Stats for Sunday, January 6, 2019

Origin: Barley Basin Anchorage

Destination: Anchorage Marina, Key Largo

Distance: 25.9 miles

Speed: 8 mph

Time on the Move: 3 hours and 13 minutes

When Mike decided to order solar for delivery at the very last possible second before heading to the Bahamas, we needed a marina to send it to. Our friends, Kent and Heather on Heartbeat, were at Anchorage Marina and it was looking like we would possibly cross to the Bahamas with them, so we thought that was a great place to mail our solar kit. Plus, Mike wanted to have shore power available so he could spend some more time working on the inverter/battery charging issue, so another marina stop seemed logical.

We had a great trip to the marina complete with lots of dancing and singing. It was an all-request kind of morning, so everyone got to take turns picking their favorite tunes for the ride. You’d be surprised at how much fun this crew can have with “Funkytown.” We passed through some surprisingly skinny water because we had to follow a narrow channel the whole way and sometimes it just seemed like there wasn’t much of a channel at all.

Kent and Heather were at the marina to catch our lines before they headed out to anchor just off the end of the docks. Right away I noticed the beautiful pool and knew that’s where the kids and I were headed so Mike could open up the floor again. The Anchorage didn’t look super impressive, but it was in a great location, right by a bridge and no wake zone with a hopping tiki bar across the channel. Lots of boats, big and small, passed right by the marina, and they had live music at the tiki bar for most of the afternoon. I even watched a man fall off the dock trying to leave the tiki bar. Lots of entertainment!!

The kids swam and slid down the handrail by the steps of the pool for hours. I enjoyed reading and relaxing in the sun. I’m not sure Mike really enjoyed working on the boat, but he did plenty of it.

Later that evening we walked to a restaurant right next to the marina with Kent and Heather for dinner. It was super convenient and pretty good food, but the noseeums somehow found their way inside the screened in porch.

After dinner, Kent wanted to take a look at our inverter and found a breaker on it that had tripped. The guys flipped the breaker, the batteries started charging, and loud cheers erupted from the hole in the floor of the salon. We couldn’t believe our problem was something so easy that we just missed. But, of course, that was not the case. The cheering stopped very quickly about 30 seconds later when the batteries stopped charging again. At that point, Kent was determined to find and fix the problem. The guys worked for another hour or more, trying different ideas and brainstorming. In the end, they ran out of new ideas to try, but it was so nice of Kent to check it out. We are always so overwhelmed by the kindness of other boaters, willing to help out when they can. I just wish one of them would have the answer!!

The next day we were waiting for our solar panels to arrive before heading out. Check out at the marina was 12 noon, but Mike set up with them that we could stay until our package was delivered. Mike was checking the Amazon website regularly to see the status of the package, but it still wasn’t marked as shipped, even though it was scheduled to arrive by 8pm that night. Mike called Amazon several times and the customer service reps he spoke with seemed to have a hard time figuring out what was going on with the package, as well, but assured us over and over again that it would be delivered by 8pm. We weren’t sure what to think, so we busied ourselves with chores to prepare for crossing to the Bahamas the next day.

One thing Mike had on his to-do list is to add an extra tie down on the dinghy. He had an eye hook he installed on the swim platform and then he needed to get the right length strap to secure the dinghy from another eye hook. It was an easy task that he felt we needed to do to make sure the dinghy was secure in big waves. He was apparently very careful with his phone during the whole task, except for the very last time when he went on the swim platform to finish the job. Somehow his phone slipped out of his pocket and quickly sank to the bottom right under our boat. He immediately jumped in after it, but after diving on it a few times, he knew it was gone. Plus, he had his prescription glasses on and didn’t want to risk losing those, too. When he came inside the boat, all soaking wet in his clothes, looking like he was going to cry, I didn’t know what to think. I asked if he was okay, if he fell in, or what in the world was going on. It didn’t really surprise me to hear he dropped his phone in, but I did feel overwhelmed at the prospect of having just one phone for crossing to the Bahamas, dealing with the electrical, and tracking down this solar package. Just one more thing on our plates. We quickly decided not to waste our day chasing down a new phone–we would buy him a cheap phone in the Bahamas if we needed to for our time there and then get a new one when we got back to the states.

At this point, we had only 1 phone, batteries that wouldn’t charge when they were plugged in, no idea when our solar would arrive, and a grand plan to head 75 miles across the gulf stream the next day to get to the Bahamas. Whew!

Since we were sitting around waiting for our package anyway, I took the kids back to the pool with no phone, of course, because Mike needed it to help with his troubleshooting work. Thank goodness for that pool!!

Mike got back to work in the engine room looking for any stone left unturned as to why the batteries weren’t charging. He ended up calling a local electrician and explaining the situation. The guy was so intrigued, he agreed to drop what he was working on and come to the boat right away. They worked on the problem for another 2-3 hours to no avail.

At that point, we had pizza delivery for dinner but still no solar package. Mike called Amazon again around 5pm and they said our package was in Aurora, Colorado, but would be delivered to Key Largo, Florida before 8 pm. We knew that just wasn’t possible, so we regretfully gave up waiting and got ready to head out of the marina to head to our anchorage for the night. We felt so defeated leaving that marina…batteries not charging, phone left behind underwater, no solar, and wouldn’t arrive in anchorage until after dark (again). BUT, we were heading to the Bahamas the next day, so life couldn’t be too bad!!

Thanks for reading and following along on our crazy adventures!! I sure hope our luck starts improving, but if your short-term plan is to go to the Bahamas, you can’t be doing too bad!!