January 31, 2007

Well, this has been the best of days and the worst of days. It all started off this morning early after a night with some more showers and a blustery wind out of the east when I got up to start breakfast. I turned on the stove and nothing happened so I tried different things but nothing seemed to help. Finally I called Kenny at Three Rivers and he talked me around to the right diagnosis on the stove. The hose that sucks the fuel up was not going deep enough into the container for the fuel; tried that and it worked. The problem encounter was in the head, no flushing would occur, the switch was dead. Or something like this because evidently it blew a fuse. However changing the fuse has not helped so I will be searching for someone at my next marina stop to fix it. And I know you all are thinking that well he's full of it anyhow so probably screwed up the head. Then this afternoon, changing fuel tanks, I think I accidentally switched the fuel totally off and had a real problem getting fuel to flow. But through all of this Kenny Hum kept a cool head and worked with me so all in all the day was not a loss.

As I came through Gasparilla Sound and the area around Charlotte the wind was really kicking up and I had some two to three feet chop at times. I passed numerous sailboats slugging it out and a couple of Grand Banks 36's and doing about 10-11 knots with no slamming of the hull. When out on the Sounds there is not much to look at so you might just as well get across them and back to where there is something to see.

Tonight after a dinner of a Mazzarello's stuffed pork chop heated on the stove and added some carrots to it. I still have one left and if its as good as its predecessor I will be doing alright tomorrow night. I am not lacking in food at all.

Tonight while the boat swings at anchor there a a beautiful bright moon and just a while ago the train trestle bascule bridge came down and a passenger train went across. I am just outside the Okeechobee Waterway so I hope all the traffic is gone for the night as there has been no one buy since dark.