Beautiful Morning

It is a beautiful morning with a gorgeous sunrise on one side of the boat and a beautiful moon on the other. You take notice of nature around you so much more living on a boat. Very rarely did I ever just sit and watch a sunrise or sunset when living on land. Now almost every day I look for both. Some might say that I don't have enough to do, but all I can say is thank God for that.

Fuel Polishing System

I built a fuel polishing (filtering) system for Island Queen. I had two Racor fuel filters that were already on the boat. One was for the main engine and one for the old generator that I removed last year. I used those two filters and a series of valves so I can now circulate the fuel from either tank through the filter to clean it. I can also move fuel from one tank to the other. It also allows me to route fuel to the main engine through either filter without shutting off the engine. If we are running and a filter starts to get clogged I can reroute the fuel to the other filter while I replace the clogged filter. I also installed a vacuum gauge to alert me that a filter is starting to clog rather than waiting till the engine begins starving for fuel. I installed an electric fuel pump in the system to move the fuel. It is plumbed in so that if the manual pump on the engine fails I can use the electric one to supply the engine. All in all I am very pleased with the way it all came out.

Getting Water

Thought I would show how we get our fresh water for the boat. Island Queen has two 75 gallon fresh water tanks. That's a good thing because we are water hogs. We use about 150 gallons a week in a typical week. That is still nothing compared to land based living but alot for living on a boat. When we had our sailboat "Morgan" we only used about 18 gallons a week. But we were trying to live the minimalist lifestyle and did a fairly good job of it. After a year and a half of that we decided that the minimalist lifestyle might not be the road for us, although sometimes we do miss it.  But we like our hot showers on board any time we want and we like having a washing machine so we don't have to lug everything ashore just to live a normal life of hygiene and clean clothes.

Back to the water issue. I used to lug 5 gallon jugs back and forth to the boat, but with our water usage now that is a royal pain. I bought two 13 1/2 gallon jugs that I use to haul water from shore. I then use a 12 volt pump to pump it up to the fill located on the deck. That way there is no lifting involved. Eventually I will build a watermaker but that is about $2500 away.

Water fill station

There is a meter as they charge 5 cents per gallon.

Filling the 13 1/2 gallon containers.

Deck fill for port tank.

It's getting crowded.

The mooring field is now full of "snowbirds" and cruisers getting ready to cross to the Bahamas. There are close to 350 boats in the harbor right now. I think it is time to go find a quiet anchorage for awhile.

Celtic Festival

We went to a Celtic festival here in Marathon this weekend at the city park. It was a good time. Good music and fun things to watch. One of the events was a sheep herding demonstration using border collies. Our dog Lucy was a border collie. When the lady doing the demo explained why the dogs do certain things it helped me to understand why Lucy did things that I thought strange at the time. There was a pipe band from Miami that played and was fun to watch.

There were also demonstrations in some of the athletic events like throwing stones of various weights and poles. It all was a good time. I am glad we were here for it. We had planned on moving the boat up to Islamarada and anchoring there for awhile but decide to stay in Marathon for another month so we could attend the festival. I am glad we did. Our mooring rent is up on Feb. 2nd so I think we will be heading out about then.

It has been fun here in Boot Key Harbor, but the place is now packed with at least 350 boats and a waiting list to get in. I am ready for a more relaxed and less crowded place.

Pipe band from Miami

Border Collie herding sheep.

I miss Lucy.

 

Man it's Hot

84 and sunny today. As I sit here in my swimming trunks with no shirt on trying to decide whether to get up and turn the fan on or just suffer through the heat I think of my friends and family up in Indiana with snow and single digit temps forecast for tonight. I feel soooooo bad for them. Well, okay that's a lie, actually I am laughing  a little. It is January and I am enjoying the 80s, palm trees, and beautiful sunsets. OK I guess that is enough of rubbing it in or everyone will stop reading the blog.

We went for a dingy ride today. We went out into the Atlantic and then under the Seven Mile bridge, but turned around and came back because the Bay side was too choppy. We were going to a little island called Rachel Cay, but it was too rough so we will have to do it another day.

Sunset tonight in the Harbor.