Tuesday, 1 April 2025 - Hooray! My outside the box idea to back flush the blackwater holding tank seems to have worked. I had gotten the idea yesterday when the pump out girl, Toni, mentioned they had a connector that would screw into the pump out connector on the boat and would bring it back today. The thought was that it might make a better seal on the connector than the nipple that they normally use. That made me remember that I had a similar screw-on connector and I thought that that would allow me to attach my dinghy's hand pump and reverse the direction of flow with enough pressure to dislodge whatever was blocking the exit at the tank. I spent about an hour jury rigging a way to make my 1/2" hose into the 1 1/2" connector and gave it a try. My biggest concern was that I might flood the head and the boat with the contents of the tank, but I went slowly at first to make sure that didn't happen. In theory, I thought, that shouldn't happen if the vent hose at the top of the tank was clear. Unfortunately, when I tried pumping up the pressure about the third time, the effluent gushed out of the vent hole and I was concerned that I might have plugged it up again. However, in a way, that was good news. It proved that the normal exit line from the deck was cleared. I couldn't tell whether it had worked or not, however, until Toni showed up and attached her pump. It started slow but picked up speed when I went in and pumped more water into the tank from the toilet. Eventually, Toni was convinced that we got the tank emptied. That was a total relief to me I assure you. With the tank and all its lines full there is no way to disconnect any line without spilling sewage directly into the boat and I definitely don't want that to happen.

Wednesday, 2 April - I went to Key West VA to have blood drawn at the lab. My followup will be next week. After that I walked over to the office where I had my eyes tested and prescription for glasses to be made. I'm really not happy with the glasses. My left lens has no point that I can focus and I see a slight double image with that eye. I didn't like that doctor or his assistants either. Too much of a "run 'em through the mill" attitude. When I returned to the boat I defrosted the freezer.

Thursday, 3 April - I played pickleball this morning and afterword went to the marina to pick up a package that had been delivered. That package had an ultrasonic cleaner in it so I won't have to rely on others if I need a carburetor or anything else cleaned thoroughly. I returned to the boat, deflated the dinghy and sprayed some Flex Seal on some persistent leaks in the dinghy's tubes. I had come across the Flex Seal in one of my lazarets recently. I had used about half of the can on my old dinghy years ago and was a bit surprised that it would still spray. I also made an adapter to allow me to use a spare hand air pump on the dinghy if I ever need to. This pump had been used to pump up my kiteboarding kite which eventually had its tubes decay so much that I couldn't use it any more.

Friday, 4 April - I attended the fitness class this morning and pickleball, too. Next to the fitness court the park has a banana plant that has a pretty good bunch of bananas on it. The last time one of the plants had bananas, I took a couple and they were WAY sweeter right off the plant than the ones I get at the grocery store. These are still very green (see photo) and I can't wait for them to ripen. My left knee still hurts when doing knee bends so Melanie Streng showed me modified movements to avoid the pain but still strengthen the knee. After pickleball "Doc" and Kate Neises asked me to take a Danforth anchor to the nautical swap meet at the marina for them tomorrow so we loaded it into my dinghy and I brought it back to the boat. They live up north and don't want to have to haul it back up there when they leave here in their car. I hope it sells. I don't want it on my boat. I already have more anchors than I need.

Saturday, 5 April - Unfortunately, the nautical swap meet didn't have many sellers or buyers this morning. I think very little changed hands and that included my kayak and the anchor. Nobody even asked about either one. The only good thing was that I didn't return to the boat with more than I took ashore. In fact, we usually have a table marked "Free" for items that people are willing to just give away to someone that can use it and I had put several small things on that table to get them off my boat. No one took any of them so I threw them away after the meet. I returned to the boat at 11AM and washed and rinsed several shirts that I had let soak overnight in a 5 gallon bucket. When I got back from shore I realized that there was water in the kayak and I had just removed all the water from it ashore. Upon inspection I discovered some small cracks and holes in the hull where previous owners had dragged the boat by one end instead of carrying it ashore. I had repaired the rear end of the hull for the same reason a year or two back. I'll need to fix that soon and I think I'll do the repair with super glue and baking soda. That makes a rock-hard, quick repair.

Sunday, 6 April - I stayed onboard almost all day, working on the upholstery of the dinghy's front seat. I think I need to Google "how to make a rounded corner using Origami". I made a late afternoon run to Home Depot for some Fabuloso and Downey fabric softener. Before returning to the boat I took a quick shower then headed to Dockside for the evening and Candace Widgeon joined me for a while there. She is on the M/V Penguin here in the harbor, is a tour boat captain, and a singer/guitarist/entertainer here at Dockside, too.

Monday, 7 April - I boarded the bus to Key West at 9:30 this morning and spent almost all day at the VA medical facility there. I only had two appointments, three hours apart, one for minor dermatological problems and the other to go over the results of the lab tests last week. My bilirubin is one tenth of a point too high where the range is 0 to 1.2 but I'm apparently going to live a little longer. The bus ride is about an hour and forty five minutes each way so I got back to Marathon at 5:30 PM after having to wait almost an hour and a half for the return bus.

Tuesday, 8 April - I played pickleball this morning but my knees and back continue to ache. I was really tired from the pickleball today so I returned to the boat and took a nap. Afterward, my back felt much better and this evening I had a quick dinner then went to Dockside but couldn't get excited about the music so I didn't stay long.

Wednesday, 9 April - Trying to rest my knee, I skipped fitness class, but played about 2.5 hours of pickleball. It had rained early this morning but radar showed that it was passing by. I was slightly surprised to find that I was the first to hit the courts. In fact, no one showed up for about 20 minutes so I just practiced my serves until one other arrived...then, eventually, six more arrived. I returned to the boat then dug my last two garden pathway solar lights out of the forepeak and replaced two on deck that are barely lighting up at night. The "new" ones are probably two, maybe three, years old. I hope the batteries in them still have some life in them.

Thursday, 10 April - I spent a couple of hours playing pickleball this morning and this afternoon I finished covering the dinghy's bow seat with new naugahyde. I found that Origami wasn't the way to go. Sailrite.com had a video specifically covering how to make corners like I needed. This evening I went to Dockside for dinner and to listen to Candace Widgeon play guitar and sing.

Friday, 11 April - Because my knee still hurts and I know that the fitness class will inevitably include knee thrusts, deep knee bends and other exercises that make it hurt, I skipped the class and played about two hours of pickleball. After that I spent about two hours trying to organize the books in the Cruiser's library. It's a never ending battle. From the looks of the books in the front of the shelves it appears like someone else may be trying to do the same, but almost no one else tries at all to keep the books organized. People borrow books and just stick them back anywhere there's space and do the same if they are donating books. I go through all the books most days and pull out any nautical books to keep them separate and do the same for books about America's wars and military, biographies, and religion since there are enough of each of those to deserve their own sections. The rest are supposed to be arranged alphabetically by author, but it's a real mess. Basically, anyone looking for anything in particular must just look at the title and author of every book and there are about a thousand books on the shelves.

Saturday, 12 April - I think I missed out on a good deal on a used dinghy today. My timing was bad. The folks on M/V Journey had Roland and Leta's old dinghy for sale. It is a 10 foot dinghy sold under the West Marine name and very similar to mine. I had looked it up on West Marine's web page and it is described as having just two air compartments, one on each side. That's not good. Bob Dahmer had a dinghy like that and accidentally got a cut in one of the tubes and was barely able to get to the dock ten feet away before the tube deflated and wanted to roll over. My dinghy has three compartments and I wanted to verify how many the West Marine dinghy has so I went by their boat this morning. It has three but since I had contacted an AB dealer about buying a new boat a couple of weeks ago and he hadn't gotten back to me, I told Karen on Journey that I wanted to see what his response would be. I had left a message on the dealer's phone system earlier this morning and hoped he'd return my call and he did...two minutes after Karen texted me to let me know that someone had purchased the dinghy. The dealer called to let me know that President Trump has just put a 10% tariff on the purchase but now I'm probably stuck with that. The shipping from Vancouver, BC will probably be around a thousand dollars, but the only dealer that I have been able to get a price from in the US would be shipping it to me for $800. The Canadian may still be cheaper unless I find a dealer in Florida that has one but the last time I checked, none in the USA have the latest model which has a better coating on the aluminum hull than those of past years.

Sunday, 13 April - The harbor had its Sunday brunch this morning. Lots of good food and, as usual, I ate too much. As I walked to my dinghy to leave I noticed a medium size manatee right by the dock. When it surfaced I saw three large cuts near its head made by boat's propellers and about six more near its tail. Even worse, there was a large chunk taken out right near its tail that had very ragged edges. To me that looked like a shark must have taken a bite. None of the wounds looked fresh, but I'm no expert. It wasn't bleeding but the scars haven't healed. Propeller strikes are very common. That's the main reason that our "No Wake Speed" here in the harbor exists. Back at the boat I intended to try to finish repairing the hole at the bow of one of my kayaks but the wind was still strong enough to blow my baking soda away before I could apply the super glue, so I didn't try. I did some reading for a couple of hours and was pleasantly surprised to get a text from Susie saying that she'd be coming to Dockside this evening.

Monday, 14 April - My knee was feeling a little better today so I participated in the fitness class and pickleball. Susie showed up for the class, too. I returned to the marina office and seem to have made a big mistake. I've been spending about an hour each day trying to get the nautical books all in one section of the book cases and in some semblance of order, so each day I've gone through the whole library searching for books that have been moved or added to the collection. I've also been moving or having to move other books around to make space for the nautical books which has led me to create other groups like military, religion, biographies, and sports where there are enough to group together. The rest are mostly novels of every sort which are supposed to be in alphabetical order by author. Well, today I couldn't find but two nautical books mixed in with the others so I started organizing all the novels alphabetically. There will be LOTS of moving books many times because I don't know how many shelves each letter of the alphabet will need. That, and when I need to place a thick book into an already full shelf I may need to move two or three thin ones to let it fit in. Then I have two or three books to find room for before I can quit. I worked for about four hours today before I finally got to a point where all the books were back on shelves, but I'm probably only a quarter of the way from being completed. Of course, tomorrow people will move books around or add books willy-nilly into empty spots regardless of where they should be filed...or maybe they'll just bring a stack of books in and leave them on a table for someone else to file.

Tuesday, 15 April - Tax Day, but we get an extension here in Florida because of the hurricanes last year. I got up at 6:30 to make a 7:30 bus to Key West again. Another, I believe unnecessary, blood draw. I just had one two weeks ago. I asked them to make sure I needed this but they never got back to me. I got to the out clinic just on time, walked in, had my blood drawn, and walked out in about 9 minutes. That let me catch the same bus returning that I had been on getting here. However...half way back to Marathon we pulled over to switch buses and when the bus that I was to get on arrived he ran into a car in the turn-around lot so we had about a 45 minute delay while the sheriff filled out paperwork. I feel sorry for people waiting for the bus at other stops and am glad it didn't happen on my way to Key West. I still arrived back at the marina before noon. This afternoon I tried to get pricing on a dinghy again. I'm amazed at how many businesses don't return phone calls even after saying they will. That and web sites that seem useless. The worst one I tried today is listed as being an AB dinghy dealer and I did several different searches on their website for dinghies and it showed me hundreds of motorcycles, wave runners, fishing boats, no dinghies at all. Frustrating! I'm meeting Susie at Dockside again tonight. That will be better.

Wednesday, 16 April - During our fitness class this morning Susie got a call from her adopted son, Michael, saying that his dad, Susie's ex, had passed away. It wasn't unexpected but Michael seemed upset so Susie left immediately and went home to pack in order to drive up to Ohio. I continued with the fitness class, then went to pickleball, then to the marina to continue organizing the library. Later, Susie called to say that Michael had said that he was okay and that she needn't make the trip home.

Thursday, 17 April - I played pickleball again this morning and organized books in the marina's library again. We only had enough players for three courts this morning because people are either heading north or to the Bahamas.

Friday, 18 April - City park employees had the day off for the Easter weekend holiday so one of the boaters ran the fitness class this morning. Susie didn't show up. I assume she didn't realize that some of us would still be exercising even though the normal instructor had the day off. Only enough players for two courts showed up for pickleball. I quit after only an hour and a half of pickleball then went to the marina and finally finished organizing the books. I may occasionally attempt to keep the books organized but I really don't want to be the "librarian". I have very little interest in the fiction and romance books that take up most of the space, although I did just read "Water For Elephants" which one of the boaters suggested. At 5 o'clock I walked over to Race Trac gas station and mart, bought a large pizza, and returned to the Friday evening happy hour at the marina to share it. One of the boaters organized and ran an Easter Egg hunt (plastic eggs) for the kids but I missed it during my walk to the gas station.

Saturday, 19 April - I spent all day doing housekeeping onboard today since in was windy with predicted rain showers.

Sunday, 20 April - I decided to splurge and take a shower on shore instead of onboard this morning. At 1 PM Susie picked me up and we went to Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers' Easter dockside party and had a great time with good food and music provided by Mike and his guitar.

Monday, 21 April - Our fitness class has grown to the point that three people are at each of the same stations now. That's ok for some of the exercises but not for others. Sam, the instructor had to add another station and exercise to accommodate the extra people today. Pickleball, on the other hand, only had nine players show up today. Afterward I returned directly to the boat and had ham that was leftover from yesterday's party while I defrosted the freezer. Next, I finished up the digital illustration of the head's plumbing. At 6 o'clock I met Susie at Dockside because Mike V was in town to perform on his keyboard and Susie and I visited with his girl friend, Natalie Cash, while he played. Did a little dancing, too.

Tuesday, 22 April - I played pickleball until about 10:40 anticipating a meeting with the lady that is doing my taxes this year. We were to meet at 10:45 at the pickleball court, but she never showed up. I returned to the marina and finally got an apology saying that she had overslept. We'll meet tomorrow, hopefully. Florida got an extension for their federal taxed because of the hurricanes that hit the state last year. I met Susie at Dockside and joined Brandon and Dr. Susan at their table for the evening.

Wednesday, 23 April - Fitness class early this morning, then pickleball for about an hour. This afternoon I walked to Publix and bought $330 worth of groceries. Finally, after about 4 or 5 months, Publix had Pickapeppa Sauce, one of my favorite seasonings, back in stock! I had intended to donate blood at the "Big Red Bus", too, but they've made the process take way too long with too much paperwork so after 45 minutes, I went to buy the groceries.

Thursday, 24 April - I played pickleball this morning then had an audiology appointment in Key West at the VA at two o'clock. I caught the bus and made it there with 30 seconds to spare. The hearing aids I've been trying out seem to be more of a pain in the butt than helpful so I intended to return them to the VA. They gladly took them but convinced me that I should try another brand so I'll be returning in a month to get another pair made from the same molds of my ear in a month. After my appointment I had an hour and a half to kill before the next bus so I was sitting in the waiting room at the VA to kill time. Another veteran was there and asked where I was headed. When I said Marathon he said he had to go past there on his way home and offered me a ride. He, his wife and I had a much better time on the way home than I would have had on the bus.

Friday, 25 April - I worked out at the fitness class at the city park this morning and played pickleball for about an hour, too. I returned to the boat and started a bucket full of dirty clothes soaking overnight. I also made a couple of phone calls, one to find out why the AB dinghy hasn't gotten back to me to say how much the shipping on a new dinghy will be, but I still didn't get an answer.

Saturday, 26 April - This morning I rinsed and hung the clothes up in the cockpit that I started washing yesterday. This afternoon I finished the repair job that Phil Vachon and RJ helped me with on the Honda EU2000i generator a couple of months ago. In the process of removing the sides of its case one of the studs that holds one of the nuts for the long bolts that hold the case together at the bottom had to broken in order to get the bolt out. Apparently, that's common with these Hondas. The nut is imbedded in the plastic stud and even though my generator is exceedingly clean, the bolt had frozen in the nut and rather than unscrewing, the stud cracked and the nut came out with the bolt. Today I epoxied the nut back in place, tightened a hose clamp around it, lubed it up well to keep it from freezing up again and put it mostly back together. I didn't want to tighten the bolt before the epoxy has totally cured, so I'll finish tomorrow. After that I replaced three hose clamps in the engine room that were in bad shape. There are hose clamps galore on this boat. I'll bet there are at least three hundred. They are in use on the engine, both refrigeration units, the fresh water plumbing, in both heads, all the drainage systems, and probably a few places I can't think of right now...and I assure you, stainless steel only means that it corrodes slowly, not that it's rust proof. Two the clamps that I replaced were totally corroded in half.

Sunday, 27 April - I've been telling myself for several years that I should sell one of my kayaks to get it off the deck. With two on deck one of them covers two hatches, one in the saloon and one in the forward head. Now I'll be able to open three hatches for ventilation during the warm summer days instead of just one. I'm sure that will make a huge difference. Of course, now I'll have to deal with three when it rains, too, because I sold one this morning. Now, after getting rid of one and spending about an hour and a half moving the other and having to re-rig the securing lines it turns out that storing two on deck was easier than just one. Having only one means that it must lay at an angle in order to not obstruct the three hatches instead of having the two running parallel to the boat on deck. That means that I have to run lines that cross my path to the bow at about knee height. Easy enough normally but in case of emergency, that might just trip me up. I'll live with this for a while then re-assess again later. When I finished that I finished reassembling the Honda generator and started it briefly just to make sure it's still running right.
                    Lauderdale Inflatables has been dragging their feet about selling me a new dinghy but they finally gave me the information I needed to close the deal. I paid for it online through Quickbooks and am expecting it to arrive on Tuesday.
                    This evening I'll meet Susie at Dockside to listen to music and do a little dancing.

Monday, 28 April - We had about 30 people at the exercise class and about 10 for pickleball this morning. I played pickleball for about an hour then returned to the boat. One of the hatches under one of the kayaks hadn't been opened for years and I hadn't noticed that the spring that holds it open had broken so I dug out my spare and replaced the broken one. This is a spring about an inch in diameter and 14 inches long with a cable running through the interior. I guess it broke from being under constant tension all this time. A new one will probably be about $80. Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers picked me up at 4:15 and we went down island and listened to Kirsten Kraus and Krystal King perform at Kiki's Sandbar restaurant for a couple of hours while we had dinner.

Tuesday, 29 April - After about an hour and a half of pickleball this morning I got a call from the driver for Lauderdale Inflatables saying that he was on the way south with my new dinghy. He arrived about 1:30 and Phil Vachon joined me to help unload and unwrap the boat. We got it unloaded and the cardboard and plastic wrap off of it, then he did something that seems normal. Since my dinghy deflates so fast I must plug and unplug the hose for the air pump about 15 times a day because there are three compartments in the dinghy. I've done it thousands of times. He managed to break the connector off inside the new valve on his first try. Another thing that amazed me is that AB, the manufacturer of the dinghy, supplied me with the smaller of their air pumps even though this dinghy has the largest tubes in its category, and two valve connectors, neither of which fits the three valves. My old connector that Phil broke fit the valves but only one of the new connectors even came close and we had to hold the connector tight against the valve to keep it from leaking air. Back onboard Island Time a made a rubber washer to seal one of the connectors but the other doesn't even come close to fitting the valves. I spent the afternoon rigging temporary lifting lines to allow me to lower the dinghy with the crane off the dock and another set of lines to raise the dinghy onto the stern of the boat with the boat's davits and then trashing all the cardboard and plastic wrap that the dinghy came in. The new, small, air pump seems to have been sitting for so long that the lubricant they used on the piston in it had thickened and made it temporarily unusable but back at the boat a little silicone spray loosened it up nicely. I think I'm going to have the same problem with the tighteners on the telescoping oars but I didn't get that far along. I had to quit to meet Susie at Dockside. We each bought a drink there, then walked up the road to Skipjack Resort to hear Four Sheets to the Wind play. Tonight was Donnie McDaniel's last performance before heading north for the summer. We stayed there for about an hour then walked back to Dockside for the rest of the evening.

Wednesday, 30 April - One of the first things I wanted to do with the new dinghy is move the navigation lights so it can be used when I return to Island Time at night. I ripped the bow light off the old dinghy and re-glued it with Super Glue. I took the mounting sleeve for the aft all-around light off the old dinghy and remounted it on the new one. On the old dinghy I had mounted the sleeve with cable ties then sealed the holes with silicone caulk. The ties enabled them to be quickly and easily replaced in case I ran under something that the light, which is head height, might catch on. I've done that more than once. I tend to watch ahead of the dinghy and forget to look aft. The ties break instead of the light pole. This time I used plastic pipe straps and bolted them on. The bolts seal out water. I needed three pan head 1/2" bolts and one 3/4" bolt. I was amazed. I have thousands of bolts onboard but still couldn't find more than three 1/2" X #12 bolts. I had to go down to #10 for the 3/4" bolt and finding that took about an hour and a half. I adjusted the forward hanging strap on new dinghy, It was initially too long.