The Cruise - Week 7, Florida Keys - February 9-15, 2015

Monday.  A fairly lazy day.  Pancakes for breakfast.  I was able to finish varnishing the rail after we spun Dubhe around a couple of days before.  We rode our bikes to the Seven Mile Bridge and walked out a ways and stopped at Porkey’s for a beer on the way back, then drinks with friends at the marina cone of knowledge.  The cone of knowledge is a “Tiki” hut, area covered with a cone shaped palm frond thatched roof.  The “knowledge” comes from the visitors consuming various amounts of alcohol and pontificating.

Tuesday was a windy day and quite rolley in the marina.  It looks like we are going to have strong wind from the north and cooler weather for several days.  Of course cool means low 60’s for lows and low 70’s for highs.  I spent the afternoon repairing and re-configuring my bilge pumps.  I had installed a second pump before we left but because of a broken (very specialized) fitting, I just got around to fixing it.  I also relocated the float switches but the older one does not now seem to work properly.  I guess that will be replaced next.  My goal is to have two independent bilge pumps with separate float switches.  In the evening we went to a local restaurant with friends to celebrate Tom’s birthday.

Wednesday was the first day of the Valentines Shuffle Board Tournament.  Wow, shuffle board!  I have never pictured myself in Florida playing shuffle board, but here I am.  Nancy and I were in the first round and fortunately, managed to loose after a respectable showing.  Later, a trip to the grocery store 2¼ miles each way on a 20” bicycle, which is not a trivial undertaking.  We ate supper at Burdines restaurant which we had been looking forward to since arriving.  We ate here with the boys in 2000 and last year when we visited in June.  We were not disappointed.

Thursday we attended the great Harbour Cay shuffle board tournament, went to the grocery store, and stopped at the fish market on the way home.  We had hogfish for supper which was fantastic.

Friday I finally got around to rebuilding my head (toilet).  The manual pump had not been working properly and I knew this was coming so I already had a rebuild kit.  First I pumped out the holding tank and ran some clean water with bleach through the system to help clean it up some, but it is not a pleasant job.  After at least an hour of hard work, I had it reinstalled but it would not work smoothly and it leaked!!.  I disassembled it and put the original piston back in.  Fortunately the piston was not one of the parts that really needed replacement.  It leaked again around the base of the pump.  Although it is not the proper thing to do, I used a pipe thread compound on both sides of the gasket and it sealed!.  The ABS plastic pump body is cheap, and the base was not perfectly flat as it needs to be to seal.  Next time I may need a whole new pump or a new and better head.

Saturday – Valentines Day.  Although anyone further north would think our weather is great, it has not been good by Keys standards.  The wind has been blowing nonstop to 20+mph out of the northwest to north.  This creates waves in the Florida Bay which come straight into our marina.  Dubhe is bouncing and rocking more than I have ever experienced tied up to a concrete wall!  It is quite uncomfortable at times.  Fortunately, as the wind moves around to the east and south in a couple of more days, the waves will go away and it will warm up.

Sunday, we went to church at Saint Columba Episcopal Church then cycled to K-Mart.  Shopping is quite limited here.  There are two grocery stores, K-Mart, and Home Depot.  Not much else except restaurants, convenience stores, and small shops.  At last the wind has died and shifted to the east.  We hope to get Dubhe out for a ride in the next couple of days.