Bayside Marina, Islamorada, FL
Did I mention it’s been windy and raining in Florida lately? It still is. We rented this slip January 11th for a month. We wanted a base for day trips and a dock to come back to at the end of the day. Offshore fishing, exploring smaller Keys, etc. We used the boat one time last Saturday for less than 4 hours. We did get off shore. But as soon as we got back to the dock the wind picked up with rain and hasn’t let up for a week. Ok, I know it’s snowing in Richmond and it’s a freezing cold 64° here. But the wind was blowing 25-30 knots today - with gusts to 40. Full blown gale.

Remember yesterday I cleaned the heat pump strainers because we had less than the water flow required to heat or cool? For those of you that don’t know the difference between a house heat pump and a boat - a house heat pump takes heat from and gives heat off to the air forced around the compressor coils. A boat works similarly, except it uses the seawater pumped across the coils. So if you don’t have enough water flow the heat pump will not work too well. Kind of like you having to sweep off the snow off your heat pumps to keep them working. Anyhow, after cleaning the strainer filter to improve the water flow yesterday it seemed still stopped up somewhere. So I decided to take a hose off and blow water through it backwards. Except when I tried to undo the hose the pipe crumbled. So, off to West Marine for a new strainer, connecting fittings and new hose clamps. Now it’s good as new. Just glad the pipe didn’t break while we were underway. That could have been an emergency.

As I’m writing this the Full Moon Party is in full swing next door. I’m l listening to a great Latin band covering songs we all know, only with a Latin beat.
http://www.moradabay.com/full-moon-party
We considered going. But did I mention it’s blowing a gale. Actually at 10:13PM as I write it has calmed down somewhat. With the binoculars we see party goers in fur coats with hoods and some with ski wear and stocking hats. It’s 64° Oh well cold for Floridians and how often do they get to wear their cold weather gear.

Today’s picture is my new heat pump strainer / filter. We have to be comfortable. Heat or A/C