The Life and Times of Captain D and his Pretty First Mate

 The owners of this harbor front home (3381 Diamond Key Ct,  Punta Gorda, FL 33955) had a contractor come in and give the mangroves a cut down to 3' (?) and some unknown trees a lollipop cut in order for the first floor of their home to have a view of the harbor. There is also a path to a small, sandy beach woven through the trees. The property to the left, strangely enough, is for sale with no obvious access other than to build a driveway across the trimmed mangroves.

 There has been lots of activity in the water behind the house on the warmer days lately.  Wind the wind very calm, I was able to see what looked like tilapia mating, making beds to lays eggs (?) and in general, having a good time.  No clue why there weren't ospreys enjoying a good meal, though perhaps this is happening all over and times are good for the fish hawks. A glance at the Florida Wildlife Commission site, they may be Blue Talapia and are pretty much statewide. I may bring my cast net off the boat, give it a whirl and see what I bring up. A pair swimming around Looks a bit more colorful, perhaps a male One of the beds that has been cleaned off

 Our neighbors brought their RV to their home late yesterday from a storage garage they own nearby.  The husband, Jack, is in his mid-80s, a ball of fire, and was prepping the vehicle to go places.  He was out looking at his house batteries and I popped over to ask if he needed any help.  He was trying to get his batteries to charge (they eventually started taking a charge) and we chatted a bit.  His wife, Faun, was inside the RV and told me they had gotten an appointment for their COVID shots, but it was at a Publix in West Palm Beach, so they were going to make a multi-day trip out of it with the RV.  This is their third RV, and they prefer the smaller ones as opposed to some of the other neighbors, though they did have a larger RV themselves at one time.  Jack explained that the one they have now has everything their others had, but is much easier to drive and get around. They have put over 100k on each of their RVs over the past 30 years, as they prefer to visit their family in Ari

 A flock of White Ibis are working the shoreline along the edge of the 3rd hole (Heron course) behind our home, with a Common Gallinule staying a bit ahead and a Little Blue Heron in his usual spot, picking off anything the ibis are kicking up. The heron does work the shore by himself mostly, but if the ibis are out, he makes sure to shadow them.

The First Mate and I were on our usual cart tour of the marina and spotted a rather large yacht that was a bit out of place.  It is a late model Azimut Megellano 66 and costs more than $2,000,000 used . They must be slumming, lost, or just like the food at Cass Cay. I figured they may be just waiting for a good time to fuel up as they'd take pretty much the entire fuel dock just to come alongside the pumps.

 I'm not sure which grocery chain this photo was taken as I've been through several the last week or two, but now Millennials (ok, not all the customers are born in the 90s) who prefer "organic" can have their hard seltzer just that way. Goodness knows what spicy pineapple tastes like :)

Last we saw this high-performance pontoon boat, it was pitched a bit to stern because of the two attached 425hp outboards.  I saw it later in the week among the transient docks in the south marina and just thought the owners were visiting. This week, they have installed a boat lift for the boat to elevated out of the water. The home is set right on the edge of the mangroves along Charlotte Harbor and the owners got permission to trim the mangroves low so as not to spoil their view.  

 Before we brought the boat south in 2019, we installed solar panels on the aft arch but I didn't have the time to hook them up.  I have all the components to do such, just lots of wire running in tight spaces.  We have a generator to top off the batteries so it was never an issue, power-wise, just noisy if we were down below. I did add a battery monitor, to keep up to speed on the energy draw.  It has Bluetooth and can be configured with an app on my iPhone. I recently powered up the solar panel controller to configure it, again using  Bluetooth on the same app.  The two components can chat with each other to let each know what's going on---solar charging, battery discharging, temperature, etc. The controller can take the energy coming from the panels, wired in series, at 96 VDC/800 watts and convert it into battery-friendly 12VDC to keep the batteries topped off.  We keep 4 larger wet cells, good for 200 aH, and this provides us with more than a day's energy usage while l

 We've spent a few hours here and there over the last month on the SV-Time and Tide, oiling the wood, cleaning out storage, and washing off bird poop. One of the items on the to-do list was to crank up the freezer/refrigerator and when we did, it ran, but the cold plate didn't turn, well, cold.  I got the gauges out and found that the system was low of R-134, though I didn't have my adaptor for the can I had on board (long story, but it's in Tennessee).  One Amazon delivery later, and I was ready to add the freon. Cute little unit.  It's actually a commercial 3-phase compressor used for water fountains that is "pulsed" into life by the 12VDC control board. The unit only holds 5 ounces of the R-134 refrigerant at most, and it had a bit left before I started to top it off.  In less than a minute I had overfilled the unit.  10 psi on the blue dial, when it first gets going, is where it should be. I bled a bit out and started checking the cold plate temperatur

 While there was some decorations left over from the previous owner, many were not truly coastal or nautical lifestyle decorations.  Moyia and I have used Facebook Marketplace to buy and sell/give away a few of the items and furniture, and a few of the better consignment stores have been able to provide many decorations and furniture as well.  On the last trip from Tennessee, we brought some decorations from that home as well.  Still lots of empty walls, but we are getting there slowly. Tennessee Tennessee Canvas photo from our crossing back up to the Panhandle. Canvas photo of our departure from Green Turtle Bay back on 10/10/16. Amazon lamp Christmas present from Alex Consignment store Facebook Marketplace Facebook Marketplace Facebook Marketplace Facebook Marketplace Consignment store lower/Cape Romano above Overstock Facebook Marketplace Facebook Marketplace Consignment Store Rehabbed wall art, needs some more color Facebook Marketplace Shells from Cape Sable in the Everglades Nati

 I've been disappointed a few times with the folks that were taking care of the pool, nice folks, but just a general lack of knowledge about pool chemistry.  The pool stabilizer was always at, or near 100, which is much higher than it needed to be and the usual test only goes to 100.  I asked if it could be higher and was told no (it was higher, about 160). The pool was constantly under chlorinated, and the pH was everywhere.  I'd send text messages to the owner to show the number of chlorine tabs (if any) in the chlorinator and the chemical readings. The typical response for not being able to balance the pool was that we used the pool more than their other customers and had a high organic load as a result. The chlorinator holds ten or so tablets. It's the same style I use as a backup in Tennessee.   I decided to install a saltwater chlorine generator and took over the pool responsibilities myself after being told the reason I wasn't getting chlorine in the pool was tha

 When we first bought the house here in Burnt Store Marina, there was some growth in the cracks in the pavers both in the driveway and around the pool.  When we returned this past year, nearly all the cracks had algae growth between them and it obviously had been a good summer for the algae. I had initially thought the growth was a type of fungus, but after pulling some out and reading online, it's an alga.  I broke out the pressure sprayer, and over a couple of days, managed to remove most of the growth. I had several piles of this type around the perimeter of the pool--and some in the pool as well.  Had the consistency of wet cotton balls and a hint of green when washed a bit. I then sprayed the pavers with "Wet it and Forget it", which is made for just this type of problem.  Looks like I'll spray down the pavers every 3 months or so, maybe more in the summer, to keep the algae at bay. Looks like a couple of years supply with this concentrated stuff. I go back and f