Naples Last (Tip of the Hat to Mr. Sunshine)

Everything was fine when we got back to the boat, just as we had left it. Damn it. Once again, none of our little boat chores were done by the boat elves in our absence.

It always takes us a day or two to really get settled once we get back to the boat, and this time was no different.

Our month at dock was up on the 2nd of April, but the weather wasn't quite ready for our departure, and neither were we. We started watching the weather obsessively, and saw our chance coming. We got some of our departure day tasks done the day before, which was a first. We turned on the equipment, turned the key, and heard nothing.

After some highly technical troubleshooting I determined that the starting battery might be the problem, since the top was bubbled up about half an inch. It seemed to have a short that you could actually hear when we turned the key. We're lucky it didn't explode. Off to West Marine to buy another battery. We seem to be doing this every couple months, but it's better than replacing them all at once because they are about $300 apiece. They were all about 6 years old when we bought the boat. Two more house bank batteries to go.

By the time this was played out and another rental car returned our weather window was almost 24 hours shorter. We had planned to spend the night at Little Shark River, about half way to Marathon across Florida Bay, but we since the weather windows coming up were a little shorter, we started reconsidering an overnighter.

We had done this before, crossing the big bend from Panama City to Tarpon Springs, but we had help. This time we'd be on our own, just the two of us. I calculated that if f we left in the early afternoon we would arrive at the first of the banks a little after sunrise. Our sleep schedules are normally offset quite a bit, and an overnighter seemed to turn that into an advantage.

On the afternoon of April 8 we left the slip and headed over to the fuel dock to top off, and pump out. After this in with the good and out with the bad process we tossed the lines from the fuel dock and went back out the pass from Naples, headed for Marathon across Florida Bay.

sv-hiatus.blogspot.com