Bad Day for Thin Wallet

It was a bad day for our meager retirement income.  Batteries were extremely low and didn’t seem to be taking a charge.  Stopped in at Harbortown Marine and met Joe from Whiticar Yacht Services.  He was stumped, too.  So we stayed at the marina - $80 instead of $0 to anchor.  In the morning, Joe came back for another look and everything was great.  Did some testing and pronounced the batteries and alternator healthy and fit.  Glen was able to locate the culprit.  The refrigeration system takes its power directly from the batteries without going through the electrical panel so loads of power was sneaking out without us knowing.  We now have full batteries and we know that our fridge is a hog.   Joe was great but Joe is not cheap!

So off we went, gallant explorers, but backing out of the slip (which is 4 pilings – 2 at the bow and 2 at the stern, Captain Chaos managed to come too close to one of the pilings.  Our new marine barbeque valiantly tried to protect the boat from the piling but alas, the barbeque is now in the water at the end of slip H-37.  Six feet under, so to speak.

We forged on to Stuart and we are currently anchored in 5 feet of water in Manatee Pocket – right near the St. Lucie Inlet.  Walked to the nearby West Marine and replaced our noble BBQ.  They are setting up for a huge seafood festival http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/jan/23/seafood-festival-celebrates-fishing-industry/ so lots of fishermen are bringing in their catch to be prepared and sold.  We bought a “Blue” (?) and Glen expertly filleted it.  It is ready to cook for dinner tonight.

Dinghy ride into shore at Stuart

Big Fish

Tomorrow we will hopefully go to sea from the ICW and sail to the Lake Worth inlet to wait for a Bahama crossing.  If the weather is poor we will continue on the ICW – but there are at least 6 bridges that open on the hour and half hour.  Let’s hope for sailing on the outside.  If we get out there... and it's great... maybe we should head across.  The reports call for a good day tomorrow... but 5 days of not so good crossing days.  We are 25 miles north of our ideal crossing location.  From the Lake Worth Inlet it is 57 miles to West End on Grand Bahama.  Pythagorus suggests that it is only 62 if we go from here.  Hmmmmm!