I've been buying Internet, but we expect to go to Emerald Bay Marina tomorrow where I'll have free Internet, so I didn't want to re-up the account for this posting. If something changes and we don't go in, I will buy more time, so either way I'll add a photo tomorrow.

We had the pump-out boat come to empty our holding tanks today. We would have waited to pump-out when we left but we didn't think the forward tank pump-out was working, and wanted the tank emptied so we could work on the hand pump. They were here by about 9 AM. You pay by the gallon here. They also offered to take our garbage, but Bud had just hauled it in yesterday, so we didn't need them to do that. They were pretty nice guys. It was an easy task because the wind has dropped right down. All day there was just a light breeze and this evening it's still.

Anyway, after the tanks were pumped Bud tackled the overboard pump. He disconnected the hoses into and out of it. He taped our dinghy inflation pump hose to the hose coming from the holding tank. I went into the forepeak and listened while he pumped air through the hose. I could here the air coming into the tank, so we knew that hose was clear. I opened the seacock to the hose that goes overboard and Bud repeated the procedure on that hose. I could clearly here the air rushing out into the water. Next Bud hooked the hose from the tank back up and tried pumping into a container we made from an old cleaning solution bottle. The pump worked. I flushed that mess down the aft toilet while Bud hooked the overboard hose back to the pump. Then he just tried the pump while I listened at the seacock. It seemed to be working. So now we don't know why it didn't work before, but we think it's working now. I love the way all of our fixes are so definite! Oh well, nothing to do now but use the tank and try again to pump it overboard.

Later in the day Bud went out in the dingy to clean the transom. The engine gets soot all over it. Last year I worked for several hours cleaning that off. This year, it came off quite easily. This year we waxed the boat with Scotchguard Liquid Marine Wax by 3M. We're pretty happy with it. The picture I'll post is the boat with it's sparkling transom and awning deployed sitting in the calm waters of Elizabeth Harbour.

It was another very quiet day. I'm getting way too much reading done now that Rick and Tracy are gone.