Ready for Key west

rudder the super dog

The weather here in St Pete was dismal today. It looked like snow at any minute. Well.... with the exception that it was 79 degrees out. The rain did threaten all day but it choked itself back to a lite sprinkle. Rudder the super dog stayed at home today rather than risk the weather. He usually comes to the marina everyday and hangs out on the dock protecting the boat from seagulls.  Most of the energy with the tropical system is all pushing ashore to the south of here. My mate Kyle and I had figured on rain all day. We did inside projects all day. One of the jobs we did was changing out the impellers on the engines. The Impeller is a rubber gear inside a pump that draws salt water up and through the engine to keep it cool. We change them out periodically to ensure that one does not fail at an inopportune time. There is nothing that sucks more than being in rough seas and having to go into a 120 degree engineroom to take apart a 150 degree pump. Kyle had never changed one out before so it was training day for him. I helped but it was fun to watch him try to put the square peg in a round hole. We also did quite a bit of PM or Preventive Maintenance. Hose clamps were tightened and old parts changed out. It looks like we are ready to go concerning the engineroom.
The weather is suppose to clear tomorrow. With windy dry air, we will apply another coat of wax to the topside of the Blue Heaven. Other than that, we need only to rig some tackle and by a few groceries. We will be departing for Key West on Friday morning really early. We could make it there in 7 hours, but we will take our time and go slow to save on fuel. We are also towing out tender " Blue Too" behind the " Blue Heaven". Once there we will use it as a bait catching boat...... Oh hell who am I kidding... yes we do need it for bait fishing, but it is also great for running out and catching a few lobsters.
I do have to say thank you to someone. Jeff Mckown. I had not spoken to him since graduating high school. I saw that he had a blog on face book. I sent him a text and asked if he could help me in setting up a blog. I had tried to set it up before but it made my brain hurt. As I always say, they put computers in classrooms the year after I graduated high school. Now, I had not spoken to Jeff in 30 years. He went out of his way and stepped right up to the challenge. He called me and said he would help.  He spent all the time I needed on the phone and was very patient with my ignorance. It is a rare thing in this day and time to find someone so giving of their precious time. Jeff I thank you and owe ya one. By the way Jeff whats up with that hat in your profile pic.