Wednesday, 1 October 2025 - Very light winds and sunshine are predicted today so I re-deployed the deck awning. As I did so, a beautiful eagle ray glided through the water next to my boat. Also, a couple from a nearby boat came by on their way to Dockside but ran out of gas about halfway between my boat and the boat next to me. Jim on the next boat over apparently saw it happen and paddled out to them in his kayak and delivered some gasoline to them. Unfortunately, the fellow couldn't get the engine to restart and after a few minutes I yelled at them to ask if they needed a tow to shore. They declined but as they were about to drift downwind far enough that I couldn't hail them I could see the sweat glistening off his shoulders in the sun while he repeatedly pulled on the starter cord. I decided that if it were me I would certainly be ready to accept help, so I launched my dinghy and towed them to Dockside.

Thursday, 2 October - I, once again, unscrewed the screws in one of the hatches, squirted silicone sealant into the holes, and drove the screws back in hoping that they would quit leaking when it rains. I also had to dismount the new navigation light that I mounted the other day. I hadn't taken into account that the transom on my dinghy is not vertical so I had to cut the post off at an angle to compensate and also installed a screw in the post to keep it from rotating from vibration and the bouncing of the boat as I motor. Later, I paid for another month's rent, then went to Dockside to see Candace perform. It's still summer season so the place only had a few regulars at the bar and five tables in the dining area occupied. I feel sorry for Candace having so few to perform for. Musicians like the feedback from the audience that's not possible when there are so few people. Absolutely no one danced to her music.

Friday, 3 October - Today the weather threatened to rain more than it did, but since it did rain a bit off and on, I really didn't get much done.

Saturday, 4 October - Today being the first Saturday of the month it was time for a nautical flea market, even though we haven't had one in several months. Someone did mention it on the net and said they'd be there so I grabbed a bag full of stuff to sell and went to the tiki hut. No one else ever showed up so I didn't stay long. Jerry, my neighbor on S/V Teaz, came over to my boat to make some suggestions about how to reduce the amount of frost I get in the freezer. He claims to have worked for CSY making these boats years ago and I was hoping he might have a magic solution but that, of course, didn't happen. I won't be able to implement a couple of ideas he had until I can defrost the freezer with less food to store in a separate cooler while doing so than I do now.
                    I heard this morning on the Cruiser's Net that Skipjack Resort is having a pool party this evening and everyone is invited so I went to that and enjoyed myself there.

Sunday, 5 October - Today is yet another cloudy day and there is almost no wind so my boat's house batteries probably won't get topped off by either my solar panels or wind generator. I met Susie at Dockside this evening for some dancing but one of my least favorite singer/performers, Glenn Harman, was allowed to spend too much time at the microphone. He's a good musician and not a bad singer but he just doesn't perform songs that we can dance to.

Monday, 6 October - I had to go beyond the VA medical center in Key West by bus to get some cash from Wells Fargo bank this morning. Then I walked back the mile and a half to my VA appointment. Wells Fargo has no bank in Marathon and has removed the cash machine that used to be here in town. I had blood drawn for yearly checkup and a visit to the dermatology department, too. My timing was perfect on both bus rides to and from Key West, was right on time for my labs, and a bit early for my dermatology appointment but the got me in early to make an earlier bus ride than I was expecting. That saved me about an hour and a half. I hadn't gotten breakfast this morning so when I arrived back in Marathon and let off right across from the Florida Steak and Lobster restaurant, I walked over there for lunch. Their happy hour is from 11:30 to 6 pm and I ordered hot shrimp, shrimp cooked in hot wings sauce, and walked out paying only a $10 check. That's pretty good around here. I had to pass the pickleball court on the way back to the marina and there was no one there so I grabbed a racket and served up two buckets of balls for practice. Upon returning to the boat I defrosted the freezer and replaced the gasket on its lid while I was at it.

Tuesday, 7 October - Today weather threatened to rain most of the day so I couldn't get much done. I did, however, put several shirts in a five gallon bucket of soapy water to soak overnight. Later I met Susie at Dockside. Again, there was a pretty paltry turnout and at about 9 pm just as the band took a break, a small, but potent rain shower occurred that caused what few people were there to leave, ending the night.

Wednesday, 8 October - Early this morning I noticed that Jason (JW), the fellow that had a boat for sale that has a Raymarine ST60 Wind Indicator onboard was onboard his vessel. I removed my display from its mount and took it over to see if I could possibly switch my display unit out with his to see if mine would register wind speed or direction on his system. Unfortunately, he has sold the boat and couldn't do that. I returned to Island Time and finished washing, rinsing, and putting my shirts up to dry in the cockpit.

Thursday, 9 October - I finished washing, rinsing, and hanging up a second batch of clothes today.

Friday, 10 October - Yahoo! There's been a navy artillery battle going on here for the last several hours; or at least that's what it sounds like. There have been hundreds of lightning strikes and thunder rolling almost constantly. A good heavy rain, too, which has overflowed my water tank. I wish this would happen when my tank is almost empty instead of when it is almost full. Unfortunately, even with all the thunder and lightning and rain, there's no wind at all so I'm sure that with all the cloud cover my batteries won't get charged fully today. Since the wind and sun didn't charge my batteries today, this evening I started Island Time's 92 hp diesel engine and ran it for two hours to do so. While it was running it also cooled two of my extra refrigerator boxes and heated up water in my water heater.
                      I posted my September copy of this letter today, too. I hope you got it and that my effort in publishing it is appreciated. If not, let me know and I'll remove you from my mailing list. No hard feelings.

Saturday, 11 October - I made a trip in to the marina to deposit trash and to check my mail around noon. This afternoon I met Susie and many of the harbor boaters at Dockside to celebrate Diesel Don's contribution to our community. He has a brain tumor and is scheduled to go in for surgery this week. We all wish him well. From what I know they think this should be an easy one to treat but you never know. I hope this isn't a last hurrah party.

Sunday, 12 October - On my way in to the marina today I stopped by the boat that has just been purchased and that has a Raymarine ST60 wind meter on it. I was hoping he would let me temporarily swap out my wind panel for his to see if I got a reading on his system with my unit. He wouldn't let me but that was no surprise since he's new to the harbor and his boat and he doesn't know me from Adam. This afternoon I took a short cruise around the area of the mooring field that I used to be moored in to see what mooring balls were available. I decided to move to L-2 tomorrow. I was on M-7 for a long time but have moved to C-16 to make it easier for the guy that was painting my deck brightwork. L-2 will be easier to get attached to under some conditions because there was some shallow water that blocked my approach on M-7 from the north. This evening I met Susie at Dockside. The place was pretty empty and, in fact, we had the dance floor to ourselves for the last hour and although there were few people at the bar, there were even fewer in the seating area.

Monday, 13 October - Columbus Day and Indigenous People's holiday. It seems a little odd that we celebrate the man that killed thousands of indigenous people in the Caribbean either by violence or disease, and the people that he killed, on the same day here in the U.S. I moved the boat over to mooring ball L-2 this afternoon and now have Bill Greene, Diesel Don and Deanna Shuler, Dan Duggan, and Tom and Erin Crank as next door neighbors.

Tuesday, 14 October - I spent all day online looking for a vehicle within 100 miles of Marathon that I might be interested in. At about 5 o'clock this afternoon I found one that might be worth looking at. It's not my first choice but there's not one of my first choice vehicles within about 600 miles. I gave up about 6 pm and went to Dockside to meet Susie.

Wednesday, 15 October - T-Mobile phone service went down last night just before I went to bed and was still off when I got up. Since I am going to look at some cars I thought it would be advantageous to have the ability to read the OBD, On Board Diagnostics, outlet on vehicles I am interested in. With that in mind I bought a little gadget called a FIXD that supposedly will not only read the codes but also tell you how to fix problems and the approximate cost of doing so by a mechanic. I want to familiarize myself with its operation so the Cruiser's Net this morning I offered to test anyone's car. I was surprised that I got no responses. Since I did not, I headed out on a few errands. First, I went to the marina office to get a new tags for my dinghy and bicycle identifying them as a paid customer at the dock. Next I headed to Onboard Rigging to see if I could borrow their test wind speed display to swap temporarily with mine. They had a hard time finding it but gave it to me to try. Next I went across the street and renewed the registration on both the dinghy and Island Time, then returned to the boat and tested the wind speed display with their unit. It didn't work either so I headed back to On Board Rigging to return their display. Back at the marina I hung out at the parking lot hoping to talk someone into letting me diagnose their car with my FIXD diagnostic tool. I approached a fellow and was explaining what I wanted to do when the salesman from On Board Rigging who I had just met pulled up and enthusiastically volunteered to help me. We plugged it in to his car and discovered that to use it I apparently needed to register it for a one week free trial, then pay $99 per year thereafter, so I removed it from his car unregistered and will call FIXD tomorrow about that. Before I bought it I had called the company and was told that the $99 was only to access their "premium" features and that it was usable without those features forever. That's definitely not what their app said on my screen. I came back to the boat and reinstalled the panel that hides the back of my instruments and installed the new registration stickers on my dinghy and boat.

Thursday, 16 October - I spent all morning trying to find a decent price on a vehicle I may buy.

Friday, 17 October thru Monday, 20 October - Almost all my time was spent either searching for the right vehicle or getting to understand auto insurance. I'm being inundated with offers for super cheap auto insurance, but none of them are real and the terms that different companies use are not the same for identical features. ..and then there are the dozens of options and the just plain wrong information. Ugh. I think I finally have that under control and moved on to trying to plan a bus route up to Miami to look at a vehicle tomorrow. The app that the bus service haas is no doubt the worst app I've ever seen. I started trying to plan the trip at about 6 o'clock and just gave up at 10 pm. I know there are at least three routes I have to ride to get there with a walk to get a transfer to another bus but I'm just going to get on one tomorrow morning at 7:30 and hope for the best. I had to get on the VHF to even figure out where to get on the bus. I give up. It should take me about 4 hours to get there if I make the transfers ok.

Tuesday, 21 October - I got up at 6:45 to catch the bus a dinghy ride to shore and a 1 mile walk to the bus stop. No breakfast; just out the door and go. I got there with 5 minutes to spare. When I got on the bus I started to pay but the driver waved me on. Others got on and paid or showed passes. I rode all the way to the end in Homestead. Before I got off I explained that I hadn't paid and they said to pay at the station before I got on the next bus. At the station an employ explained that I should buy a full day pass for $5 instead of having to pay each time I got on a different bus and told me how to get to the next one. I rode to the end of that line, got off and boarded a train. She'd said to board it and get off at the very next station. I did and went up stairs, walked across the platform and went down stairs to get on the next bus as she had said. I had seen three ways to get down stairs but had obviously taken a wrong one since there were no signs to direct you to the correct exit. I was outside the station and there was no sign of any bus stops there. Luckily, a nice woman walking by walked me back into the station and showed me where to go to catch the proper bus. I got on that bus and it finally took me to my destination although I almost missed the stop. Again, luckily, a beautiful woman from southeast Asia quickly pulled the chord and reminded me to get off there. I walked a short distance to the auto dealer's lot.
                    Right off the bat I could see that there were numerous problems with the vehicle I was there to look at but they appeared minor; not enough to warrant walking away immediately. I really didn't want to start this process all over again. The gas cap cover was missing as was the passenger side door handle on the sliding door, which the salesman assured me they had on order and would fix, but I really didn't want to go through two more 4 hour rides on the transit system again, home, then back to Miami again. The door looked like I might be able to replace the parts myself and he assured me that he would mail them to me to install. The front, left low beam headlight wasn't working and he told his repairman to replace it. We took it for a test drive. It seemed to drive nicely although as I accelerated onto the freeway at one point I felt a vibration, but thought it possible that I had run over a rumble strip, so I dismissed it after I couldn't duplicate it. We returned to the lot and I bought the vehicle and headed home. When it got dark I turned on the headlights...no light on the left side. I had to use the high beams as much as possible. I passed by about six police cars on the way home assuming that each one was going to ticket me but none seemed to care. I got home about 9 o'clock.

Wednesday, 22 October - Well, it's the end of a short era for me. For the last 7 or eight years, since neither my boat nor its dinghy have keys to start them and all my padlocks are combination locks, I haven't had to have keys in my pocket. Now, I do. Just one but since it has electronics in it, it's bulky...and just another thing to forget or lose.
                    I spent all day trying to familiarize myself with the features of my new, used, van. The owner's manual is about 500 pages long. I also discovered some problems that weren't noticeable yesterday. I pulled the headlamp for the low beam out and inspected it with an 8X loupe. It was perfect. Then neither the low or high beam lights worked. Something's wrong in the wiring harness. That will be a whole lot harder and more expensive to repair. Also, the rear passenger door can't be opened even from the inside and that may entail a lot more work and knowhow to repair than I expected. I called the dealer and he said to come back up to Miami and they'll fix it as soon as the parts come in. I'm not driving back up there until they have the parts in hand.

Thursday, 23 October - I had an appointment for my annual health checkup today so I drove to Key West and back for that and apparently I'll be around awhile longer. Everything checked out ok. I was hungry after my appointment so I stopped at Bobalu's, a bar that I'd heard had great pizza on the way home. It was a pretty cool bar (see photos) but their pizza was just so-so. Back in Marathon I spent several hours sitting in the van again reading the owner's manual discovering features and figuring out the controls.

Friday, 24 October - It rained early this morning so I stayed onboard and defrosted the freezer. I also assembled and rigged a hanging system for a sun shower that I got from my brother as a gift for my upcoming birthday. That will be nice this winter when the water in my tank gets too cool for comfort. I'll be able to lay it in a windless spot on deck and have nice, hot showers onboard on sunny days.
                    It's been blustery and threatening to rain for over a week and I had furled the deck awning to avoid having it flap and get unnecessary wear. Now, however, hurricane Melissa is getting too close for comfort. It's near Jamaica in the Caribbean Sea, moving north, but NOAA is pretty confident that it will turn to the northeast before coming much further north and affecting us. I certainly feel empathy for Jamaicans, Haitians, and the people of southern Cuba but I hope the weatherman is right. Just in case he's wrong, after the foredeck awning dried in the sun this afternoon, I pulled it down and stowed it below decks. That's just one more thing I won't have to do in a hurry and I can always put it back if necessary. It is cooling down here though so I doubt that I will. Most days lately have been in the mid to low eighties with nights a very comfortable 78 to 80 degrees for sleeping.

Saturday, 25 October - Another rainy, blustery day so I didn't get much done again today. The screw holes in the hatch covers didn't leak because it wasn't raining hard but I can't fix them while they are wet.

Sunday, 26 October - It was raining this morning when I got up but cleared during the day so I went to the van to read the owner's manual some more. I also found the jack handle and lug wrench, but no jack. They were under the passenger side front seat. I thought now would be a good time to check out the spare tire that is stored underneath the chassis. The mechanism to lower it is driven by one end of the lug wrench, in my opinion, the wrong end. The space it sits in is big enough to accept the socket on the lug wrench but they chose the other end which is like a big screwdriver. They should have made it fit either end because the socket end would let you have more leverage and the flat end keeps jumping out of the slot. I eventually got the spare lowered but it is so heavy, so far under the van and rubber dragging on asphalt that I couldn't get it out from under the van. The spare is in better shape than one of the tires in use so I think I'll swap them out but not until I can get a piece of cardboard to lower the spare onto to decrease the friction.

Monday, 27 October - I finally made it back to pickleball this morning after months of not playing. Six others showed up and all but two of us hadn't played in months. Several were returning from up north to stay here for the winter. I actually played better than I thought I would. I returned to the boat and defrosted the freezer again. Since there's not much in it it frosts up even faster than normal. It already had about two inches of frost since Friday. After lunch I returned to the van to do some more familiarization with the controls. Next I went and bought groceries. When I got back from grocery shopping I already had a quarter inch of frost on the refrigerator's evaporator plate.

Tuesday, 28 October - I had thought that since we had 7 people show for pickleball yesterday we would have several today, too. I was wrong. Only one other showed up. That was Bill Greene and he had hurt his wrist awhile back so he didn't last but about an hour since it started hurting again. I doubt that he will be back for a bit longer. This afternoon I went to Heme Depot and although I already have about 7 tool boxes onboard I bought another to put tools in to keep in the van. I thought that by buying a Ford I would be dealing with American Standard tools but they've gone international and most of the nuts and bolts onboard are metric now. I have lots of duplicates but not in the smaller sizes so I had to buy a set of 1/4" drive bits to fit my ratchet drive handle, most importantly torx bits and another tool box. I may have to buy another set of small metric sockets, too. I pulled pliers, files, SAE and metric sockets and drives, a set of open / closed end wrenches, screw drivers, hack saws, slip-joint pliers, vise grips, side cutter and end cutter pliers, and hammers, etc. out of my spare tool boxes and will put those in the van, just incase they are needed. This evening I met Susie at Dockside for some dancing. Snowbirds are starting to show up from the north and the audience was very appreciative so the band enjoyed it and really outdid themselves this evening. Talking with boaters today there was lots of empathy and pity for the people in Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba because of hurricane Melissa. They are really getting pounded. I understand that Melissa in the stronger hurricane ever recorded in the Caribbean. So far, we've been EXTREMELY lucky this year here in Florida as far as hurricanes are concerned.

Wednesday, 29 October - I played pickleball this morning. Only three of us showed up. Actually, that's not right. Joanne Tillman and two others had been playing since about 8 am and were leaving at 9 when I got there. Joanne was my partner when we took second place in the tournament a couple of years ago. She stayed and played with me for about 45 more minutes. As she left another player, Arthur, arrived and we played for another 45 minutes or so.
                    I had brought the tool box ashore that I bought yesterday so I went directly from pickleball to the van to move the tools into the tool box but discovered that I had forgotten to bring screwdrivers and crescent wrenches to put in the box. While there I decided to lower the spare tire and inspect it since I now had the tools to do so. I walked over to the dumpster at the marina and got a large cardboard box out of the dumpster so that I could use two layers of it to lower the tire onto, enabling me to slide the tire out from under the van. I lowered the tire down but still couldn't get the cable to detach. I had spent about an hour and a half doing so when Joanne and her husband George walked by and asked what I was up to. I explained and George got under the van and tried to disengage the cable but wasn't able to, either. The instructions for it said to lower the tire, slide a rubber cover off the connector, rotate the cable 90 degrees downward, then simply slide the end out of the female portion of the connector. Neither of us could do it since we couldn't get the tire out from under the van. We were having to work in a tight space by feel alone. They walked away with my thanks for trying. I got back down under the van and within about 3 minutes finally released the cable. Just as I did so, a fellow in a Keys Auto Mechanics Mercedes van happened to pull up right next to me to have lunch in his van with his girlfriend. It had made no sense to me that the cable was so short that the tire couldn't come all the way out from under the van for better access so I asked him whether it should or not. He said it should but that the cable was probably just stuck. He also confirmed that there is no way to access the mechanism to lubricate or untangle the cable. At least I now what is necessary to remove the spare. I cranked it back up under the van and gave up for today; after all, it was 4 o'clock and I hadn't eaten since eight this morning.
                    I could tell on the way back to the boat that I was low on gas so when I arrived I refilled the dinghy's tank.

Thursday, October 30 - It was a cool and blustery day so it didn't surprise me that I was the only person to show up for pickleball. I practiced my serves with a couple of buckets of balls then went back to my van and read up on more of the features that it has. I think I have most of them understood except for the entertainment and communications center. That's going to take awhile. It has many, many features that I'm sure I won't ever use but is missing one that I wish it had; GPS maps on the dash, but I believe I'll be able to use my iPhone for that although it has a pretty small screen for that purpose. I need to find a dash mount for it. Being my birthday, I met Susie and a few other well wishers at Dockside and listened to Candace MoRe (Widgeon) performing. I was gifted drinks by several people, more than I should have had, and I'm glad to say that after 77 years, I am finally smart enough to not drink them all. Susie had cupcakes for us and a candle to blow out and also gave me a 5 lesson pass to a surfing class inside what used to be K-Mart and is now Surf Style indoor surfing and outdoors store based on water sports. This should be interesting. It may be one of the "hold my beer and watch this" kind of opportunities. Yahoo!

Friday, October 31 - Five players showed up for pickleball today and I played for a couple of hours then went to Home Depot for a couple of things and then to Surf Style to see what this standing wave machine looks like. It's so new that it isn't even open yet but I did get to watch a short promo video and see the setup. It isn't operational yet but I can see how it works. At one end there are water jets that shoot a huge amount of water at about 20 mph across a short flat then up a ramp that is about 6 feet high. The water then levels off for about 15 feet then exits by falling into a covered trough to return and be recycled at the base. The whole thing is only about 20 feet wide so no more that 4 people will be allowed on it at one time. "Surfboards" are very small, about the size of a large skateboard. It's going to be interesting.