Saturday, 1 February 2025 - We had the Cruiser's Nautical Swap Meet today. I bought a $17 spray bottle of fabric water proofing for $10 and sold a Rayban glasses case for $2. After that I got my Evinrude outboard back from Anne Mullet. She never even mentioned the fact that I lost my iPhone while trying to help her for free. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

Sunday, 2 February - The harbor had its Sunday brunch this morning at 11AM. As usual, there was lots of good food and I ate too much. Susie had joined me for the brunch, then I met her at Dockside for the evening. Dockside was very crowded but luckily Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers had arrived just as some other people that had been there for the afternoon show offered them their table as they were leaving and Susie and I joined them shortly thereafter.

Monday, 3 February - Fitness class and pickleball in the morning from 9AM till noon. This afternoon I headed to Sombrero beach for some sand to put in bags and to put in the bottom of the refrigeration compartment. I'll use it to displace the bit of water that sits in the bottom after defrosting. Maybe that is where the water that causes all the frost comes from. I'll put it in bags and lay it in the very bottom so no water will be sitting in there at all.

Tuesday, 4 February - I played about three hours of pickleball this morning. When I got back to the boat I filled nine small, plastic zip bags with some of the sand that I got yesterday, defrosted the freezer compartment and disassembled the first two compartments by taking out all the space taking insulation that was inside. That done, I put the sand bags in the vent bottom in order to raise the level of defrosted water so it will all go out the drain. It won't leave the compartments dry but a significant amount more will go down the drain instead of sitting in the bottom or evaporating in the compartment only to turn into frost up near the top. At least, that's the theory. I hope it goes as planned. I'll know within about 3 days. If I still get as much frost, I'll know I waisted my time. I do still have one more compartment to disassemble and do. It's hard to get at and I ran out of time.

Wednesday, 5 February - After exercise and pickleball this afternoon I finished putting sandbags in the refrigeration compartments. The third compartment has nothing in it, including water, but shows that it has had some water in it in the past. The main compartment that I defrosted yesterday already has about 5/8 inch of frost on the evaporator so I might have been wasting my time again.

Thursday, 6 February - After pickleball today, Bob Dahmer and I walked over to the American Legion and had lunch. I had given him a ride inshore today. We returned to my boat where his dinghy was tied up and he headed back to his boat. I spent most of the afternoon and part of the evening in a chat with Hostpapa, my web site host, figuring out why I could receive email but not send it. Once that was done I had to make detailed notes about all the settings in the new phone and my laptop that we changed.

Friday, 7 February - Fitness class lasted an hour, then two hours of pickleball, but since we temporarily only have four courts and 40 players, wait times between games were long. I returned to the marina's library and continued organizing the nautical section. It's a never ending battle. Very few people put newly donated books or returns in their proper places. There are hundreds of novels, none in alphabetical order as they should be. I just try to keep all the nautical books together on two shelves but daily find nautical books throughout the whole wall.
                    I returned to the boat and since I thought I had resolved all the problems caused by getting a new phone, I attempted to send out my December blog. I got it ready to send, or so I thought, and discovered that my FTP protocol settings wouldn't let me connect since my web site host was purchased by another recently. I spent hours texting Hostpapa solving that problem. My "time saving devices", the phone and laptop, are killing me lately. I spent about another 6 hours on them today. Then, just as I was about to send out the blog, I realized I'm missing some important photos. Maybe tomorrow.

Saturday, 8 February - Right after breakfast I delved into trying to figure out why I can't move photos from my phone to my laptop, which is keeping me from sending out my monthly blog. I could see no good reason so I finally called Apple support. After an hour on the phone with them I was told that my new iPhone 16 simply won't transfer files to my 2014 MacBook Air. That's not good news. I did figure out that I could send images to myself from one to the other by email but that is not a good solution. I sent two files that way and sent out my December blog today. Getting a new laptop may also involve having to get a newer version of FileMaker Pro for almost $400. I couldn't reach FileMaker to confirm that. Still, helping a friend borrow my outboard motor is turning out to be a VERY expensive undertaking. Now I'm going to spend several hours trying to figure out which laptop to get, too. Too many choices.

Sunday, 9 February - I made the foolish mistake of thinking that it would be a good day to go grocery shopping since it was Super Bowl Sunday. I thought everyone would have shopped yesterday and that the store would be almost empty - wrong! I could barely get through the isles it was so busy. Although, as luck would have it, when it came time to checkout, I pushed my cart right into an empty checkout station. I had also thought that since I had heard that the bird flu had killed off millions of egg laying chickens that there would be no eggs. Wrong again. The shelves were full of eggs. Still no Pickapeppa Sauce though. It's been months since they got any in and I love it in my black eyed peas. After putting all the groceries away I headed in to the marina for the Super Bowl party at the marina. I had cut up a fresh pineapple and partook in the potluck dinner, but not the football game on the big screen. Instead, I headed to Dockside to meet Susie. It was great! They don't have but one TV and it is "only" about 40" X 60" and they had the sound very low. The band did their usual sets and Susie and I had the dance floor almost all to ourselves. One other couple danced once in awhile but the dining area was almost empty and the bar only had about ten people sitting at it. Great for us but the bartenders were bored and getting no tips so the band quit at about 9 PM.

Monday, 10 February - I attended the fitness class then headed to the pickleball court. I was surprise to see how few players there were today. Last week we had about 40 people each day but only about 20 showed up today. Maybe it was Super Bowl hangover. In the afternoon, Susie and I went over to Kim Brown-Stamp's house for a garden party where Donnie and Chuck of Three Sheets to the Wind played for a couple of hours. She has a bungalow and garden that is the perfect setting for parties. Pictures at the link below.

Tuesday, 11 February - Again, a fairly low turnout for pickleball today. I returned to the marina office and spent about an hour trying to organize some of the cruiser's library, then back to the boas. When I sent out my blog on Saturday I got an automated message from my website host, Hostpapa, that all emails over 50 were rejected and would be delivered later. I only send out about 20 emails per week other than my monthly blog, but when I sent out the other day, they rejected quite a few. I called Hostpapa today and had them raise the allowed number to 200 per hour; way more than I expect to have a need for. I can't tell if the remainder of the rejected emails ever posted. I apologize if yours didn't get sent out. Susie headed to Ft. Lauderdale this morning so I was on my own for dinner tonight at Dockside. Actually, I was amazed at the difference between this evening and Sunday. The place was packed and I ended up sitting at the bar with Steve and Denise Vereen. She's one of the pickleballers and they are regulars at Dockside.

Wednesday, 12 February - This morning, as usual, I attended the fitness class. One of the exercises for today was a flat-footed jump onto a box. Boxes of several different heights are available and I chose the highest. Unfortunately, on my first attempt, my feet didn't make it to the top and I banged and scraped my shins on the sharp edge on the way back down. Ouch! My shins didn't bleed much but I knew they were going to hurt even more later and they did. I played pickleball anyway and got very stiff and sore this evening. I spent more time trying to make my iPhone synch with my laptop but couldn't. In desperation I asked about it on Apple's volunteer support community site. Maybe someone there will be helpful. I'm really not ready to buy a new computer if this one will do all that I need.

Thursday, 13 February - I was pretty stiff when I got up this morning but during pickleball I felt pretty good. This afternoon I hand washed a T-shirt to wear tomorrow and put a few more in a bucket to soak overnight. I returned to the Apple support forum and was glad that someone had answered my question. They didn't solve the synching problem but did tell me a way to move photos onto the laptop. It's a bit of a round about, but it got the job done. With synchronization the phone and laptop should have exactly the same images but by moving them back and forth manually that's going to be hard to accomplish. When I delete images I'll have to do it on both, and if I modify an image it will only affect the device I modify it on. I'll have two similar, but different, images.

Friday, 14 February - Fitness class and pickleball today, We had hoped to be able to play pickleball on the newly resurfaced courts today and for the President's holiday this weekend but the workers haven't shown up for the last three days. Now I'm sure they won't do anything until Tuesday, if then. After pickleball I washed a couple more T-shirts, made a bicycle trip to Walgreen's, transferred 6 gallons of gasoline into my dinghy's fuel tank, cleaned up, then met Susie at Florida Keys Steak and Lobster. The place was packed so we had one drink each there then took my dinghy to Dockside for dinner and dancing.

Saturday, 15 February - The harbor had another nautical swap meet today. I managed, once again, to buy more than I sold. I bought a collection of stainless steel machine screws and carriage bolts for $1 and sold nothing.

Sunday, 16 February - I defrosted the freezer today. Later I met Susie at Dockside to dance.

Monday, 17 February - I had planned to skip fitness class this morning but, as it turned out, a cable I needed to borrow to test out the synching of my photos was supplied by the girl that runs the class, so I felt obligated to participate. It turned out that the cable she had in exactly like one of mine so I didn't accomplish anything by getting hers. After pickleball I returned to the boat and grabbed a bottle of soapy water and squirted it all over my dinghy to find the leaks that are making me pump the boat up so often. I marked twenty spots of varying sizes where the air is simply coming through the fabric of the hypalon tubes. Now, one day after defrosting the freezer I can tell that the sand bags I put in the bottom of the freezer to displace water sitting in the bottom of the compartments didn't cut back on the amount of frost. One day after having defrosted, there is already one inch of frost on the evaporator.

Tuesday, 18 February - I played pickleball from 9AM until 11:30 then returned to the boat. I spent about two hours on the phone with Apple support trying to make my Photos synch but without success. At 5pm I showered and headed to Dockside to meet Susie. We both bought drinks, then walked to Skipjack Resort to meet friends and listen to Four Sheets to the Wind. There was a big group of music groupies for the band and Doc and Kate Neises, friends from pickleball, met us there, too. We stayed about an hour and a half then returned to Dockside for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, 19 February - The fitness class was a 8:30 this morning until 9:30, then I played pickleball until 11:30. I returned to the marina, checked my mail and that of Mike Camarata and Carol Zipke, boaters that recently sold their boat and headed north. They asked me to check for mail that didn't get forwarded as it should. I had checked several times before and there was nothing there but today Carol had two letters. I'll contact them to make sure what they want done with them.

Thursday, 20 February - I see on my WeatherBug app that it is supposed to be about 24°F in Jacksonville Texas today and my cousin John Egger says it was 14° in Plano. I woke up on top of my bed covers this morning a little warm even though the hatchway to the aft berth is always open. It got cooler during the day and got as low as about 72° and was a bit windy so the boaters here were all wearing coats, including me. I played pickleball for about 3 hours today then went to the boat for lunch. As soon as I finished that I took my phone and laptop to the marina to try to synch the two again, this time using their wifi and to backup my whole laptop's contents onto a hard drive. I got there around 1 o'clock and didn't leave until 6:30, even though they close at 5:30. I had to go outside the building at closing but they leave the wifi running and I could access it on the porch. Both the backup and the synch were running at the same time so I assume that's why it seemed to be running so slow. I can't imagine why the synch worked on wifi but not on my boat using my phone's data.

Friday, 21 February - It was even cooler this morning and quite breezy again, too. The girl, Melanie, that started the fitness class has returned to Marathon and pointed out that today was the first anniversary of the start of the class. I haven't missed many of those days. I'm surprised how little I seem to have improved at some of the exercises. My shoulders have increased motion and some strength but certainly not as much as I had expected. I almost always choose the more difficult variation of each exercise and push myself harder than other participants but with little gain. When we started stretching exercises, while others touched their toes, I could only touch my kneecaps. Now I can still only touch my kneecaps. No progress there at all. I have improved at pickleball. I'm still only a mediocre player but my serves are as good as anyone else and my reaction times have shortened because I'm instinctively reacting instead of having to think about moving. I'm one of the better players but there are players that are much better than I am, quicker and faster.

Saturday, 22 February - I had planned on attending a second nautical flea market of the month here at the marina so I got up early to do so but no mention of it was made on the Cruiser's Net. Instead, a swap meet at the park was announced so I headed there after breakfast. Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers had asked if Susie and I would like to join them to hear Kirstie Kraus and Krystal King perform at Kiki's Sandbar Bar & Grill down on Little Torch Key, about 15 miles west of Marathon. Susie said she'd not be going but I called Mike this morning to say I would. The flea market was the first the park has held, had very few participants and nothing I was interested in so I returned to the marina and took a good, long, hot shower. Most of my showers are onboard with cold water. Very short in comparison. Mike and Bev picked me up at 11:45 for the drive to Kiki's. The two girls were great performers and singers and the grilled mahi mahi sandwich was very good, too. We returned at 4:30 after the girls' show was over.

Sunday, 23 February - A beautiful day in paradise and a great day to be outside. Unfortunately, I'm defrosting the freezer again. I met Susie at Dockside for the evening's entertainment.

Monday, 24 February - I fully expected to go to fitness class and play pickleball this morning since rain was predicted this afternoon. I prepared and climbed into the cockpit to leave when I realized the rain had already started. Plan B immediately developed. I'd stay onboard to determine what computer cable I need to purchase to connect my phone to my laptop and get one ordered. That didn't happen. There are so many different connectors, some of them very similar, that I spent most of the day trying to either figure out what I have onboard and what devices they go with. There are about 10 different USB connectors and they come in 6 different colors, each color signifying different transfer speeds or uses, but some manufacturers don't follow the standards. Next I tried finding what I need online. Most of the offerings online either have poor photos or vague or incomplete descriptions. Oh, and did I mention conflicting information. Very frustrating and time consuming. It rained off and on all day.

Tuesday, 25 February - I played pickleball this mornin from 9 till noon then returned to the boat to do more research on USB and Thunderbolt cables and still didn't get one ordered. I met Susie at Dockside at 6:45 in the evening then walked to Skipjack Resort to meet friends and listen to Donnie and Four Sheets to the Wind play music for us to dance to. Actually, we only danced a couple of dances and were ready to return to Dockside but Candace Widgeon joined the band to sing "Heard it Through the Grapevine" so we danced to that, then returned to Dockside.

Wednesday, 26 February - Fitness class was at 8:30 this morning then I played pickleball until noon. I was expecting a package delivery but either the DHL driver doesn't know his route or he's an idiot. I got an email saying that the package couldn't be delivered because the address doesn't exist in spite of the fact that the address on the package is correct. I went on their site to correct the address but it was already correct. I wasn't waiting for the package at the marina this time. I learned that lesson last time one didn't show up on time. I had returned to the boat to continue research on the computer cables and finally got one ordered, actually two. I also hand washed a few clothes and hung them up in the cockpit to dry.

Thursday, 27 February - Pickleball lasted from 9 till about 11;30 today. We had hoped to be back on the newly refinished courts today but the park's walk-through with the contractor was put off until tomorrow which means we probably can't return until Monday or later. Where we are playing now there are only four courts. We had so many players today that people were turning around and leaving without playing rather than wait on the sidelines for their turn. Our old court had five courts laid out over the basketball court lines and the resurfaced court is supposed to have six, but the contractor only laid out five again. I don't know if they'll make him correct that or not. It will be worth waiting for if they do...that is, IF the contractors will show up to do the work. They had all the resurfacing done and two of the rows of fencing installed, just leaving the top, third row needing to be done when they just quit showing up for a week and a half.
                    This evening I finished reading "The Longest Race" about the first sailing race around the world, non-stop, no getting help, alone, The race started and finished in England and nine sailors started the race. One sailor got too sick to finish, four boats were damaged by storms and had to drop out, one sailor that cheated by sailing around in the south Atlantic without sailing around Antartica went insane and walked off his boat never to be seen again, another boat sank and another sailor was having such a good time that he couldn't imagine returning to civilization so he sailed around the world again without finishing. Only one finished, Robin Knox-Johnson in a 32 foot boat called Suhaili, in 313 days after sailing over 30,000 miles through calms and storms alike.

Friday, 28 February - My brother's birthday. I attended both fitness class and pickleball again this morning. Upon returning to the boat I cut up a large sheet of foam that another gentleman had received wrapped around a large solar panel and was about to throw away. I cut into 8 pieces 19.5" by 22.5" and layered them together to insulate my first freezer compartment lid. Together they make one 3" thick foam insulator. It may not cure my freezer compartment's problem, but it can't hurt.