Saturday January 31: The Case of the Missing Washer

Steve finally (after several months) decided it was time to hook up the cold water at the sink in the front head. He disconnected it some time ago when trying to determine where the leak in the water system was.

Sadly he lost one of the critical washers today. Couldn't find it anywhere - the boat was again a wreck. Off he went to Home Depot (across the street) and then a fast ride down to Specialty Hardware (about 5 miles). No luck at either place.

Back at the boat. Now what to do. Dive in and see if he can find it - possibly he dropped it over the side?? Fortunately, Sharon (from Stevedore) stopped by to see what the next project was. Steve replied that he was working on a faucet but he lost a washer. Sharon said "is it blue with white stripes?" Seriously? You're kidding, right? Nope - she said it's over here on the dock!! Sure enough! He's not quite sure how it got there (fell out of his pocket??) but it was great to find it - thanks, Sharon!!

Put the faucet together. Leaks. Try again. Still leaks. Mmmm.... seems to be a missing piece. No idea where that is either but it can be replaced with a piece of rubber gasket paper. It just needs some fine cutting with a scissors and a razor knife.

Finished product. And it actually worked. Who knows for how long but we'll take it :-)

In the meantime, the work on Guppy's cushions continues. I'm waiting for zippers for the 6 back cushions but can continue working of the 3 seat cushions.

Steve is a great help in marking and cutting these pieces. Once cut, I can sew the top of the cushion to the old bottom. This saves me from having to replace the zipper.

Two of the seat cushions are completed - one remaining. That's on the list for tomorrow. Before the superbowl of course!!





It will be nice to not have all of the sewing stuff sitting around. Once the covers are finished, I can pack them up and ship them off to New York to the marina where Guppy is stored. Or maybe we'll just fly back with them in May. We'll be flying Southwest and can fly 4 bags free!

The picture left will give you an idea of why it was time to replace the covers. Believe it or not this is material from the same bottom cushion. It is SO faded that it doesn't seem possible the material was originally the darker blue color.

The new material is about the same color of the original but it has white dots in it - even though the dots aren't really all obvious when the material is viewed from farther away.

This is the one finished back cushion cover that is finished. It had a zipper that I could just reuse.

Sadly I sewed it in upside down. Oh well! No way was I going to redo it :-)

I even got an early Valentine's Day present from Steve today: a heart shaped Boston Creme doghnut from Dunkin Doughnuts! Turns out there's a Dunkins near the Specialty Hardware store. Mmm ... I may find some excuses to pedal my way up that direction some day!

In the meantime, we continue to enjoy being here. Steve couldn't catch a Mahi-mahi the other day so we went to the Keys Fisheries for lunch instead - and a bonus of some fresh tuna for dinner.

And yesterday there was fresh hogfish and Bermuda Chubs. Steve and Gary went out fishing under the bridge again. This time was quite the successful trip until the winds returned again. Nice job fishing Steve and Gary!!


There is still plenty of bike riding. Often off to breakfast during the week - well, we call it breakfast but it's usually 9:30 or so until we actually get moving. Talk about easy mornings :-)

The grounds here at Banana Bay are so enjoyable - lots of flowering trees plus the usual assortment of palms.

Sometime I think we really ARE in paradise!