Perfect Paul sings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yGJbkQulQw

Xmas 2011

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Free Navigation Program with AIS

Most people are familiar with Seaclear as a free navigation program with AIS to see ships. I just discovered, at least new to me, another and, I think, better one. For the link, just click on the title or goto http://opencpn.org/ocpn/
You can get free charts from NOAA, but you will need an AIS receiver and antenna to make that work. Otherwise it looks like a really good general navigation program. Certainly the GPS is quite accurate. And it is FREE! Don't want to bother downloading NOAA charts? There usually is a disc you can get cheaply on EBAY (about $10 +/-) with all the charts.

Sunset

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From the back of the boat at St. A. The color should be more red than the camera made it.

Happy Holidays

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PredictWind app downgrade

I had a really nice app call PredictWind, even though the "tracking" part didn't work. It would predict winds up to 5 days in advance and was almost as accurate as NOAA. Now it has been "updated" so that it only works for one day, which is useless, so I am recommending that you DO NOT use this app. In fact, feel free to complain to them at support@predictwind.com.

Birthdays this week

Poor unfortunates whose birthdays are within a week of Xmas. Melissa...today. Sarah...yesterday. Dave on Xmas Eve!! Julie on News Year Eve. What were those parents thinking in March? HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Christmas in St. Augustine

Didn't get to fix the pump until the next day and we still have refrigeration! I went home for Thanksgiving and came back Dec. 3. Florrie has joined me and we will be spending Christmas in St. Augustine then (knock on wood) off to Vero for a short visit and picking up some stuff to bring to Bahamas for a friend. Hopefully leave for the Bahamas in early Jan. I just read in a cruising magazine that several of the places in the Abacos were damaged by hurricane Irene but should be back to normal by now.

The picture was taken off our sternat the marina on the San Sebastion River.

pumps

Well it has been three hours fixing and refixing and refixing the water pump for the fridge compressor, only to test it and find leaks.  Bah! Humbug! 
 After the first failure I noticed an O-ring on the bottom of the bilge.  Tried to put it on several times...all the time on my belly reaching down into the bilge...but it wouldn't go.  Then I noticed that the fitting already had an O-ring in it so I exchanged the one for the other and it seems to be working.  How the ring got into the bottom of the bilge, I have no idea.  The strainer had to be replaced with a new one then done again, after a long search, with plumber's tape.  Of course, every other connection had to be redone with the tape too.  Each individual part seems to be working but it needs to be reassembled and tested again.  So I took a break and my wrists now hurt just typing.  Maybe after a nap.