Sorry folks-----It's been way too long since I last posted. Uh, uh, uh I was busy; Uh, I forgot; Uh, uh the dog ate my homework. Actually, none of the above---I just got lazy. But I'm back and ready to fill in the blanks between April 3 and now (June 14).
We have truly enjoyed our stay at Safe Harbor Burnt Store Marina. We ended up on their first floating dock about 6 slips down from where we kept our sailboat, "S/V Assisted Living" back in 2012-2014. It's immediately adjacent to the pool, laundry, bathroom and shower facilities-- just mere steps away--very convenient---and the truck is even closer---very nice with regard to hauling our groceries from truck to boat. Just a very nice set-up all the way around. We were the first to tie up to this brand new dock but it is now completely full and the people here are great. There are 2 other Mainships on the dock and we have gotten to know one of the owner couples quite well---Jim and Darlene--aboard an almost identical 2007. They live in the Cape Canaveral area but have recently bought, and are fixing up, a home in the Punta Gorda area where they will be able to keep their boat in the canal in their back yard. Really nice (and helpful---more to come) folks. Also, Terry, the harbor master for the marina lives on his boat 3 slips over. He has promised to keep an eye on our boat while we're away. Very nice. It's really a very good situation considering that we will be away from the boat for almost 6 months. (I'll probably be back and forth a couple times, especially should any tropical stuff start to develop.)
We weren't there long before our son, Scott and his girlfriend Karina came for a week long visit. They were supposed to have been with us in Marathon but that didn't work out so they drove over from Miami where they had spent a week or so. They stayed with us on the boat and we had a great time together. This was the first time that we had met Karina in person and found her to be a delight. It was so much fun to watch this young couple who are obviously very much in love. While we weren't able to take the boat out (High winds) we had a great time showing them the area with a trip to Boca Grande, a trip to Ft. Myers and the Edison and Ford museum and estates and a trip to Sanibel Island and the beach. Lot's of good food, drinks and conversation. (With the pandemic it had been almost a year and a half since we had seen our son). They introduced us to a new board game--Codename-- and we promptly killed them (It helps, as a team in this game, to have been married for over 50 years). Its a fun game---try it.
Shortly after Scott and Karina left us it was time for Diane and me to start thinking about heading home. We had Grandchildren and daughter birthdays and it was just time to head home and take a break from the boat. So we packed up the truck and headed back to Houston where we hung out for about 5 weeks. But it was surprising--we shortly developed a longing to be back on the boat so we jumped back in the truck on May 23 and headed back to Florida where we spent one glorious weather week and another that brought rain almost every day for at least a couple hours of the day in the afternoon.
That first week was fabulous. The weather was clear and calm and in the 60's in the mornings and evenings and 80's during the warmest part of the day. The highlight of this trip was motoring down to our favorite anchorage--Pelican Bay---off of Cayo Costa Island where we dinghied around, took the park shuttle over to the beach and even dinghied the 2 miles over to Cabbage Key (The claimed "original" cheeseburger in paradise location). We were at Pelican the week-end of Memorial Day although we had departed for the anchorage on the preceding Thursday anticipating that the anchorage would get crowded over the holiday week-end. Boy! Were we right. Typically there have been perhaps as many as 10 to 15 boats in this somewhat small bay over a given week-end. By the time we left to head back to the marina on that Sunday there were close to 70 boats at anchor. We were not crowded at our spot as we had chosen carefully and wisely before the arrival of the "Madding Crowd". It was a wonderful stay---one of our best---certainly in part due to the fantastic weather. The next week--not so much.
As mentioned, the weather turned unsettled and we elected to stay in port. We planned to take a trip up to Punta Gorda and actually made a reservation for a slip for 2 nights at the Fisherman's Wharf Marina but had to cancel due to the weather. Along with the rain came the heat and humidity and by the time we left for home we knew we were in Florida in the summer. So we left Florida's heat and humidity to return to Houston's heat and humidity.
The silver lining in the 2nd week was the opportunity to meet and get to know our marina neighbors a bit better. I mentioned Jim on the other Mainship. It so happened that one hot and humid night the power on the boat went out. I spent a couple hours trouble shooting but could not get to the cause. Our generator was being repaired as well so without shore power we had no electric coming into the boat and were unable to run our air conditioning. Our inverter would run fans but we had no way of recharging the batteries without either shore power or generator. The fans got us through the night fairly comfortably. The next morning the marina electrician came by and determined that the problem was indeed on our boat, not the electrical pedestal that provides the shore power. Shortly thereafter, Jim walked by and I mentioned the problem to him. Turns out he is an engineer and actually knows something about boat electrical systems. For 21/2 hours we traced the entire electrical system all the way through the boat--from shore power cord to circuit breaker to galvanic isolator to the 120/240 breaker panel and down to the inverter. We had power at all those places but not at the panel where the circuit directs the power to all the 110 volt applications. Jim located a cable that seemed to be running to my inverter and we questioned whether the inverter was the culprit. The problem---the inverter is located behind the refrigerator requiring the removal of the fridge. Jim had done this on his boat, so we set about removing the fridge. Once removed, Jim was in the process of removing the cover on the inverter box when he stumbled across a little tiny button on the outside of the inverter----obviously a reset button--he pressed it, reset it and voila! We were back in business. I'm pretty sure I know what I had done to cause it to shut down but won't go into it in any detail--just to say I think I had tried to pull too much current to too many things the night before. (Curses on whoever decided to bury the inverter behind the fridge!!!)
Needless to say, the Admiral and I were thrilled with the result. We took Jim and Darlene out to dinner the next night to thank him for his assistance. The silver lining here?---I know my electrical system a lot better now.
For now--we're melting away in Houston looking forward to heading for the mountains and cool air of Colorado in another month. While I may be going over to Fla. a couple times to check on the boat we don't anticipate being on her for any extended time until October------sooooo----I probably won't be adding to this site for a while. I wish all a very happy and fun post-pandemic summer wherever life takes you.
