Good news is that we do have a car so that Linda and Tom can be picked up at the airport. We will have our full roster for the passage. And, we'll have two extra pairs of hands to help in all the preparations...and repairs.
"REPAIRS!" you say. Yes, as I mentioned, LUX does not want to leave Florida. Used to be that St. Augustine was her favorite spot. Now, it seems the entire state is her new best friend.
We pulled into Harbortown Marina with one of the alternators dead. Michael and Terry had tried their entire bag of magic tricks, but nothing would bring that alternator back to life. Obviously, we were in need of serious repair or replacement. Thus began the saga of the hunt for the alternator. The lovely brochure from Harbortown Marina had a great ad for Treasure Coast Battery and Alternator.
Great ad, huh? Gotta love the pirate logo. Of course, you don't have to love the fact that calling them results in the knowledge that they don't do alternators!
Using the magic of technology, Terry found a guy who happened to have our exact alternator on the shelf- unclaimed order from some other customer. But, Terry had to be there by 4:00 to get it.
Then began the saga of the rental cars. If you check out the really great webpage for Harbortown Marina, you will notice that they advertise that they have an Enterprise car rental right at the marina. Hahn...you know the web. It doesn't always tell the truth. In fact, the Dockmaster informed us that Enterprise pulled out of here quite a while ago. And when we called their new site, they said they had no cars available. It's 2:45, and the clock is ticking.
Terry managed to get a car from Thrifty,and he and Carol were off with barely an hour to make the deadline. And Stuart( where the shop was) is just about an hour from here.
They just made it in time. But, the story of that shop will make its own blog posting. It's too good to rush!
Terry and Carol did get stuck at the train tracks on the way back. Yes, believe it or not, the train runs right in front of this marina. And, right across from the marina is a West Marine! So, since it was a LONG train, Terry made a u-turn and finished up that day's list for West Marine. Never fear, by 11:30 PM, we had another list. More on that later.
Terry and Carol return, so we make our way up to the marina restaurant for dinner. Along the way, we chanced to look down in the water by the dock. We saw a big manatee! Right there. Floating along the edge of the dock. For some of us, it was our first ever sighting. No picture, of course. For such a slow moving creature, it certainly knows how to submerge quickly!
And then we were at the marina restaurant having a great dinner. at this point, Terry used one of his brilliant conversation starters. Or, perhaps I should say, conversation stoppers! He said, "Why is the water pump running so often? Is there a spigot dripping somewhere?"
This initiated a round of Terry taking apart various parts of LUX. Finding out that the hot water heater on the Starboard side is not only broken but leaking was not the best news of the evening. Seems that bilge pump kept trying to get rid of the water down there in the bilge. Not good. Not good at all.
A call to West Marine elicited the information that neither a replacement part nor a total new pump was available- unless we wanted to pick it up in Miami. So, after Terry picks up Tom and Linda, the three of them will hunt up hardware stores to find possible substitute parts. And, they have to make a stop at the alternator shop to pick up the alternator.
Once they arrive at the boat, we will indulge in a flurry of boat repair with the hope that we can actually leave around 5 today. Oh well, you know one of our other favorite sayings- Cruising is just a another way of saying boat repair in exotic locations.
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