Day's Events:

Wx - nice all day, 85F, mild winds, clear skies.

Taxi blow-out - Took the two batteries back to NAPA for recycling refund and dropped the SUV off at Budget. My taxi coming to bring me back here blew a tire driving to get me so I had to call another; but, since I am retired now, time is not as bothersome.


Fender stolen? - Arriving back via taxi, noted that one of our new fenders is gone; since I tied it securely initially, and since there were some unknown folks walking the dock last night, I assume it was walked away from us. Will let the dockmaster know.


Cooking - Marg took pity on me [again] this a.m. when I was moping about the problem with the batteries [see below] and made a batch of Mary's Muffins [blueberry+], which she has been making for >30yrs; this time though, had to do with baking soda and lemon because she ran out of baking powder; they were great and will suffice for dessert. Marg has a photo of what she calls her 'galley chaos' whenever she cooks; regardless, it always tastes good.


Bike - had to use my new metric tools to take off the rear wheel of the e-bike to install the new tube/valve; found that it actually already had a tube - with a broken-off valve - in it!! I had assumed [you know what 'assume' means] it was tubeless. Anyway, replaced everything and pumped it up and no problems now.


Photos - a couple show more clearly the high and low tide difference of 4 ft; one of the gangway on the mud at low tide is rather amazing for those of us who are not used to tides. One of Hurricane Patty's and of the Marina Office. Also, the Admiral wanted some evidence of her captain working. There is one of a large fishing trawler that crept up on us as it returned to another dock; huge outrigger arms sticking up in the air.


MECHANICAL:

Batteries - this is the big event, in a positive way. The fact that we couldn't get the brand new house batteries to stay over 12.5v, and in reality were dropping slowly, down to 11.8v this a.m., was cause for significant concern. Either we had some bad connections or some vicious piece of equipment was robbing us of voltage or the charger wasn't working. After looking behind the Battery Mgmt Panel and finding no loose/corroded connections for the House Batteries, I crawled over the port transmission/shaft, under the exhaust elbow, to the battery charger, trying to avoid providing Margaret with the opportunity of a lifetime to snatch of photo of a mechanics crack [which would not occur regardless]. The charger was still showing only 'float' mode for all batteries, which means they were supposed to be in fully charged states, 12.6v+. Decided, whatthehellhaveIgottolose, so rebooted the charger by putting it into standby and then 'restarting' it. Did that. Lo and behold, gosh almighty, it worked. It immediately jumped into 'bulk' mode and the voltage to the House battery jumped to 12.5v and then 13v in a half-hour. It always amazes me to see how often 'rebooting' some electrical apparatus gets it back to working 'normally'. Too bad we couldn't do that to ourselves at times.


Anchor Locker - checked it to ensure it was dry and it is! [it's behind the head-board of our v-berth bed]. Don't want it to have water because of mold forming, rusting the chain, etc.


That's all folks. Tomorrow we head to Fernandina Harbor Marina on Amelia I, 64 miles; brisk winds predicted but we will be in protected waters almost all the way. Carry on distancing while keeping in touch.


Comments:

Scott  •  30 May, 2020:  St Augustine is a lovely old town. Once more I am reliving my youth thru the lens of your eyes. You should write a book on boat maintaince . Great job on the blog.

Brooks  •  31 May, 2020:  Try adding bromine tablets to the basket in the AC pick up tube to deter barnacles. Usually a weekly event

Rob  •  01 Jun, 2020:  Thanks for the suggestion. Will look for those.

Janice  •  31 May, 2020:  “Miss Margaret had deduced that it is safer to shop in the liquor store than in the grocery store!!“ My friend, you continue to be an astute shopper; brilliant😬!

Dd  •  01 Jun, 2020:  You crack me up🤪

Ernie R  •  01 Jun, 2020:  Miss Marple super! More tools!