Day 301 It continues.

Amazingly, the weather forecasters got it right yesterday.  Morning was to be ok and afternoon showers and rain.  I haven't figured out the difference but they seem to think there is a difference between showers and rain.  That's just the way the day went.  

Luckily, we did outside boat things early.  It was calm so we motored over to the pump out station and did what we needed to do and back to the slip.  We pulled in stern first again.  I didn't listen to Tracy as well as I should so it took an extra try to get us in alright.  But, all in all, it went fine.  

One of the marina employees was just passing by and gave  us a hand with the lines.  He told us that the marina offers a POW service.  "Pump Out Wednesdays" where they will come to your boat and do the pump out for you.  It's $5.00 a week.  We've been here over a month and it's the first we'd heard of it.  I can use the practice docking and re docking Zephyr so I don't think we would have used their service any way.  But I have to admit, it's a nice service to provide to the boaters here that don't want to disconnect their electricity,  untie their lines, start their engines, putt putt over to the station, tie up there, pump out, untie, putt putt back and then have to retie to the dock and get adjusted in place all over again.  We do it because--hey, $5.00 is $5.00 and as I said, we need the practice.

While disconnected from shore power, I checked the "Zinc Saver II" in the engine room.  This gizmo helps keep Zephyr safe from stray current that bleeds off other boats in the marina.  If an electrical connection isn't made right,  stray current from wires can go into the water from that boats ground terminal and will eat away at the metal parts on other boats.  This gizmo helps to stop that corrosion.  We've noticed that Zephyrs zincs--attached to the end of the prop seem to be degrading faster than we think normal.  We've only been back in the water since mid-October and it appears to be disintegrating quicker than normal.  They should last about a year under decent circumstances.  We may have to hire a diver to go down and check and replace it if necessary.  We carry no less than 6 spares on board.

Once done with that project and a nice lunch, we took off on errands.  It was just starting to rain.  Costco(of course), Lowe's, Home Depot, Michaels,  another Lowe's, NAPA, and Boater's World. 

I'm not sure I'd go back to Boater's World.  We looked through the store and seeing nothing we wanted, were just walking out the door when one of the employees said "Next time, bring your money".  Say what?  I'm not sure that's the right thing to say to a customer just because they didn't buy anything.  I hit him back with "Next time, have what we need" and left the store.  I've been there twice and each time, I was the only customer.  They had no less than 5 employees wandering around the store or sitting in chairs talking to each other.  Once on a weekend (mine was the only car in the lot)and yesterday, a Monday(again, mine was the only car in the lot).  I don't understand why they needed 5 employees, but I wouldn't buy stock in a company that has that many employees in a store that is not doing any business.  West Marine has maybe three sales people in their store on weekends and two during busier times during the day and one as they near closing time.  Boater's World has far too many employees in their stores given what their business is right now.

It continued to rain the entire time we were out but luckily stopped just as we were getting back to the marina.  We got back to Zephyr nice and dry.  Hamburgers for dinner.  It started raining again just after dinner and continued through the evening.  Today, more of the same.

I'm planning to remove our Webasto diesel heater today and either service it myself or take it to Seattle to have serviced.  It's not running properly and hasn't in months.  It just keeps running and restarting over and over again after the thermostat turns it on.  According to the owner's manual, it is doing repeated "flame outs".  The jets are clogged.  It never got used enough and sediment from the diesel fuel coated the sensors so it won't run right.  If we do go to Seattle, we'll buy another thermostat.  This baby has a range of 8 degrees between when it stops running and when it will restart.  If set to 78 degrees when it turns off, it won't turn back on again to heat until it drops to 70 degrees.  A bit large in range for my tastes.  The new thermostats have a 3 degree range.  It allows for a much more comfortable living arrangement.  We'll see how the day goes.  

With luck, the Mercury outboard motor folks will have our motor fixed so we can pick it up also.  I really want to try it out on our dingy to see what she will do under power.  So far, the only power we have used on her is oars and they aren't that powerful.

Have a great day.  If you have a chance, try Sand Pipers blog.  They're now in Granada.