Solomons Island, MD - Antennas and Tentacles

Well we have network TV again (kind of). Kevin tried to re-mount the glomex TV antenna on the bimini (instead of at the top of the mast, where it used to be). That didn't work so well, all we got was snow. Then Kevin got the idea that we could cobble together our own TV antenna. After looking on the internet on how to build your own, we were pretty discouraged. Look it up sometime. Almost every website started with "so you are crazy enough to try to build your own antenna..." It appears to be a highly involved technical feat. So we ended up just buying a $20 pair of rabbit ears. We get most major channels, but only between the hours of 8pm-9pm. At all other times, we can get maybe one channel with picture and sound, and the rest of them come in either sound only or picture only. But hey - now we can watch some of the reruns from the past TV season! By the way, is anyone else sick of the "Head On. Apply directly to the forehead...Head On. Apply directly to the forehead." commercials? One day of TV and already we hate that commercial with a passion.

We've been enjoying the air conditioning, but today we ran into a minor snag. For some reason the compressor shut off and wouldn't click back on again. Kevin checked the through-hull for the heat transfer system (the a/c sucks in raw water from the bay to keep the unit from overheating). What he found was shocking -- literally. Sea nettles (jellyfish) had gotten sucked up into the strainer and were clogging up the system. So he put on the rubber gloves and cleaned out the tentacles from the inside, then scrubbed the outside of the through-hull with a scrub brush. Problem solved, at least until we suck up some more. It's inevitable, since they are everywhere, floating like silent stinging ghosts all around the boat. Well, we are off to try out the "Naughty Gull" restaurant's shrimp & crab cake dinner. Don't you just love boating puns?