. We had tested the system under pressure but as I tried to put things away and the water pressure was up, one of the connections flew apart. He'd totally neglected to apply adhesive to the connection. I decide that since I needed to repair that, I'd also make another minor change. He had dropped the last pipe that connects to the supply hose straight down, which takes up more space than necessary. I rebuilt the section angled toward the side of the box to make more room. I finally got through replacing the contents of that space around 8 pm and had dinner. I have to put everything back under the sinks and all the plumbing supplies away tomorrow.

Thursday, 11 July - I was not planning on going to pickleball this morning but Phil Vachon said he'd be there so I decided to go. When I arrived I was even more pleasantly surprised to find two players already had the net set up. It was overcast (good), hot (bad), and humid (even worse) we played about six games and I drank about 75 oz. of water between games even though I had already had about 20 oz. before we started. I went to the marina to pick up a package that had been delivered, then back to the boat to repair the 360° light on the dinghy that had fallen down. I've been noticing that the refrigeator has been having a hard time keeping its contents cold so I put about 22 seconds of refrigerant into it to bring the frostline back to the top of the evaporator. I'm very disappointed in the new refrigerator. It's only about a year and a half old, uses more energy than the old, same model, refrigerator, and is really struggling to cool. I expected the newer version to be more energy efficient, cool better, and I certainly didn't expect to have any trouble with it for at least five years.

Friday, 12 July - Five showed up for pickleball today but only played for about an hour and a half. Within that time, because of the high humidity, I think I sweated more and drank more than sessions an hour longer. It is Susie's birthday today so we went to the Florida Steak and Lobster Restaurant across the street and each had their prime rib dinner. Later we went to her house and watched a couple of episodes of "Out Land", a Netflix series, some of which was shot on the 80,000 acre San Cristobal Ranch where my dad ran away from college to live with his grandparents and become a cowboy.

Saturday, 13 July - Susie in planning on going home to Ohio for about a month so we started preparing her house here in Key Colony Beach in case a hurricane hits us before she returns. We move several plants to a safer spot between her house and the one next door, removed her Christmas lights from the eaves of her house, moved several items from the back porch to the interior of the home, used Great Stuff foam to fill the exterior entrance of her drier vent so that water can't enter there in case of hurricane flooding, and then went to dinner and the play, Alice in Wonderland, which had an all children cast of about 25 or 30 at the Marathon Community Playhouse. That was very entertaining and well done. All the kids did a great job along with the usual costume failures, etc. There's this one kid about 7 or 8 years old that we've seen in other plays that must have Turret's syndrome, ADHD or some other affliction that seems to think he is the star of the show, over acts and uses extreme, but appropriate gestures that I, and others, think is hilarious.

Sunday, 14 July - After breakfast, Susie and I went to Keys Fisheries Marina to check out a sailboat that she thinks her brother, Tim, is going to take a sailing lesson on in October, then had lunch at the restaurant there. We returned to her house, moved her kayak into the house, watched the movie, "Dune" on Netflix, and then, later, went to Dockside to go dancing. I got back to Island Time just before a brief thunder and lightning storm broke in the harbor.

Monday, 15 July - Four showed up for pickleball this morning. I contacted Diesel Don Shuler this afternoon to see when he thinks he can help me with the high pressure fuel pump. He said that he's contracted some kind of flu bug and it may be a few days. In the meantime, time is running out before we get another hurricane scare. None are lined up to our south right now but one could develop at any time and I don't want to be caught with my engine out of order.

Tuesday, 16 July - I had to drink souring milk for breakfast this morning. Even though I added refrigerant to the system recently, it was apparently a bit too late. I have almost a whole gallon of bad milk. After pickleball today I defrosted the freezer. I was reading the instructions for the system the other day and it says to defrost whenever there is an accumulation of about 5 mm of frost. I get that overnight so I'd be defrosting daily if I followed the instructions. As it is, I'm defrosting weekly with about 2 inches of frost and ice. Susie and I had our last evening together at Dockside for awhile. She leaves tomorrow morning to head back to Ohio for a couple of months.

Wednesday, 17 July - The Wind Indicator has failed again so I assumed that the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) had failed. I ordered one and it arrived from England today. Adam Bilik of S/V Tapestry came over to tail my safety line as I ascended the mast. I retrieved the Wind Vane and sealed the mast-top connection with a baggie and rubber band, descended, and replaced the PCB. I got to the staysail stay while climbing the mast again and as I passed under it the stay pulled the wind vane out of the boatswain’s chair pocket and the vane fell to the deck and ruptured the wind speed bearing, ruining it. The $100 repair may now turn into a $350 - $450 repair. The only part I need is the ruined bearing in the lower pod on the wind indicator but apparently the only way it is sold is with the arm and lower pod for about $350.

Thursday, 18 July - No one responded when I posted to play pickleball this morning so I stayed aboard Island Time. Since it's been getting to above 90 °F. inside the boat lately I've decided summer must be here so I installed the deck awning today to put the boat in the shade. After that I started trying to find the cheapest way to replace the bearing in the wind vane. Raymarine tried to help but it's an out of service item that they don't stock anymore. He's going to try to find one and get back to me. Later this afternoon I hand washed a few clothes and hung them up to dry in the cockpit.

Friday, 19 July - The girl from the park service has returned from her vacation so we had the fitness court exercise class today. By choice, not mine, the class has been moved to 9AM to try to get more shade on the court for exercises. That means that I'll probably only get one pickleball game in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday before I have to leave to catch the class and an hour later most of the pickleballers will have had enough for the day. I was lucky to get any more games in after the fitness class. There were only three others and it was hot on the courts so they killed time and waited in the shade for me to return, then the four of us played about 4 or 5 games.
                    Upon return to the boat I checked my email and discovered that the fellow that was going to get back to me before 5pm yesterday still hasn't. I decided to wait no longer, got on the phone and called one of the companies that the fellow at Raymarine had said bought their old inventory. That company, I discovered, also repairs Raymarine products. The part I need, a small bearing module, is not listed in their exploded view of the wind vane. It could only be purchased, when they had it, as part of the whole wind vane. I hoped, however, that since Max Marine Electronics repairs items, they might be able to steal a part from some unit that had other parts damaged. The fellow that I talked to at Max Marine at first assured me that they wouldn't have that part but volunteered to go look on their shelves to make sure. He returned and, lo and behold, they had one old unit that had no parts left on it that they thought they could sell and would soon go to the scrap heap. The smallest part of the wind vane that is listed for sale online is about $350 to $600, depending on the vampire that has it listed. He said that the small bearing module that I need rarely gets damaged so I expected to anywhere from $50 to $150 dollars for the bearing. That would still be quite a savings. He said he'd have to check with the boss on a price. He returned to the phone and said they'd GIVE it to me if I'd pay $10 for shipping. I tried not to act too overwhelmed and ecstatic, calmly said I'd certainly pay the shipping, and thank you very much. After having spent several hours yesterday searching online and on the phone I must say that patience and persistence do pay off.

Saturday, 20 July - Diesel Don had told me earlier this week that he'd come and remove the high pressure fuel pump from my boat but that still hasn't happened. He said today that he can't get to it until Monday. Tempus Fugit. There still no big storms in sight and I hope it stays that way.

Sunday, 21 July - At 9 this morning there was a hurricane preparation seminar at the marina office put on by the head NOAA meteorologist from Key West. Monroe County here is the only county in Florida that has a NOAA weather facility not shared by others. He gave a very good presentation and was then followed by the deputy director of Monroe County Emergency Management to tell us what services and facilities will be available before and immediately after any storm damage that might be done here. Another very helpful, short session. When he finished, Matt McConkin, the assistant manager of the marina here told us what the plans are for the marina and what we need to do to be ready for a hurricane here. I was surprised and very disappointed at how few of the boaters, fewer than twenty, showed up for the program. Many of the ones that didn't attend just don't know what they don't know. They've been lulled into a false sense of safety because there hasn't been a big hurricane since Irma seven years ago. The Keys are, on average, hit by a severe hurricane every seven years.

Monday, 22 July - The long-time island tennis pro showed up for pickleball this morning. It's easy to see that he'll be a good pickleball player soon. The rules and strategies are different but as soon as he gets a good grasp of those he'll be good. He's retired now and his knees are really bad but his ball control will make up for that.
                    Susie is out of town so she wasn't at the fitness class. Only three of us showed up for that and afterward I went to Susie's house to rescue one of her orchids before it went unwatered and died in her absence. I washed some clothes while I was at her house and brought the orchid back to the boat with me. It may die from the heat here but at least it will get watered.

Tuesday, 23 July - The local, retired tennis pro brought a friend with him to pickleball this morning so we had five players. When I got back to the boat I defrosted the freezer and put away the clothes that I washed yesterday. This evening I went to Dockside to listen to the band but ended talking, or rather listening, to Derek Chittenden all evening. I see him in the harbor or on the docks frequently but never had a conversation with him. I never realized how much of a talker he is.

Wednesday, 24 July - We only had time for one game of pickleball this morning before I had to go to the fitness class. Only four had shown up. One, a new player, left and the other two joined me in the fitness class. I had a hard time catching my breath in the forty five seconds between the different exercises. When that class was over I went to the marina hoping to have either the alignment tool or the wind speed indicator bearing delivered. Neither arrived. After wasting two hours waiting for UPS and USPS to arrive I returned to the boat and had planned on filling the fuel tank on the boat with diesel that I have stored on the deck, but upon checking the fuel level with the dipstick, I decided that wasn't necessary. I've only used about 7 gallons since last filling the tank. Later, I received a text message saying that the alignment tool would probably arrive tomorrow via UPS. I hope so. Storms in the southern Caribbean are starting to build.

Thursday, 25 July - I see that Salt Lake City has been chosen to host the Winter Olympics again in 2034. It's hard to realize it's already been 22 years since they hosted them last time. I guess they did a good job in 2002. A nine year old kid joined us for pickleball today. It was easy to see by the way he swung his paddle that he's a baseball player. He is the grandson of Lettie Irwin and had never played pickleball before. I was astounded how quickly he learned the game. His coordination is pretty poor and he needs to realize that you don't have to hit every ball out of the park, but once that comes along he'll be a pretty darned good player. The four inch, $188 rod arrived today so I called Diesel Don and arranged for him to removing the high pressure fuel pump from my engine tomorrow morning.

Friday, 26 July - Diesel Don came over at 8:30 this morning to take a look at the project so he could decide what tools he's going to need. I had thought this was going to be a quick and easy job and so did he until he saw the engine. We both believed that he would simply need to remove several hoses and other items that are in the way, then unbolt the fuel pump from the water pump, but he now believes that the coolant system is going to need to be drained and the water pump, the timing case, and all the drive belts are going to need to be removed.
                    Later...It turned out that the timing case and drive belts did NOT have to come off but lots did. Once the fuel pump was accessed after removing everything around it on the port side of the engine, I drained most of tho antifreeze out of the engine, Brandon, Don's assistant, moved across the engine and removed the coolant tank, then the water pump. Once that was done, the engine's #1 cylinder was moved to top-dead-center and the $188 pin that I had to buy was inserted through the timing gears into the front of the fuel pump. A bolt that is on the fuel pump was then screwed in further to lock the gears in the fuel pump in place and the fuel pump could then be removed. Don took me to UPS and we shipped the pump off to arrive at the rebuilding facility on Monday. I hope they can get it back to me quickly. The Sahara dust that has been keeping tropical storms is predicted to subside soon.

Saturday, 27 July - I went to the marina's project room today and used our electric grinder/wire wheel to clean the rust off all of the bolts and steel fuel lines that we removed from the engine yesterday. I also picked up a new waterproof case for my phone that arrived today. When I got back to the boat I discovered that it is either missing parts or is just not made for the iPhone 13 Pro, as advertised. It will have to go back.

Sunday, 28 July - I need to paint the fuel lines so I looked in my database hoping I might have some paint for that purpose. It listed a can in the upper, starboard lazerette, I dug it out but couldn't get the paint to spray. That made me realize that I should check other items in there. I spent about 3 hours checking the spray cans and other cans of Cetol, contact cement, paint thinners, etc. and changing the listings in the database. Most of those items have been stored for at least 6 years so it didn't surprise me that they had gone bad. One can of paint pleasantly surprised me. When I picked it up, it was so rusted that it collapsed, but luckily, the paint had dried inside and didn't spill out. Another surprise was the contact cement. It was still quite runny. I did end up throwing about 10 cans away. I got finished just in time to go have dinner at Dockside and listen to their music for the evening.

Monday, 29 July - Letty Irwin and her grandson, Wyatt, Bill Greene, and I were the only ones to show up for pickleball this morning. We got in one game before I begged off to go to the fitness court class. Instead of playing two against one, they joined me for the class, then we returned and played several more games of pickleball. When we had had enough, I caught a ride with Letty up to Advance Auto and bought a can of high temperature enamel to spray on the fuel lines for the engine before we replace them. She saved me $20 in taxi fees. This afternoon it looked on My Radar like we were going to get a good thunderstorm along with, perhaps, strong winds and rain. Rather than gamble that my deck awning wouldn't get damaged in strong winds, I bundled it up and tied it along its center cord. The storm broke up at the east end of the island and we didn't get any wind or rain to top off my water tank either.

Tuesday, 30 July - There were four of us again at pickleball. Letty's young grandson is really improving quickly. Once he starts getting his serves in, he can start winning some games. I returned to the boat to get the bolts and fuel lines that we removed while taking off the fuel pump and that I had cleaned up, then took them to the project room and masked off parts that shouldn't be painted, then painted them. That took about 5 hours. I need to close the boat up because of the possibility of rain. When I returned to the boat, it was 96°F in the cabin. No wonder the refrigeration can't keep up. This evening I went to Dockside.

Wednesday, 31 July - Only two other players showed up for pickleball today, Letty and her grandson. When I quit at nine o'clock to go to the fitness court they practiced for about 20 minutes, then left so when I returned I practiced my serves and high volleys for awhile. I'm still terrible using my right hand. I returned to the boat and removed the masking tape and overspray from the fuel lines and bolts that I sprayed yesterday. Around 5:45, Bill Greene came to my boat and assisted me by tailing the safety line as I climbed the mast to replace the printed circuit board (PCB)in the wind indicator. I climbed the mast, removed the anemometer and wind vane, then returned to the deck to disassemble the pod and replace the PCB. I went back up the mast and replaced the assembly but still got no reading of wind speed or direction, to I left the whole thing at the top of the mast and came back down. Something else must be wrong. I also got a text from Diesel Don saying that his contact at the fuel pump repair station in Ft. Lauderdale won't be back until Monday so I'm stuck through, probably, the middle of next week without an engine regardless of where the storm to the south east of us goes or how strong it gets. It looked at first as if it would go to the east of us, now NOAA shows it to be going either right over us or to our west.