Friday, 1 August 2025 - While sitting with Mike and Melanie Streng last night at Dockside, Melanie, the lady that set up and runs our fitness class three days a week, convinced me that if I came to the class this morning she would show me three exercises to do specifically to strengthen my back, so I did. When the class was over I thought I'd walk the short distance to the pickleball court and practice a few serves. I was talking to Peter, another fellow that had exercised, and asked if he'd ever played pickleball and he said no but he'd like to try it sometime. Now was the time. I spent about an hour and a half teaching him the rules, practicing serves and dinks, and played a game. He did really well, attributing that to the fact that he's played numerous other racket sports. We both had fun but it got pretty hot on the court. I returned to the boat, defrosted the refrigeration and washed several shirts.
                    At midnight I heard fireworks so I stuck my head out to see what was going on. From the location they were being launched from I quickly realized that it was the celebration, the "Blessing of the Fleet", the lobstermen have to recognize the opening of the lobster season. At midnight they have their fireworks and head off into the darkness in their boats to be the first to set their traps for the season. I took a few pictures and went to bed.

Saturday, 2 August - I worked on my blog today but for some reason the images wouldn't transfer to the cloud. I finally gave up after about two hours. I had closed my browser, restarted the computer and my iPhone numerous times so it was time to move on. I washed several shirts then went to listen to Patten James around 5 pm to 6. Massai was on the schedule for the evening session at Dockside and I'm not too interested in listening to them. Massai had cancelled so the JibSea Cowboys were to play at 7 PM. I stuck around to hear them and have dinner there.

Sunday,3 August - I washed T-shirts and shorts this morning then spent another couple of hours on this blog before I finally figured out why the images wouldn't upload. I don't think I'd ever tried to upload videos to the site, and it's supposed to work, but I had two short videos, 4th of July fireworks for 3 seconds and 29 seconds of Patton James playing at Dockside, and when I deleted those the images loaded right up. I posted last month's blog, hung up my T-shirts and shorts to dry, then headed to Dockside for their open mic night festivities.

Monday, 4 August - I always try to remember to turn off the electrical inverter when I leave the boat and today was a perfect example why I do so. I was sitting here onboard when a rechargeable light I had charging came on. It's not supposed to be on when charging. I noticed it right away, unplugged it, and it smelled like burnt wiring. Had I not been aboard it might have burned the boat to the waterline.

Tuesday, 5 August - My days run together and trying to write this day's activities several days later, I have no idea what I did on this date other than it's Tuesday so I must have gone to Dockside for the evening.

Wednesday, 6 August - Started an online auto search, as in automobile search and built a spreadsheet to consolidate and organize information on various vehicles and make comparisons easy.

Thursday, 7 August - Online auto search is time consuming but there are very few autos for sale here and there is no dealer on the island, or, in fact, within 50 miles. I'll have to rent a car to go look at vehicles. Unfortunately, I end up looking at numerous ads for the same vehicle since they show up on several pages and different searches, too.

Friday, 8 August - More online auto search and I tried to get some smoked brats out of the freezer this evening but couldn't because they were frozen solid in too much ice.

Saturday, 9 August - Defrosted the refrigeration. I asked for assistance on the Cruiser's net to take the boat out and have someone read off the steps to reset the wind indicator as I sail the boat in circles and then adjust the settings, but I got no volunteers. There aren't many people listening to the net these days. I think it should take about an hour and a half to two hours to get out of the harbor, adjust the settings and come back to the mooring ball.

Sunday, 10 August - I asked for assistance with my wind gauge calibration again today and Mike Wagner responded but said he can't do it today but would be glad to help me on Tuesday. That's great, I can wait. Dockside entertainment was only so-so this evening although Candace was really good, as usual. A trio from out of town and on vacation took the stage for a bit but played music at a pace so fast that nobody danced. It reminded me of the old song, Louie Louie, but I'd never heard any of the songs before. The bass player played his instrument as if it was a lead guitar so there was no back beat like I'm used to.

Monday, 11 August - I replaced the cord on my hanging hat rack/retainer today. It hangs on the back of my aft head door and the rope on it is just turning to dust, also known as micro-plastics.

Tuesday, 12 August - Mike Wagner had volunteered to help me calibrate my wind instrument so I picked him up at noon and we headed out of the harbor. We traveled far enough so that we wouldn't be blocking traffic trying to enter the harbor entrance and I turned the boat two complete circles to initiate the process. As soon as that was done I asked Mike to read off the steps for me to enter into the control panel. I looked at the panel and it was blank. Not Good! I rebooted it and still nothing. I couldn't believe it. I just replaced the printed circuit board about a month ago. Also, just recently there was a nearby lightning strike. I checked all my electronics right after that strike and all were working except my LinkPro battery monitor. I thought I got off easy, although, with the help of Anthony Kelhower of Onboard Rigging, I had replaced it within the last 3 or 4 months. There have been no close strikes since the one that destroyed my LinkPro, so what happened? Another one of life's mysteries. Anyway, I apologized to Mike for wasting his time and we headed back into the harbor. I dropped him off back at his boat at about 2:15. This evening I visited Dockside for some relaxation and music appreciation.

Wednesday, 13 August - I was contacted by Mary Ackroyd asking me to announce that the city library, within walking distance, is divesting itself of all its audio books and given them away free. I announced this on the Cruiser's Net this morning then rode my bike over and picked up a couple myself.

Thursday, 14 August - Because of a recent close encounter of the lightning kind, I thought that my LinkPro battery monitor had bitten the dust. It had not. Cleaning up the connections of the two wires on the positive busbar in the starboard lazarette brought it back to life. Unfortunately, fixing the Raymarine ST60+ Wind Indicator wasn't as easy. I took voltage readings off of the connections to it at the base of the mast and found one that should be variable between 2 and 5 Volts is actually 7.44V static. I called Raymarine technical support and he said that since I got that reading I should also take continuity readings of each and every pair of those wires also. I ran out of time today. Susie returned from Ohio this afternoon and I met her at Dockside for some entertainment and dancing.

Friday, 15 August - The first serious storm in the Atlantic got a name today, Erin, but even it is prognosticated to miss us by heading north toward Bermuda. I spent almost all day trying to determine what is wrong with the Raymarine ST60+ Wind Gauge, without success.

Saturday, 16 August - I spent all day tracking down the wiring for the radar. I had been told by one of the marine electronics techs that the cable running from the Radome to the binnacle has a split in it to pick up power along with the data signal. Of course it has significant runs that cannot be accessed at all and others that are hard to view. I finally found the split...inside the binnacle about 6 inches from its termination. While I was searching and making discoveries I marked many of the wires as I discovered what they do and what system they belong with; radio, radar, multi-function display, auto helm, etc.

Sunday, 17 August - Over the last two days I've spent numerous hours trying to figure out how to make my radar work. I failed at that but certainly know a lot more about the wiring of that segment of my boat than I did previously. Unfortunately, I don't know if the problem is with the cable or the radar unit itself. I spent a lot of time figuring out the wiring but just as much time making notes and labeling wires so I don't have to figure it out again.
                    This evening I met Susie at Dockside and the music was great so we danced a lot and had a great time.

Monday, 18 August - I spent about 3 hours installing the deck awning today since it got up to 96ºF inside the boat yesterday. It shades about 85% of the foredeck, lowering the inside temperature quite a bit. The awning is totally custom made and is a perfect fit but very complicated to install. I hope it can stay installed for a long time. The thing that will make me take it down is the first hurricane that gets so close that I have to run from it.
                    Dang-it. I've had another hardly used electronics device, a laser aimed, Klein Infrared Thermometer just cease to work for no visible reason. Although I've had it for five years I've barely used it and always had it stored in its canvas padded case inside a Tupperware style food container to keep out salt air and removed the battery when not in use. It says the battery is low. I tried three different batteries that all test as "good" on my battery tester. I just don't understand it. I don't seem to have good luck with electronics.

Wednesday, 20 August - Francisco Soriano Martines and I met about halfway between his boat and mine this morning. He was on the way to my boat to start work and I was headed his way to check out the water depth all around the mooring ball that I'll be on. He kayaks with a canoe paddle and moving my boat near him will make it much easier on him. I went to the marina to tell them I was moving, then back to my boat. He was already scraping of some of the existing coating on my toe rail. I had to bundle the deck awning up to move the boat, then reopen it when I got the boat moved. He's a hard worker and brought most of the tools he needs with him including scrapers, a heat gun, etc. He talks very little and stays busy. I'll need to supply expendables like sand paper, coatings, brushes, etc. Later in the afternoon he needed electricity for the heat gun so I fired up the Honda generator and he worked until it ran out of gas, about 4 hours more. He got a lot done today but there's still a lot to do. It's going faster than I expected, however. After I got the mooring lines attached and the deck awning back up so he has some shade, I defrosted the freezer while Francisco was working. He started on my boat about 10 AM and didn't quit until after 7:30 in the evening.

Thursday, 21 August - Francisco said he'd get here at 9:30 to work but showed up at 9. I got him started scraping the woodwork again. I've been thinking I am low on fresh water so I checked the tank level. It barely registered so I thought I might be as low as 10 or 15 gallons. I made 4 trips to the marina for water and got 200 gallons in my ten 5 gallon jugs. My water tank is theoretically capable of holding 200 gallons but as I pumped the contents of the 17th jug into the tank, the tank overflowed onto the deck. Now I have about 43 gallons I'll have to lift onto the deck and store there until I use about that many gallons out of the tank. At least I know now that I don't have to make more than 3 trips to the dock for water any more when I'm about out.

Friday, 22 August - Francisco arrived at about 9:45 and worked until about 8 pm. I think mosquitos made him stop, not the approaching darkness. I made a run to Home Depot today to get blue masking tape, some 150 grit sand paper, a gallon of two cycle oil for the dinghy, and a replacement plastic container about 11 X 17 X 12 inches. I got the tape and oil but, unfortunately, didn't have the exact measurements for the container so I couldn't get that, and I forgot the sand paper. I returned to the boat and poured the gallon of oil into 4 easy to store quart containers, and thought to do a database search for sand paper on my computer. I had an inkling that I had some somewhere on the boat and I was right. I had plenty in the lower level of the starboard lazerette. I'm in no rush for the container, so I don't have to return for that until I need something else.

Saturday, 23 August - At 6:30 this morning I awoke to the sound of thunder. I checked the MyRadar app and the squall appeared to have formed just as it passed us so I tried to go back to sleep. That didn't work and at 7 AM I heard more, this time just upwind from the harbor. I got up just in time to move sand paper, the heat gun and scraping tools, and the Honda generator under cover as the rain started. I barely got wet. Later, I asked Francisco if he'd like a kayak paddle with a blade at each end to replace the canoe paddle he uses in his dinghy and kayak. He said, "No, kayak paddles get me wet." That's true. As you lower one end of a kayak paddle to stroke on the opposite side it raises the other end and water runs down the shaft or drips off the blade on each stroke...and no, putting little cups on the shaft and cutting a slot near the bottom edge of the blade does not keep it from happening. If you're just out for a pleasant day on the water it doesn't matter much, but if you have on good, clean clothes, it does. He'll stick with the canoe paddle. Francisco started applying the Cetol varnish today, a little too soon, I think. He didn't have everything scraped and sanded. I thought he was going to simply paint what already was sanded and then finish scraping and sanding the rest. That didn't happen. He applied Cetol to almost everything...and he missed a few spots. He had also taped the wooden protectors on the dormer style deck hatches but when I saw the way he did it, I knew it wouldn't work. The wooden and bronze rod lattice protects the plexiglass on the hatches and he had simply run masking tape along the sides of the wood. If he had painted with it that way Cetol would have unquestionably leaked onto the plexiglass. I removed the whole lattice and re-scraped the wood myself because with it still mounted he wasn't able to access it well enough. Either he hasn't had nearly as much experience doing this kind of work as he implied or his quality standards aren't up to what I'd hoped for. I guess I shouldn't be surprised for what he asked it payment for the job. It won't look as good as I'd hoped but at least the wood will be protected a lot better than it was.

Sunday, 24 August - Francisco showed up about an hour late this morning and I showed him some of the mistakes he was making; unpainted surfaces, lack of proper sanding, etc. He got upset and wanted to argue, saying the previous varnish job was inferior and was ruining the old wood. From my perspective, the previous coating, which looked absolutely gorgeous when it was new three years ago, has nothing to do with his not sanding well enough after scraping the old coating off. He finally went back to work and did so for about three hours...then it rained for ten minutes, getting everything wet. I suggested he take a break till things dry out again. He didn't come back today. Later, I met Susie at Dockside.

Monday, 25 August - Francisco came to the boat about 10 o'clock worked about 3 hours and declared he was finished. We walked briefly around the boat and I didn't really see anything wrong, although this job is certainly not as good as the previous one. For one thing we use a different varnish, Cetol, instead of the two part Alexshield that was used last time. I paid him even though he had done such a poor job on the hatch covers that I said I'd finish those myself. I also wanted to clean the bronze rods that are mounted in the hatch covers. I spent the rest of the day cleaning those up. There are 16 rods and after cleaning up one I realized I could pull each one out at a time, insert them in a drill motor and spin them while sanding them. That went much faster. I still need to sand the wooden pieces, however.

Tuesday. 26 August - I'm mad at myself for being so naive and trusting at my age. I should know better. I've learned that lesson before but just learned it again. The job Francisco did looks so poor that I decided to re-sand everything and add another coat or two. I had intended to have him use two coats of Cetol Natural Teak and one coat of Cetol Gloss, but he had said he put two coats on the first day. That's not supposed to be done. You're supposed to wait 24 hours before adding a second coat. I had him add a third coat of Natural Teak as the third coat. As I started going around the boat in my dinghy this morning I became convinced that there is only one coat on some things and two or three on others. Maybe three coats on only the parts most visible. I spent all day re-sanding everything except the hatch covers again. There was no sense putting a coat of gloss over the rough surface he had left on everything. At least I have a pretty smooth surface to put gloss on now. I can see several more days of work ahead on this.

Wednesday, 27 August - I am amazed at the accuracy of the AI controlled weather app that I have, Weather Bug. It has a constantly updating, personal weather prognostication for each of millions of phones, pads, and laptops, all depending on their location...and it's free. Last night, just before going to bed, I looked at the app. Skies were clear but I thought I'd better check, just in case. It said there was a 30% chance of rain before I woke up. I closed and covered the two hatches that I have the grids off of because the screw holes would leak into the cabin. I closed up the windows on the dodger and closed portholes just in case it was right. It's a good thing I did. At 5 am I woke up to a hard rain. It only lasted about 10 minutes but long enough to have gotten things very wet if I hadn't closed up. I got up at 8 o'clock and wiped the water off of all the newly painted and sanded woodwork, which took about an hour, hoping it would dry during breakfast and not rain again after that. I got lucky. That's exactly what happened. I decided to fill some holes and gaps in the woodwork with wood filler, something that should have been done long ago. That took about three hours. I had saved a couple of ounces of teak sawdust thinking if I ever had to fill holes with filler I could mix it in to match the color of the teak. Although I probably only used about an ounce of filler it still wasn't enough to change the color much. It looks bad now but at least the wood is better protected. At about 4 o'clock I started painting a coat of Cetol on the wood and didn't finish until 8:45, in the dark. I still need to put two coats of Cetol Clear Gloss on. It has a UV protectant in it. Oh, and I still have to sand and coat the teak latices for the two hatches. I barely have enough regular Cetol to do that. I'll probably have to buy another quart.

Thursday 28 August - It rained at 4:30 AM. I had closed up most of the boat before going to bed so all I had to do was drop the side windows of the dodger and go back to sleep. I got up just before 8 AM and checked MyRadar app to try to determine if it was going to continue to rain throughout the day. It looked like it might not so I used a microfiber cloth to dry the wood on the deck off. I ate breakfast and started painting about 10:30, finishing at about 3 o'clock. At about 7 pm I went to Dockside to have dinner and to hear Candace Widgeon perform.

Friday, 29 August - Today promised to be quite rainy so I worked on cleaning up the belaying pins and hatch protecting grids in preparation to paint them with Cetol Marine Light that I will purchase at West Marine. Well, since I bragged about how accurate Weather Bug is, it was totally wrong today. It predicted significant, 65% chance, of rain every hour here today. That's usually enough the make it rain quite a bit but today the rain never came. I did finish sanding the wooden parts of the lattice that protects the plexiglass on the hatch covers but it took all day. There are 16 pieces. I also marked each set with two sets of grooves, one groove straight across all four pieces in a set and the other groove at an angle, so they can be kept in the correct order in order for the screw holes to match up upon reinstallation.

Saturday, 30 August - I made a run in the dinghy to West Marine and bought a quart of Cetol Marine Light for $60, returned to the boat. I cleaned the 16 bronze rods that are in the lattice, which protects the plexiglass on the hatch covers, with vinegar and took them to the marina workshop to spray them with clear coat paint to keep them from corroding. I sprayed them with one coat of clear coat on one side then realized that since they are not all perfectly straight, when I tried to rotate them one hundred and eighty degrees to spray the other side, they instantly rolled right back over, exposing the same side that I had just sprayed. I looked around the shop and found a three foot piece of 1/4" X 1 1/2" piece of wood and using a backsaw and miter box, drill press and 1/4" drill bit, I made a rack to hold the rods. I could then spray one side of the rods, flip them over and spray the other side. I finished just as they were closing up the building.

Sunday, 31 August - I put a coat of Cetol Marine Light on the belaying pins today then started to assemble the wood and bronze grids for the hatch covers. When I got to the fourth one I realized I was one short of the 16 rods needed. I knew I had sprayed all 16 yesterday so I was convinced that I must have misplaced one onboard the boat. I spent at least an hour scouring the boat over and over for it. It just wasn't here so I headed to the marina workshop hoping that it was there and that no one had taken it. It would be a pain in the butt and time consuming to replace and I wouldn't be able to reinstall the grid until I got it. Once again, I got lucky. It was there laying on the floor next to the table I had sprayed them on. I can't believe I didn't hear it hit the concrete floor when I dropped it. Back at the boat I completed the assembly of the last of the four grids and added a coat of Cetol Marine Light varnish to them. It rained briefly several times today, making me close up, then reopen the dodger's windows, but at least, since I'm now working inside the cockpit, everything stayed dry. Susie has been visiting her cousin in Ft. Lauderdale this week but arrived back today and we met at Dockside. Since it is the off season for tourists here, Dockside will be closed for the next two weeks for vacations, repairs, and upgrades.