July updates

First the good news. We have a new outboard for the dinghy, a 6-horse Mercury, courtesy of a good friend who is paying me to write a story for him. No more death-trips with the little trolling motor. This simple addition to the boat has dramatically increased both our freedom and our safety. Next step is to find a planing-hull dinghy in the 8-foot range, maybe a nice Caribe 8, since our little flat-bottom Severn is unable to plane.

On the engine front, we still have failure. Two $150 parts later and it still will not start. I am still baffled. I still hate diesels. They are the Devil's motors.

I finally found a method to--in theory--repack the propshaft gland with the boat in the water. It will be scary, since I only have one chance to get it right. We'll have the batteries fully charged when I go for it, in order to have all three bilge pumps at the ready.

We are now completely unemployed and have zero income. I applied for food stamps; no answer yet.

I'll be paid soon for three short stories to be published online by Ray Gun Revival. The three together will pay about enough for one one-backpack trip to the grocery store, but it will get my name out there.

We've made some new cruiser friends out here on the water: Don and Linda on S/V It's Perfect, and Fred and Connie on S/V Tashtego. Don and I befriended Fred and Connie when he and I had to get a rescue party together: a boat had dragged into Tashtego while they were ashore, and Don and I had to use dinghies to shove the boats apart so I could add fenders between them. Again, that little 6-horse Mercury is amazing!