It Be Rainin'

SHIP'S LOG:

I passed the night fully expecting to have a more intimate contact with Capt. Ahab and the crew of the Pequod but the night passed without incident. Truth be told, I am not sure how as the wind was out of the east last night and was dead out of the west this morning and since the two boats swing differently, I am surprised that we didn't "trade paint!" Thankfully we did not and when I arose at 6:30 for morning coffee, "Capt'n Slappy" and the crew of the "Festering Boil" were already making an effort to get underway. Actually, I was a bit surprised as the weather for today was not especially nice or, I should say, it was not forecast to be especially nice by those Gypsy Fortunetellers in the employ of the federal government known as NOAA! The morning wasn't to be too bad . . . . a slight chance of rain, wind 5-10, but the afternoon was to be down right nasty . . . . wind out of the South West, 15 - 20, rain, heavy at times, possible thunderstorms, tornadoes, waterspouts????? down to 5mph in the evening.

Well, no rain this morning. Wind out of the south and out of the west and out of the southeast, perhaps gusting to 12, rain late in the afternoon, brief and relatively light showers, possible wind gust(occasionally) to 15, basically out of the west. Well, they did call for rain and we got some so they weren't completely wrong. The rest of the week is supposed to be nice.

There really was not much to do today aside from read. I was hoping to get ashore and do some shopping but the Publix is about three miles away and I didn't cotton to a walk in the rain. I got a hold of Jerry too late to borrow his second car. He was already on his way to work. You would think he would have the day off on a national holiday, n'cest pas? It will probbaly have to be tomorrow monring, along with laundry and a shower. It would be nice to have clean clothes and not smell like a goat, whatever goats smell like, when I meet Lucille.

Brad is still down with "La Gripe" so there was no work done on his boat today. Certainly tomorrow afternoon will see us finish string the cable for the radar and getting that up and running. It would be better if he had put the boat on the hard when he brought it from Key West. A little bit more expensive, but you get a lot more work done that way and BRIGADOON is in need of a lot of work, lots of it just delayed maintenance and cosmetic but some of it serious and necessary foir a safe journey, even from here to across the river.

Speaking of that, I was having a little trouble with the forward head. For some reason, the pump in the system was not pumping the bowl dry. Indeed, there was a little back-up from the holding tank into the bowl . . .not a pleasant development. I dismantled the hoses, pump and valves and found nothing wrong, at least nothing I could see. When I re-assembled it all, it worked. There must have been some leak somewhere that got fixed. Evidently something just needed tightening but damned if I know what or where it was. At this point, I am just glad it is "all better!"

I was just checking the "Trip Odometer" on the GPS and on this trip, I have come 1,291 miles, probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,091 alone(actually just me and Jesus). It is quite a little journey And in two months, I get to do it all over again!

No one has yet been out to check on the Nauticat 44. They either have tremendous confidence in the set of their anchor and in their anchor rode or they have abandoned their "dream." I don't think they have put it up for sale yet as a broker would certainly have been out to scope the the craft out. I certainly hope someone comes and checks it out before the inevitable "bad thing" happens. Boats will take incredible punishment, but routine maintenance is necessary for them to have a chance. This is getting way too long for someone not to have even come out to check on anchor rode chaffing.