I rode the local Go-Line bus for the first time today. I wanted to replace our drip coffeepot that broke the day before. The nicest thing about riding the bus is that most of the cruisers use it, so all you have to do is get on board and mention where you're going and not only will someone else tell you how to get there, there's usually someone else going where you are. I was going to Target, but found out there was also a Wal-Mart close by. I ended up getting off at Wal-Mart, walking to Target, Lowe's and then going all through the mall. I walked back (about a mile and a half) and got both the coffeepot and two solar yard lights at Wal-Mart. I left the mall at 12:45 having decided to walk to Wal-Mart; I walked the mile and a half, picked up the items, checked out and made the bus in front of Wal-Mart at about 1:15. I never thought I'd make it, but if I hadn't, I would have had to wait an hour for the next bus.

On the bus ride home, the couple that had directed another lady and I to the Express Bus for Wal-Mart and the Mall were waiting at the bus transfer spot. They noticed my Tuscarora Yacht Club T-shirt. Turns out they are from Rochester. I don't think we ever exchanged names, but I know they just switched from a sailboat to a 36 Albin Trawler. We exchanged a lot of anecdotes about our journeys down from Lake Ontario. That's a hot topic here because of the damage Hurricane Irene did to the Erie Canal this year. I've met boaters who ended up trucking their boats from Lake Ontario down to Annapolis. The canal did open for a couple of weeks the end of November-early December to let the waiting boats through, and to let some boats that had been in the canal at the time of the hurricane out.

I also talked to one of the owners of St. Augustine Marine Center today. He assured me that they would stand by us through this and make it right. He also said that those responsible for the poor work would be called to task. As compensation for our pain he offered to pay for the oil and temperature gauges we want for the new engine. The people doing the work here are going to give an estimate to them. I don't want this to hold us up, but we'd feel an awful lot better if we had gauges and not just "idiot lights".

After I got back Bud took the bus just up to the grocery store and West Marine. I finished cleaning the floor of the cockpit. Bud had washed the rest of the deck. I was out on the dock cleaning our cockpit cushions when I happened to look up and noticed the beautiful play of light and water. I stopped and took some pictures and this is the best of them. I was thinking about how lovely it was here, how many nice people we'd met, and that even when things were bad, they were good.

Just then, John, the mechanic, came out with his tools having finished for the week. He'd gotten the transmission back on the engine and had been working all afternoon aligning the propeller shaft and transmission. Bud was back by then and had been talking to him. It turns out that he couldn't get the alignment right. He thought the coupler was used. It seemed to be warped and had some corrosion on it. He was taking it back to the shop and Monday morning he would try to repair it with their lathe, and if he couldn't they would have to order a new one! What?!??!!?