Happy Groundhog Day!

Air in the Racors. A couple of guys who know what they are doing are coming to fix it! They are going to remove our Racor housings and take them back to their shop to reassemble on a bench. Did some reading online and as it turns out, this is a very common issue. Furthermore, any significant amount of air must be coming from between the Racor and fuel tank from a line or fitting (per the trouble shooting instructions from Racor). A clogged filter screen inside the tank can be the culprit and/or a crack in the pickup tube. Remember, this problem started after the fuel polishing in Jacksonville. Attempted to relay this information to the Captain, but he doesn’t appear to be a fan of online research for trouble shooting, instead he will Bust Out Another Thousand to get this problem solved. Again. Fingers crossed!

Low voltage issue on starboard side, the one that has plagued our electronics...  As it turns out, there are no marine electricians even available. I suppose we will continue to ignore this problem despite that it affects our critical electronic components like navigation and VHF radio. I am still haunted by the fact that our VHF at times was unable to transmit 100 yards even while on “Hi” mode. We have a handheld backup- any guesses on how far those things transmit in the real world? We only need to be 3 miles off shore to go up the NJ coast. Beth- surely we have flares on board? I could make the swim with a life jacket on, but the water is cold now! Do they have rip tides down here like we do back home? I will put my faith in Lil’ Betsy in this regard for the time being!

Autopilot- no SimRad techs available today, but we were assured they are present all the way up the coast. Makes no difference to me, but Captain Ralph really wants to get this working as he does not enjoy steering by hand. I am sure we can eventually find a guy who knows what he is doing and throw money at him until he goes away. 
I would post pictures of the amazing scenery and photos of us clinking our champagne flutes with our shoes off and our feet in the air, but the reality is that there really isn’t any time for relaxation. If we aren’t driving the boat we are working on it. It’s like that movie Groundhog Day, only it isn’t funny in real life and I don’t get to smash an alarm clock every day to release my frustration.