Day 16 weather delay in Biloxi, MS

     The one thing that you are supposed to have on a trip like the Great Loop is no itinerary... The wind of 10-15 mph predicted turned out to be stronger than that so when the Admiral got up early she (correctly) decided that we would stay over another day in Biloxi. The good news is that the Admiral let me sleep in.  During the morning, I got caught up on the blog while the Admiral made the drapes to hang from the ceiling track between the salon and the dinette-lower helm.

As you can see, the Admiral looks pleased with her new sewing machine. The next picture shows the curtain as it is viewed from the dinette/helm station.

The track for the curtain is behind the curved, varnished mahogany strip at the ceiling. The next photo shows how the new curtain shades the salon from the bright sunlight in the dinette which has windows all around (and is facing the sun). In the salon we have a 32 inch LCD TV, and the curtain greatly aids viewing by shielding the "bright" sunlight.

...and yes, that is the Cisco Kid and Pancho on the screen. As for having a sewing machine on board, I am happy if the Admiral is happy, and the sewing machine is also on my long list of things that I never ever thought that I would have on a boat.

     We had a nice lunch onboard, and then we adjourned to the engine room for another project. We have 4 diesel fuel tanks that measure about 2' x 2' x 5' with about 150 gallons in each.  Typical of diesel tanks there are no electrical fuel gauges just sight gauges of clear tubing that run vertically from top to bottom along the side.

We last replaced the tubing about 5 years ago, and it was getting brittle and very discolored from absorbing fuel. The photo shows the top of the diesel fuel (pink) at about 8 3/4 inches). The red handle is a shut off valve at the bottom of the sight gauge where it exits the fuel tank. It was one of those "when you have time" jobs, but since my pre-departue check list includes fuel, it will be a lot easier to measure the fuel levels.

   For dinner we boarded the Casino Hopper shuttle bus and headed about 2 miles west along the beach to the "Hard Rock Casino".

Note the crane in the background. In spite of recent reports about casino revenues being down (nationally?), there is casino related construction everywhere. We also did the obligatory walking tour of the casino as you can see:

     As for the future, the winds are supposed to die down to about 10 mph tonight, but they are predicted to strengthen again during the day tomorrow. So, we may be here another day (?). Stay tuned....