No Boat Travel.
I love puzzles - word puzzles, sudoku, etc. Here at the Faro Blanco Marina, the USA Today paper is delivered each weekday. When it arrives, I grab the puzzle section out and get to work. Sometimes Clark tries to get to that section before me, so he can read the stories before I take control of that page.
This morning I was busy working on the crossword when Ann from Morning Star II asked if I wanted to go to Publix because she planned on driving there in their recently-acquired rental car. Initially I said no because I could make do with my current provisions. After I thought about it for a few minutes, I decided that, although I did not need a trip to Publix, I did need to get away from the boat and solar panel wiring. I found Ann and begged a ride.
Ann gave three of us boating wives at Faro Blanco (Tanya, Kevin, Evelyn) a ride to, not just Publix, but a number of places in Marathon. It made a nice outing and some nice "girl time". Our first stop was to the Municipal Marina in Marathon to inquire about, and hopefully take possession of, the free welcome bags for boaters. The four of us went up to the desk and told the man there what we wanted.
He needed verification we were on four separate boats and needed a bag each. One-by-one he pointed to each of us and we said our boat names - Sweet Tea, Lone Star, Morning Star II, and Sunset Delight. We were delighted with the turquoise color of the bags this year. I got a gold-colored bag in 2016 but forgot to go after one last year. The insulated and zippered bag contained literature on local things to do and a number of coupons.
From there we headed to the post office and then on to the Dollar Tree store. I quickly walked through Dollar Tree to see what they had on hand for future reference. Then I left and went to the bagel shop a couple of doors down in the same shopping plaza. A few days ago Faith told me about the bagel shop and gave me one of her bagels. I bought myself a couple today and got one for Faith as well.
While we were at the Dollar Tree plaza, Ann got a call from Cynthia on Dan Cyn saying that she had wanted to go shopping at Publix as well. A bit of an earlier miscommunication meant Cynthia accidentally got left behind. Ann drove back to Faro Blanco to get Cynthia and then the five of us went to Publix.
I must say that having "girl time" is important. The conversation was great and we had a few good laughs. Constant talk of batteries and boat parts gets extremely tedious after a while. For me it was a much-needed reprieve from solar panel wiring.
Clark's morning activities included a repair of the parallel solenoid. When we visited Napa Auto Parts recently he purchased a push-button switch, which he later put into the electrical panel. Today he did the hard part in the engine room to replace the damaged solenoid and connect it to the new switch arrangement.
After lunch I continued working on my USA Today puzzles. Around 3:30 Clark surprised me by saying he wanted to go for a dip in the pool before docktails. We decided we had time to relax and cool off in the pool before docktails at 5:00. The water felt lovely and we found others in the pool. We quickly separated - Clark joined the guys and I joined the gals.
We did get to docktails but late. Sandy from L'Attitude Adjustment was there before me talking to Kay and Harold from Idgara. I had not met them before. Their daughter runs the Hurricane restaurant near Blackfin Marina. Other than Clark, who appeared later, no one else joined us for docktails.
When I got back to the boat, I decided that the recycle bucket was overflowing, so I took the short trip to the end of the dock to dispose of it. On my way I found a small docktails going on down there. Three couples had gotten no further than the dock behind their boats. I joined them for about 30 minutes of conversation before heading back to my boat to prepare dinner.
All told it was a very pleasant day in which I did no boat work other than cooking and dishes. Yay! Clark even got sunset pictures today!
Thursday 2/8/2018
No Boat Travel.
I started my day in my usual way with my breakfast on one side and either my puzzle page from the newspaper or my Kindle novel on the other. As I enjoyed a leisurely start to my day, Clark got on the phone with a representative from MasterVolt to talk about how to use my computer to program the voltages on the charger. He spent at least an hour on the phone but was well-pleased with the result. He got the Master Volt controller programmed to his liking and learned a bunch of technical battery "stuff" in the process.
Just as he finished his phone call, we got a visit from Sandy and Kevin from Koastal Karma. We met them initially in 2014 at the Spring AGLCA Rendezvous. At that time they had just acquired their Mainship 350 - very similar to our prior boat Sea Moss. They do not have a boat here in Florida this season. Instead they took a lovely rental unit (I saw the pictures) at BlackFin Marina. We found out that they plan to start the loop this year and travel for 13 months on their boat.
Clark and I both had plans for the afternoon. I made arrangements with Faith from Third Degree for some "girl time" at the pool. The folks at SALT told Clark they would arrive today to start the installation of the solar panels. I definitely wanted to be away from the boat. I told Clark that if he really needed me, he could easily find me at the pool. Deep down, I hoped he would not find any need of me for the afternoon.
Faith and I had a great time. When we arrived at the pool at 1:00, the sun felt hot and we both decided that we needed to go in the pool first to cool down before sitting out on the lounge chairs. We stayed in the cool water until we started to "prune up". Then we moved to the chairs to stretch out and continue our conversation. After time in the sun, we decided to go back in the pool to cool off again. A few times as Faith and I enjoyed ourselves in / by the pool, I looked over to see our boat (easily seen from the pool) and check for progress on the solar panel install.
Around 3:30 Faith and I decided we had had enough sun and pool for one day. After taking my shower I headed back to my boat. When I got to Sunset Delight, I found Clark sitting in the salon playing his guitar. The guys from SALT never showed up and never called. Clark tried calling them to get status to no avail.
Disgusted that we had made no progress on the solar panels, I left at 5:00 to go to docktails. Once again Sandy was the only one there. Eventually Yasmine joined us. Even though it was only the three of us, we had a lovely chat. At some point I was sure I had seen Clark walking over to docktails but then he disappeared and became a no show.
I later learned that Erik from SALT stopped at the marina to talk to Clark just as Clark was on his way to docktails. Erik told him that they are still acquiring parts for the install, and he did not call because "their phones were out all afternoon". In the era of cell phones, I have trouble swallowing this excuse for lack of communication. At the end of their conversation, Erik promised to call at 8:30 tomorrow to let us know what time they would come. They expect to come some time in the afternoon.
As a result of talking to Erik, Clark got some additional input on the wiring job that we (Clark and I) had done in preparation for the solar panel install. Given that information, Clark decided that tonight would be the perfect time to tie off the wires we had run through the boat. The first step in doing this, however, involved pushing about two-foot of excess wire that we had run to the bilge back through the boat up to the hard top. I asked myself, "Will this wiring project never end?"
As we moved the excess wire through each segment / chamber, Clark climbed in to pull / push the wire while I pushed / pulled from the other end. Once he got the wire positioned where he wanted it, he secured it with wire ties, and we moved on to the next section. When he worked in the tight quarters behind the salon sofa and the galley stove, I got the added fun of reaching into the opening and holding a fan over him to give him some much-needed air circulation while he worked.
Working our way up from the bottom of the boat to the top, we put the boat back together as we finished each section. The most complicated part of that process was putting the propane tanks back in place and making sure they provided fuel to the galley for cooking. We have two gauges - one for each tank. One of them refused to register any psi. We did not know if this meant we had an empty tank, a bad connection, or a broken gauge. Playing around with it for a while, Clark finally whacked the guage with a wrench and the needle jumped up. Moral of that story ... when it doubt, hit it!
We finished around 10:00. Even though it was late, I decided I needed to do something enjoyable, so I grabbed my laptop and found fox.com to watch "Lethal Weapon" followed by cbs.com to watch the latest episode of "Scorpion". For once Clark went to bed before me. I had about 15 more minutes of "Scorpion" to watch when he waved as he headed off to our stateroom. I finally climbed into bed about 1:00 a.m.
Friday 2/9/2018
No Boat Travel.
Based on their track record so far, we found it disappointing, but not unexpected, that the representative from SALT never called at 8:30 (or any other time) as he said he would. Since Clark understood that they would appear in the afternoon, he decided to take care of some off-the-boat chores. After breakfast, we headed into the wind on our bicycles for a ride to the post office among other places.
Since we passed SALT on the way to our other stops, Clark stopped in to talk to them. Erik happened to be out, so Clark still had no status information. At least it was a quick stop. We continued on our way to take care of other business. An hour or so later, after completing our other tasks, we stopped back at SALT.
Clark disappeared inside and left me with the bikes while he ran in to see if Erik had returned. I waited and waited and waited for Clark to come back out of the store. The longer I waited the more impatient I became. It was well past lunch time. There is little to no shade in front of the shop. I needed a restroom break. Needless to say I was not a happy camper! I kept thinking that any minute he would return, most likely immediately after I locked up the bikes.
After 30 minutes of standing in the sun trying to keep the bikes from falling over from the gusty wind, I moved the bikes to a place where I could lock them to a railing and went in to see what had happened to Clark. I found him with Erik and stayed just long enough to tell him I was annoyed and that I planned to walk to the shopping plaza next door to look around. He could come find me when he was done.
We finally returned to the boat around 1:30 or 2:00. I quick 'hit the head' and then threw together sandwiches. After that I felt so much better, but I continued to grumble at Clark for a good long time about him leaving me standing in the sun for so long.
The puzzles in the USA Today newspaper get progressively harder as the days of the week progress, so Monday is a one-star puzzle and Friday is a five-star puzzle. I have no problem with any level of the word puzzles although sometimes I cheat by asking Google for help. The Sudoku is another story. I decided that I needed to have additional techniques for solving the hard one that appears in Fridays' paper. I read "how to solve hard Sudoku" on Google while I tried to solve today's puzzle.
While I entertained myself with puzzle solving, Clark went out on his bike to do more errands. When he stopped at SALT earlier, Erik gave him two breakers to be installed. When we got back to the boat, Clark measured the amount of wire required to connect the breakers to the controllers. Clark's planned trip out on his bike this afternoon included picking up the wire from SALT and cable organizing tubing. When I heard he planned to stop back at SALT, I decided I wanted no part of his bike ride plans.
Clark stopped by SALT and got the wire then he went to Home Depot to buy cable organizing tubing. The wire is contained within the tubing making for a neater installation. The casing sold at Home Depot measured 1/2". When he tried to fit the two wires in the tubing, it would not fit. He knew that Specialty Hardware had tubing, but they only sold 1/2" as well. He called Napa, and the person there said they had 3/4" tubing.
The bike trip to Napa which is at the far end of Marathon, over the bridge and near the visitor's welcome center proved to be a difficult ride into the wind. Clark said that in first gear he fought the wind to make forward progress. He had a good workout by the time he reached the Napa store.
He found 3/4" tubing but only 3 packages of 3' lengths in each package. He needed 20', so this was disappointing but better than nothing. When he went to check out, the woman said, "Are you the one that called?" Clark said, "Yes." With that she said, "I have spools of the tubing in the back. How much did you say you need?" A happy Clark returned to the boat with a 20' length of tubing.
At 5:00 Sandy asked if I planned to attend docktails, and I told her I would meet her up there. I had no idea when Clark would return from his errands but figured he would know where to find me. Sometime later, he did manage to find his way to docktails as well.
At docktails today we had a reasonable turnout with folks arriving at staggered times and each bringing food. Mel brought the boiled peanuts I have been hearing about for a while. Mitch and Jen showed up with home-cut french fries hot from the fryer. Danna from Pharm Life brought fresh-popped popcorn. Besides that we had pistachio nuts and other goodies to munch on.
When I got back to the boat, I felt like I had already had dinner, so my plans for food quickly changed. Even though I did not bother cooking anything for myself, I still made dinner for Clark. Since he had french fries at docktails, I only made him meat, vegetables, and salad. After eating all the food I gave him, he said, "Is that it?" "Yes", I said, "That is it!" He will have his midnight snack like he always does.
While he ate, I pulled out my hard Sudoku to continue working on it. For the first time, I completed the 5-star successfully. I am so proud!
Unbelievably, this evening Clark did more work on the solar panel installation. Worse yet, he dragged me into it yet again. He mounted the breakers and ran the wire that will connect the controllers to the breakers. Granted he only asked me to pull two sets of wires up through the hole between the space under the sofa and the bilge compartment, but still I want done with this wiring project. Will it never end?
After I got permission to be excused from wiring (he was still down there working), I pulled out my laptop to update the blog. John Backus played at Faro Blanco again tonight, and we could hear him from the boat. We had a lovely serenade. At 9:00, Clark decided to head up to the pool area to get closer to listen to John play his guitar and sing for the last half hour of his performance. I stayed on the boat to finish my blog write-up.
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