A new toy to eat up more of your smart phone’s memory. It does look like a fun app for recreational boating! If you try it, send us a review.

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Notes from the Coast Guard Auxiliary
Submitted By Alan Moose USCG Aux. Aug 9, 2018 (0)
The United States Coast Guard has released a free mobile app, designed to provide key boating safety information on your iPhone or Android smartphone. The official U.S. Coast Guard app gives you 24/7 access to the most commonly requested information and resources for the recreational boating public. Download the free app from the Apple and Google Play online stores. Search for the app named “United States Coast Guard.”

America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association is an extremely active and involved organization supplying information and support for all member cruisers, not just active Loopers. Open their website, greatloop.org,  and get a taste of what membership is about.

The Great Loop is the continuous waterway that encompasses the eastern portion of North America including the Atlantic and Gulf Intracoastal Waterways, the Great Lakes, the Canadian Heritage Canals, and the inland rivers of America’s heartland.  

Our members range from experienced Loop cruisers to boaters in the midst of Looping; those planning on one day cruising the Great Loop to those simply exhilarated by the process of learning about the journey. Every level of interest is welcome, no restrictions or limitations! Whether you’re young or just young at heart, still working or retired, ready to travel full time or only every-so-often; whether you’ve got a powerboat, sailboat, trawler, rowboat or no boat; whether you are doing the Great Loop or dreaming, you’ll fit right in, come aboard!

 

One of Cruisers’ Net’s generous contributors who has shared expertise for your benefit, via their excellent blog, The Crabby Captain and the Sunny Sailor, now requests your assistance with a problem many of us have suffered through. Let us hear your suggestions.

Help us before my husband throws our Mercury outboard in the water!
We have a 2003 Mercury 15hp outboard motor on our dinghy (which we purchased with our Beneteau sailboat) and it shuts down (or off) when under a heavy load.
He had a mechanic rebuild/service the carburetor ($300) and still have the same problem.
Since then he has tried:
-Changing the fuel tank and hoses (helped it to work for a while and then went back to the same problem)
-Changed the fuel in the tank
-Changed the gaskets and fuel filter
-Changed the spark plugs.
Does anyone have any helpful suggestions so that he doesn’t end up throwing it in the canal? My sunny side can only get us so far!
Please send help! (Or a new motor if you have one!)
Thanks
Cara

Our thanks to Eddie and Cara for sharing their repair expertise as recorded in their excellent blog, The Crabby Captain and the Sunny Sailor. 

Just today I need my top.
Everyone needs a top from time to time and our sailboat’s Bimini needed some repairs. Here is some how to’s to help fellow boaters do the same. From threading the Sailrite sewing machine, to replacing the marine vinyl, we tell you how to do it step by step. And maybe you will see us with no top!

GOING TOPLESS?

Over-priced renewal services crop up every year and, again, we remind you that renewal through http://www.uscg.mil/nvdc is faster and the least expensive process. See https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSCG/bulletins/1a25ee8 for more info.

Our thanks to longtime cruiser and regular Cruisers’ Net contributor for this disturbing report from south Florida.

Hi Capt,
We moved ashore to St James city Florida last August (Jean needed another hip replaced) and we still cruise on our new to us 30 Mainship Pilot. Come down and visit we have room in our canal home. The fishing was great until a month ago the discharge from Lake O and the red tide hit the area. Our last visit to Cayo Costa made us sick from all the dead fish and the red tide made us ill. Dead 400lb groupers, dolphins, manatees and over 300 turtles line the shores of Sanibel, Captiva and Cayo Costa, even a whale dead on the beach. The sad truth is no one in government is doing much than saying the same things they always do. The red tide comes every year, but the Lake O discharge is a fixable problem.

Now our biggest concern is the water here has gone from beautiful and clean to horrible and filled with dead fish. Between the red tide and Lake O waste discharges, the wildlife does not have a chance. I do not know what can be done. I know that writers like Carl Hiaasen have been complaining about the Lake O discharges since I started boating 45 yrs ago and politicals have promised and made $$$ off of vested interests that are raping Florida.
Consider sharing with your readers the petition.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/seize-eminent-domain-us-sugar-corp-florida-crystals-farmland-and-restore-natural-flow-lake-okeechobee-south

The picture is a canal in St James City. You can google the latest news and see more dead manatees and sea turtles.

Semper Fi!

Sonny Reeves
Be Salt and Light, wash feet!
St James City Fl 33956
see blog https://saltlightwashfeet.wordpress.com

Worst red tide bloom in over a decade kills hundreds of marine mammals along Florida’s west coast
AccuWeather.com

The toxic red tide that’s decimating Florida’s marine life
NBCNews.com

Red Tide Invades Florida Beaches, Killing And Injuring Marine Life
NBC 6 South Florida

Dead fish, red tide, plague Florida tourists, beaches
Tampabay.com

Our thanks to Bill Parlatore for permitting Cruisers’ Net to post articles from his excellent blog, Following Seas.

Time to step back from social media and regroup. How we get our information has changed in recent years, and not for the better. We need to rethink where we look for answers and updates. A new world is emerging that embraces a more human connection.

What is the Future of Information?