2026 January: AC leak search on New Years Day

 

First Full Moon of the year
as seen at Marlin Bay Resort

1 January 2026

With the continued northerly wind, we still have a chill in the air, but the wind has dropped down significantly. Having bought the piece parts he needed to construct his tool to search for the AC leak, we spent today searching for the leak source with his homemade tool. 

His project consisted of a sheet of copper, some brackets, bolts and washers, a longish wire with a plug on the end, and the use of one of our boat poles. Some assembly was required! 

I contributed some foam to pad the boat hook from the metal, so it wouldn't slide up and down during our experiments.

When we had it all screwed together, Clark took it outside with some power cords to test the waters. One can see from the picture below that today was not a particularly warm day in south Florida.

We unplugged the power cord to the boat and plugged our "tool" into the outlet on the dock pedestal.

Clark's new meter indicates stray current of the AC variety (not DC).

We had to fidget with the power cord situation. The yellow cord shown below turned out to have a bad ground connection, which of course, is the hole we needed to tap into. We ended up borrowing a very long 3-prong extension cord from our neighbors on "Heart of Gold". 

The wire to the boat hook/ copper plate contraption fed through the clamp on the meter to give us readings (or at least it did that after we stopped trying to use the yellow wire).

We walked together up one side and down the other side of the dock. Clark poked the metal plate in the water as I called out numbers ranging from in the 20s to in the 60s but constantly fluctuating as he moved along. Numbers seemed to increase as he passed by the cement pilings under the dock, but the results of our tests were inconclusive. 

I never know what "nonsense" Clark will get into and pull me in for fun. We certainly caught the interest of a couple of folks who watched us march around the dock area. One of the other boaters here became very interested and asked if he could help. As he and Clark got deep into conversation, I conveniently disappeared from the scene. My part of this exercise was done.

Although Clark was in a Gortex jacket, other folks were out enjoying the now beautiful weather. With almost no wind, folks brought out their toys to play with.

Signs in the marina clearly state "No Fishing"; however, if folks stick poles in the water and they aren't in the way, no one seems to say anything about it.

A place just east of us rents jet skis. Folks on jet skis, especially when there is a group of them swarming by, make wakes that rock our boat and others on the east side of the outer basin.  They are out there having fun and most likely have no idea that their wake is coming our way.

I thought I saw a dog on a surfboard and went to check it out. 

Yep! There he was having a fun time with his owner. 

Remote controlled, powered surfboard

2 January 2026 - Friday

While Clark spent the majority of today on the boat playing guitar, reading, etc. I had a pretty busy agenda. 

My friend from the library, Mary, graciously offered to give me a ride to meet with our art group in Key Colony Beach. I walk over to the Marathon City Park to meet her as she goes there early to work out with an exercise group. 

Clark walked up to the Club House with me as I headed off to the park. We saw our friend Del along the way and heard some disturbing news. Our friend, Robin, was exercising on the back of her boat.  She had an equipment failure, fell, and broke her wrist and injured her knee. What an awful way to start the new year! She is on her boat and waiting to hear the plans for the wrist when she sees a specialist.

 After our brief chat, I hurried off to meet up with Mary for my ride to KCB. Pat P lives in a condo there and invited the art group to visit since the weather report indicated it would be a bit nippy to do art outdoors. 

I have seen a couple of condos in Key Colony Beach now. The ones I have seen are pretty amazing with nice pools and gorgeous views of the ocean. The pictures below are from my friend's balcony where we sat to do our art.

Large pool area surrounded by the condo units

Ocean access with beach

condo owner going to play in the ocean

A few folks out on the beach

When I saw the man (shown in picture below) motor in with a net in hand, I thought he was going to be fishing. However, Pat said that his job is to trap and tow away the sea grass to keep the area pristine for the condo owners. How nice is that! Apparently, he is there quite often.

Boater with a net

Jeep with "rubber duckies" in the window
(apparently a popular theme with jeep owners)

Our art group broke up just after 12:00, and Mary dropped me off at Marlin Bay Marina. Clark and I quickly ate lunch and then jumped on our bikes for a quick run to Publix for a few essentials. I was watching the clock because I had another commitment for 3:00!

I had just enough time to do the shopping, bike home, stuff the food in the fridge, and jump back on my bike to go to the City Marina to meet up with the Boot Key book club. The assignment was an easy read, and I finished it within a couple of days at the end of December. Even so, I had to review my notes to jog my memory before discussing the book in detail. 

Six people showed up to discuss the book. I got to meet some Boot Key Harbor folks who were all very friendly. We had discussion questions that came with the book and took turns being the first to comment on each question.  Our meeting was over in an hour as at 4:00 boaters starting arriving at the Boot Key Harbor Tiki hut, where we were meeting, to start setting up for docktails. Having not participated in a book club previously, it was interesting to attend.

When I got back to our boat, I had "homework" to do from the earlier food shopping as I wanted to prep and freeze the various meats I had purchased. When that was done, I gathered up the greasy / smelly packaging and took it to the garbage can. Once there I decided to keep walking and ended up on the west side of the inner harbor to watch the sunset with a couple of other boaters. 

As I "wandered off", I wondered how long it would take Clark to notice I was missing. Surprisingly, he phoned me shortly after I reached my destination. Turns out he "missed me" because he needed to know where to find a Band-Aid for a cut finger. I told him where I was and where to find what he needed. Later, he joined me / us to watch the sun set and the moon rise.

Sun going down

Moon going up

After a while it was too chilly to sit out in the dark, and dinner would not cook itself. It was time to walk back to the boat. As we walked along, I grabbed a shot of the tower which looked to be glowing with the sunset behind it.