We have been pretty quiet the past few days. Yesterday would have been a good sailing day but the skies were overcast and it was cold. Today it is very foggy and cool but with a rising barometer. We just bought a Sunday paper and that is a first. We intend to drive back to Indiana for a few days to pick up the parts and software for my laptop that had a bigtime HD crash with all data lost during one of those automatic Windows updates. Boo Hoo. It will take me several days to get the new drive properly configured so I can do my website design services remotely again.

We had a great 5 hr sail today.  The NW winds allowed us to point up towards the north and follow the coastline.  We sailed up to Holland and then back towards the home port.  We played around a bit doing gybes and tacks.  All afternoon the waves kept building but they were Ok on Inspiration.

Today it is in the mid-70′s (around 23ºC) with sunny skies and a rising barometer and NW light winds – Perfect.  I potted flowers for the end of the dock – Pink Petunia’s like thise pictured.

We were informed our new water heater has arrived and the marina will install it today or tomorrow.  Just a word of warning out there:  Force 10 is out of business and was taken over by Kuuma.  Our defective heater is only three years old but the warranty is 2 years.  I am not impressed with Force 10 products and maybe that is why they went out of business.

At the end of last season it had just started to leak (about 2 months after warranty expiration).  My buddy has a Raritan that is 25+ years old and it still is pumping out hot water.  Advice is to pay more for a good unit and manufacturer.  Oh well, maybe we can weld  the tank and have a spare.  I’ll drill out the pop rivets when they get it out to see what happened.

Last week was real hot – near 90ºF  4 days in a row – and very humid so we bought a window airconditioner for about $100 to put in the companionway and blow cooled air.  It is a 5000 BTU 40# unit and it is barely adequate.  It does not have sufficient capacity to cool down a boat that is already hot.  After the sun goes down it will cool the salon pretty good and the air becomes much drier and is comfortable.