Thursday, 1 May 2025 - This afternoon I tackled the fuel system on the dinghies. I needed to take the fuel line, squeeze bulb, inline filter and connectors out of the old dinghy and reinstall them in the new boat. The fuel line runs from the bow locker under the false floor and emerges back by the engine in the bilge. I was totally disappointed when I looked into the new bow locker and saw that the hole for the fuel line was way too small for the fuel line I have. I had to get out my hole saws and cut a larger hole. I moved the hole about an inch and a half toward the centerline of the boat and when the saw broke through the floorboard it cut into what appears to be a stringer down the centerline. I was working on the boat suspended on the davits so I'm not sure if that would have let water into the hull or not but I had to take the time to epoxy the cut with JB Water Weld, then run the fuel line, hook it all back up, and attach and fill the fuel tank with gas. I also removed the steel cable painter in the bow locker that allows me to lock the dinghy to a dock or post when I think there's a chance it might no be there when I return from an errand. I haven't locked it up since I was in Fort Meyers Beach, but with this new dinghy, I may rethink that. My 2008 outboard looks pretty bad so that may deter some thieves. Actually, there is very little, but not no, theft in Boot Key Harbor. The cable attaches to an eye in the bow locker with a stainless steel shackle. Of course, I thought all I would have to do was take the shackle pin out and remove the shackle but no, The shackle wouldn't come off the eye, but bending a shackle to fit over the eye and then bending it back so that the pin would fit into it again would be almost impossible, especially in the confines of the bow locker. I left it for the next owner, IF I can find one. I also had to cut one end off the cable because the loops in the end, made with thimbles, wouldn't fit through the hole in the deck. Replacing the thimble will have to wait for another day. I quit working at 9 PM after moving the outboard motor from one boat to the other with lots still to do, but at least I can use the dinghy to go to shore tomorrow.

Friday, 2 May - I went to the fitness class and pickleball today then walked to the tax collector's office to register the dinghy. I showed them the invoice for the purchase and my ID. The invoice is all I received along with the dinghy. They wanted to see the Certificate of Origin. I've never heard of one. I couldn't register the dinghy so I returned to the boat and called Lauderdale Inflatables. They had it but for some totally unknown reason hadn't given it to me. I'll have to wait for that to arrive and try again. In the meantime I hope I don't get stopped by the Florida Wildlife Service or Monroe County Sheriff for having an unlicensed vessel. This afternoon I installed the new front seat/bow locker cushion on the dinghy and rigged a new line to hold the locker seat open while I refuel or otherwise have to work in the locker. I also removed the seat and seat storage bag from the old dinghy. I want to cut the corners off the board that I use to widen the seat so that the corners don't contact the rubber of the new dinghy. I'll do that tomorrow.

Saturday, 3 May - We had the Nautical Flea Market at the Tiki Hut at the marina today. Only three sellers showed up and maybe five shoppers, one buyer, and he didn't buy from me. There was a rumor that something was going on at the city park so I walked over there to see what it was. There were booths set up by vendors, county and municipal groups and conservation groups and Rick and Dana Lieder were performing on the ampitheater stage, our favorite duo singing group so I called Susie and she came but only in time to hear their third of three sets. After that we went for a dinghy ride to the west end of the island and back. We didn't see much wildlife while on the dinghy ride but before we left the dock there were at least five five foot long tarpon under the dock by my dinghy and when we returned there was about a 6 foot manatee snoozing by the dock, then as I left the dock after dropping Susie off, two porpoises accompanied me for a short distance back to the boat. I didn't get any of the work done that I had planned on doing today.

Sunday, 4 May - I defrosted the freezer then was going to cut the corners off of a board that I use to enlarge the seat in the dinghy so the cushion and bag that hangs beneath the seat fit better but realized that if I merely bolt the board to the aluminum seat it will fit better, not move around and can't abrade the hypalon rubber. I bolted the board on and drilled a hole in each end so I can tie line between the two sides so that if the chambers of the dinghy get low on air or cut the seat still can't possibly come off. That exact thing happened to my first dinghy during hurricane Irma. I lost the seat and the seat cushion/storage bag with tools, a life vest, and other things that hang below the seat in the bag. This evening I met Susie at Dockside for entertainment.

Monday, Cinco de Mayo - My mom's birthday. It's nice that so many celebrate her birthday with such good Mexican food. I played pickleball this morning but didn't attend the exercise class. Something has made my back ache considerably and I don't want to exacerbate the problem. I met Susie at the marina at 1:15 to go the Mike Wagner and Bev Fowers' boat on the channel to celebrate the holiday with others.

Tuesday, 6 May - I was the first to arrive for pickleball this morning. I was practicing my serves when suddenly ten people arrived to play. Unfortunately, they were all together and from out of town so they wanted to play just amongst themselves. Only about six of our usual group showed up. I dug out an old "For Sale" sign that I probably used to sell my old Firebird with and put it on my now old dinghy that is tied to the side of my boat. I need to sell it quickly before barnacles and ocean critters attach themselves. At about 7 PM I met Susie at Dockside.

Wednesday, 7 May - I skipped the fitness class again today because my back still hurt but somehow I strained it even worse during pickleball. Right after pickleball I rode my bike to Home Depot and bought vinyl lettering for the registration numbers on my new dinghy and bought ant traps while I was there, too. I have recently discovered several individual wood ants in the saloon. I have no idea where they are chewing up the wood but bought SC Johnson’s Raid Ant Baits and placed eight of them around the saloon and under its floor. I tried Peanut Butter and Boraxo, but that didn’t do any good. I called SC Johnson to verify that the baits would work on Carpenter Ants. Their associate assured me that they would. I hope they are telling the truth. I applied the lettering this evening, needing to do so before I get a ticket fro not having the numbers on the boat.

Thursday, 8 May - I stayed onboard Island Time today rather than take a chance on making my back worse by playing pickleball. I came off the court yesterday hurting pretty bad. I worked on the locking cable for the new dinghy. I drilled a 3/4" hole in the deck of the bow storage compartment and fed one end of the cable that I removed from my old dinghy up through the hole. I had had to cut one end off the cable to remove it because of the thimble and eye that wouldn't fit through the hole, so I needed to install a new eye in the end. The cable is so stiff that t's a three or four handed job without the proper tools so it took me about two hours just to make the eye. I could tighten the cable but as soon as I released either hand the stiff cable sprang back to where I started since I couldn't hold it in place without a third hand. It was frustrating but I finally got it done by holding the crimper for the ferrule between my knees. I started about 10:30 AM and quit at 8:30 PM. I think all I have left to do is apply heat to the heat shrink tubing that I put on the cable to cover the ferrule. It got too dark to do that before I could finish.

Friday, 9 May - I skipped exercise and pickleball again today and worked again on the new dinghy. Because the locking cable is about 15 feet long I brought the free end onboard Island Time's afterdeck to cut the excess pigtail off the crimped eye and use the electric heat gun to shrink the heat shrink tubing on the eye that I made yesterday I then coiled the cable up in the bow locker and tightened the pin in the shackle, which I hadn't done yet. I put away all the tools that I used yesterday then made a chart on the underside of the bow locker's lid. That's a good place to have the number of ounces of two stroke oil necessary to mix with one to six gallons of gasoline that I might add to the tank. The Evinrude outboard uses gas and oil at 50:1 ratio and the Yamaha uses 100:1. As I fill the tank in the locker the chart is right in front of me when the lid is up. This afternoon I filled a five gallon Home Depot bucket with soap, water and dirty clothes, agitated them with my plunger numerous times, and will let them soak overnight before agitating them again, then rinse and hang them up to dry tomorrow.

Saturday, 10 May - My stove ran out of propane this morning about five seconds after I lit it. It took me about ten minutes to switch over to my second tank and I was lucky it happened on a weekend when I wasn't in a hurry to leave the boat. Since I cook so little this 20 lb. tank lasted me one year and five days.
                    I hate Facebook with a passion! It has been suggested that since I need to sell my dinghy I should go on Facebook market place to do so. I tried to do that yesterday but got nowhere. I decided today to stick with it and figure out how to do that. I got on my laptop about 9:30 this morning and finally gave up around 1130. I tried to sign on and it took me to a page that said they had sent me a notification on my other device and to check that out. I open Facebook on my phone and searched page after page trying to find the notifications. There are numerous icons that I have no idea what they're for. They could at least tell you what it means if you have your cursor over it. They say a picture is worth 1000 words and perhaps they are right, each icon could mean a thousand different things and I don't know which one it is. Why can't they just have a drop down menu that has a list of everything you could do using words that you don't have to guess their meaning? Anyway, after two hours I finally found the notifications and tried to complete signing on. Back on my laptop when I try to sign on it said that I was going too fast and was now blocked and no matter how many times I tried that same page kept reappearing. How could I be going too fast when it took me two hours to figure out where the notifications were on my phone? I give up… They win!
                    I was called and asked to stuff flyers in the Cruiser's Bags so I spent a couple of hours doing that this afternoon then rode my bicycle quickly to West Marino to replace the Luci Light that I use on the dinghy. They've always had several models...not today though. None. No one else that I know of has them on the island either. I ordered a replacement online. Technically, I shouldn't use my dinghy at night without that light that is supposed to be able to be seen at all times at night from 360°, and I am one of the most adamant about having lights on your dinghy, but I'll probably break the law tomorrow night coming home from Dockside. Dozens of boaters here in the harbor have no lights on their boats at all. My bow light will suffice for a couple of nights. My bow light has red and green lights facing forward and a white light that can shine to the rear but the white light can't be seen 360°.

Sunday, 11 May - I decided at the last minute to go to the Cruiser's Sunday Brunch. It was quite breezy so not too many showed up, maybe 20. I still ate way too much. There were very good scrambled eggs, SOS, very good pancakes, sausage, bacon cooked way too long for me to even try, bagels, homemade fried pies, wonderful potatoes with onions and cheese, several mixed drinks and juices. Back at the boat I cut down a three foot 4 X 4 and made a removable step that will make getting out of the port side of the engine room much easier to exit. The starboard side has several things to step on to exit but the port side had none. I have had to place my hands on the sides of the cockpit floor / engine room access hole, jump and push myself up as if I were on parallel bars until I could hook my butt on the floor of the cockpit to exit. Now there will be no jumping, just a step up.

Monday, 12 May - It rained last night so there were about 4 inches of water in my old dinghy this morning which I had to bail out using a 5 gallon bucket, modified half gallon bleach container and a hand bilge pump. My back is still sore so I skipped pickleball although the fitness class was cancelled because of rain or its threat. Some of the past pickleballers were tough enough, dedicated enough, or addicted enough to play in the rain, but I don't think any of the current players are. I treated several of the windows on my boat with Aquatech Strataglass Cleaner this afternoon.

Tuesday, 13 May - My refrigeration needed defrosting so I did that this morning. I met Susie at Dockside this evening to dance and have a couple of "adult beverages."

Wednesday, 14 May - When I signed on with T-Mobile several years ago the plan I chose did everything I need AND was guaranteed to keep the same price forever. That sounded like a pretty good deal so I took it. I assumed that they new that prices and costs would lower as they accumulated more clients and their coverage matured. Well, they've reneged on their promise and just raised my rate. I, and I'm sure, many others did too and explained that I'm on a plan that is promised to never go up in price. I feel like Don Quixote. They offered me a plan, Go 5G 55+, that "is identical" (in their words, but my plan, One Plan Unlimited 55 Plus, has 50 GB of data/month before they slow me down and the one offered has only 15 GB (more deception)) but at $10 a month less and not price locked so they can, and will, raise the price whenever they want to. I said no, I'll stick to my current plan and talk to a lawyer. Upon hearing that I was offered an immediate $10 credit on this month's bill and another $10 credit for each of the next six months and I'll stay on the same plan. Of course, this plan's fee will be $10 more after that but it gives me time to decide what I want to do. I think there may be one or more class action court claims filed against them during that time. It's pretty well documented that they promised no rate hikes on the plan and their must be hundreds of thousands of people with this or similar plans.

Thursday, 15 May - My Yamaha outboard motor has been getting harder to start again and won't idle right so I dove into that this morning. I decided to clean its carburetor again, this time using the new ultrasonic cleaner that I bought about a month ago. It did a good job but took a long time. The unit uses about 3 liters of fluid which has to heat up to about 130°F. That took about an hour. I think next time I may preheat the fluid on the stove. Once heated, the sonic vibrator needed to run for almost an hour. Removing, disassembling, reassembling and reinstalling the carburetor had to be done too, so that took most of the day. Here's the part that is frustrating...it didn't run well before and now won't even start. Some mechanic I am. I cleaned the plugs and the fuel filter on the engine too. Still won't start. I quit at seven this evening.

Friday, 16 May - I replaced the Spark Plugs and the external, in line fuel filter, cleaned the internal fuel filter and made numerous adjustments to the carburetor to no avail. I still couldn’t start it so I removed it and replaced it with the Evinrude. I finished just in time to clean up and join other boaters at the tiki hut for the Friday evening happy hour.

Saturday, 17 May - I took the Yamaha to the marina’s shop and worked on it. I pulled the plugs and, since I had the opportunity, I checked the compression on each cylinder. The top one had 110 psi and the lower one 115. That's pretty darn good for an engine that's 17 years old and used almost every day, I think. Although the spark plugs are brand new and it's hard to tell, they looked bone dry so I assumed that they weren't getting any gas. I'm getting spark from each one. It's really hard to check that while on the dinghy, especially in the daytime, but pretty easy while on an engine stand inside the workshop. I took the carburetor apart and put it back together again just to make sure I didn't miss anything when I cleaned it with the ultrasonic cleaner the other day. I didn't find anything wrong anywhere. I left the engine in the shop and will take fuel and fuel lines in tomorrow and try to start it and continue the diagnostics.

Sunday, 18 May - I got lucky right off the bat this morning. A fellow contacted me during the Cruiser's Net and came and bought my old dinghy for $300. I feel it is worth considerably more but was glad to get rid of it since I was having to pump it up daily and would eventually have to take it to the beach to scrape the bottom since I can't raise it on the davits daily. I returned to the marina's workshop this morning and, once again, checked the spark plugs. They looked dry, although since they are brand new and haven't even sparked yet, it was hard to tell. I adjusted the jet to numerous different settings and tried to start the engine each time but to no avail. Dan Duggan of S/V Photon, my next door neighbor in the harbor with a sailboat that, by design, has a mast that has no stays or shrouds to hold it up, wandered by and had pity on me and volunteered to pull on the starter cord numerous times but he had no success either, then he volunteered to go to his boat and get some starter fluid. On his return we both tried to start the engine many times, again without success. Karen Deihl, who professes to know a lot about small outboards came by, but when told what I've tried on the engine, was stumped, too. The next person to wander by was Greg Schaefer of S/V Spartytime. He pulled on it about 5 times and it started right up. Amazing, some kind of magic. I didn't have it in water to keep the engine from overheating so we killed it after just a few seconds but I let it cool and I started it right up again. I'm lucky that it started, but I really hate it when something I'm working on suddenly starts working again without me knowing what fixed it. That's happened more than once with this engine. I don't know what to do if the same problem arises again. I returned to the boat and installed the Yamaha on its stand on the rail on the port, aft quarterdeck and will use the Evinrude until this tank of gas runs out, then switch back to the Yamaha.
                    The evening was spent with Susie and friends at Dockside.

Monday, 19 May - I really don't want to re-injure my back so, even though I don't know which activity hurt me, I didn't go to the fitness class or pickleball again today.

Tuesday, 20 May - I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to order refills for my GUM Proxabrush Go-Betweens tooth cleaner. The last time I ordered them they cost 12 cents each. Now the best price I could find was 69 cents. They went up 79% in the last month. I met Susie, Brandon and Susan Baker, Patty and Jim Marshall, and others at Dockside for the evening's entertainment.

Wednesday, 21 May - I published my April blog today. I stayed aboard again today and got a few small things accomplished that needed to be done.

Thursday, 22 May - I had an appointment in Key West at the VA to receive new hearing aids. I had returned my Starkey aids and received new ones made by ReSound. Just a personal observation but it seems like most new items I get have a "manual" that tells you all the things the device is capable of, but rarely how to do it. Both of these hearing aids are great examples of that.

Friday, 23 May - I defrosted the freezer today and went to the tax office to register the sale of my second, old dinghy so that if it is ever discovered abandoned I won't be held accountable for fines for its removal. I found out that the new owner hasn't registered it but that could be because he doesn't want to register it here and then, shortly, in his home state of Louisiana. This afternoon at 4 PM I attended the Friday happy hour for a baked potato dinner then took a taxi to Havana Jack's and met Susie there to hear the Beach Bandits, Bob Jaeger and Bongo Bob De La Torre play along with Trevor Meade.

Saturday, 24 May - I picked up some boric acid powder at the marina yesterday that I had ordered to make some poison for carpenter ants that have appeared on board. The SC Johnson’s Raid Ant Baits that I purchased not long ago don't seem to work at all. Awhile back I started seeing about one ant per night but recently I saw and killed 8 in one evening so they are obviously multiplying quickly and chewing my boat up. I really can't tell where their nest is. They don't find food and then make a trail to it so I can't follow their trail back to the nest. They seem to act independently. I've never seen more than one at a time. I distributed eight poison baits and have observed only one ant near one, but he ignored it. Last night, however, I did discover that they apparently like the leftover juice from the peaches is heavy syrup that I have often as desert. I think I'll be adding some boric acid to that. I had tried putting Borax in peanut butter as a bait, but again, unsuccessfully. Roaches like it and disappear shortly after eating it.
                    The plan for today was to switch out the dinghy engines, then buy groceries. I made my grocery list then switched the engines since the Yamaha started for us the other day and I just ran out of the 50:1 gas to oil mix for the Evinrude. Since I'm switching engines I also had to change the fuel connector at the engine. I started the Yamaha after numerous yanks on the start rope and it ran for a minute, then died. The fuel system must be sucking air somewhere. I inspected the connectors at both ends of the fuel line and found tiny cracks in the o-rings on each one, so I replaced them. That didn't help. I realized that the in-line fuel filter that I recently replaced only partially filled when I pumped the primer bulb, then drained when I quit pumping, leading me to believe that the primer bulb had a bad valve in it, so I replaced it and indeed it did. That didn't help. I pumped the bulb until it filled, then kept squeezing it to force gas to leak anywhere there might be a leak and discovered that the fuel filter inside the engine was leaking a tiny bit. If it can leak gasoline, it can leak air back into the system, so I tightened it. That didn't solve the problem either. The engine starts and runs about long enough for the carburetor's float tank to empty, then runs out of gas and dies. I'm about out of ideas and components to check. The only other thing I can think of is that the fuel pump on the carburetor is malfunctioning. Although I've inspected it recently, I'll check it again in the morning. I finally quit working on it at 7:30 and, of course, didn't get to the grocery store.

Sunday, 25 May - Continuing where I left off yesterday, I removed the Yamaha's carburetor, took it apart and inspected it, but found nothing wrong. I removed the fuel pump that is attached to the carburetor and even got out the original carburetor to compare the two but there are just enough differences in the two to make most part non-interchangeable. I had thought I might switch the fuel pumps or, at least, their check valves but that wasn't possible. The engine wouldn't start so I switched out the primer bulb. I can't figure out why the inline fuel filter won't let the air in it evacuate and then fill with gasoline. I even removed the fuel line from the fuel pump where the gas goes into the carburetor and squeezed the primer bulb to make sure gas is getting there. It is, and the carburetor float bowl fills. The inline filter has always filled by priming it and in fact, there was one time when the valve on the tank was bad and no gas was allowed through so the engine pulled enough vacuum to flatten the primer bulb. A little goes in but it doesn't fill. If the engine starts, it runs until the float bowl and any gas in the inline filter are used up and then dies. The inline filter never gets replenished. To say that I'm baffled would be an understatement. I think I'm bordering on depression. Ok, plan F or G; I decided to try the old, original, OEM Yamaha carburetor that I replaced a couple of years ago. I'm desperate. I dug it out, disassembled it, and stuck it in the ultrasonic cleaner. It wouldn't run well then and it may not run right now, but it's worth a try. If it will allow me to start the engine at all that's an improvement. It seems like everything I do to make it run better makes it not run at all. I'll probably have to row the mile to Dockside this evening to meet Susie. I did.

Monday, 26 May - Memorial Day 2025 - I got the engine to start with the old carburetor but it was leaking gasoline. Perhaps the needle valve was stuck open allowing it to overflow. I replaced it with the newer carburetor again. The engine's internal fuel filter was still leaking a tiny bit so I replaced the nitrile o-ring in it. It is, of course, metric, but I found that an imperial (ASE) o-ring of the same diameter but greater thickness would work so I installed one and it stopped the leakage. There still isn't enough vacuum to make the in-line filter fill with gas. About 4 pm I started the engine and went to shore squeezing the primer bulb about once every minute to keep the fuel flowing. I went to West Marine and bought a new, backup primer bulb and two more Yamaha fuel line connectors. They only seem to last about a year before they get cracks in the o-rings. I returned to the boat and called it a day. Later, I found a message on my phone asking me to return a call to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission in Key Largo because they found my old dinghy tied to a float up there. I guess it's a good thing I registered its sale on Friday. He has apparently already abandoned it.

Tuesday, 27 May - I disassembled the old, original, Yamaha carburetor and its fuel pump, and inspected everything on and in them and found nothing wrong. Perhaps the leakage was due to me not tightening the float bowl drain screw but I would swear that I loosened it after removal to drain the gas in the bowl into a rag. After lunch I removed the spark plugs to see if they were wet or dry. Wet would indicate the engine running too rich. Wet they were so I turned the pilot screw in just a bit but the engine didn't run well and was harder to start. I was able, however, to meet Susie at Dockside without having to row there. The engine ran Ok, but I still had to pump the primer bulb once about every two minutes to get there and back.

Wednesday, 28 May - I finally decided to try playing pickleball again this morning. I haven't played since the seventh of this month and, although my back still hasn't quit hurting, I decided to try pickleball, but not fitness class. Playing did increase the pain a bit, but not too bad. I would have thought that three weeks of recuperation should be enough but I guess not. The Yamaha is still not running right so I worked on it again this afternoon. The last thing I did was to check the male fuel connector that is built into the engine for leaks and I believe that it finally fixed the fuel flow problem.

Thursday, 29 May - Well, I decided to try pickleball again this morning and regretted it. My back got really sore again, worse than ever. I guess I won't be playing pickleball again for awhile longer. In spite of that, working on the Yamaha for several days has put me behind on other projects. I was totally out of bread, milk, eggs, and bananas, and low on other things so I had to go buy groceries. I defrosted the freezer, had lunch, then headed to Publix and bought $300 in groceries. The store wasn't crowded. It looked as if they had just restocked the fruit and vegetable drinks but the variety of V-8 that I like, Original, only had three left...I would have taken six if they had had them. Whoever does their ordering never buys enough of the original and they disappear fast. They must just wait until they're low on almost everything, then reorder the same amount of all the items. I have to be quick to get the most popular items. That happens about every other time I shop. I'm not in the retail business but I think I'd order more of those items that sell out instantly if I were.

Friday, 30 May - I skipped pickleball and exercise today. I put about three and a half gallons of water in a five gallon bucket, added soap and several dirty clothing items, stirred them with my plunger numerous times during the afternoon and will let them soak overnight. The hose connectors that came with the dinghy weren't as they should have been so the shipped me more. They aren't much better so I worked adapting those this afternoon.

Saturday, 31 May - This morning I climbed the mast up to the spreaders with the intention of replacing broken cord that holds a protective "bib" on the spreaders. That "bib" keeps the roller furled mainmast from banging against the mast and spreaders when the wind blows. I got to my destination halfway up the mast then realized that I wasn't going to be able to finish the job without having a spare halliard to hold me in place, taking my weight off my legs, so I had to immediately return to the deck, rig the halliard, and go back up. I can climb the mast safely by using two three foot cords with carabiners on each and attaching them alternately to each mast step that is on opposite sides of the mast as I go up. Unfortunately, more small line was needed for the lashing than I had taken up with me. I completed lashing one side of the "bib", came down off the mast, and will finish the job tomorrow after, hopefully, finding more 1/8" line. I finished washing, rinsing, and hanging a first batch of clothes up to dry and started another.