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Day 1-3, July 15th – 17th
Judging by the way things were going for us AND the boat, we never thought we would ever get to our Salty Old Dog Bahamas 2007 Adventure. We were supposed to leave on Friday, July 13th (of all days) but we had a problem with the generator AGAIN. It had been shutting down constantly and Sid (the mechanic) had been working on it off and on for what seemed like weeks. Finally, it seemed to be running perfectly and on Thursday, the generator had been running for several hours which was a very good sign. As we were frantically packing up the boat Thursday night in order to leave at 7:00 am on Friday morning, the shudder, groan and horrible silence that followed meant that the generator had crapped out yet one more time. Plan B. We’re not leaving tomorrow! Sid arrived the next day only to say he didn’t know what was wrong with it now, that he’d gone through most of everything he knew and he needed more time to work on it. Saturday was much of the same, Barry searched all over the County for a new fuel pump and oil pump and finally, we were able to get the generator to run without a hitch. So, we are a couple of days off schedule, but who cares, we are on our way tomorrow, Sunday, July 15th.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
We couldn’t have been more ready, more organized or more prepared! After all, we had a few extra days to get everything together. We were on board and out of our canal at 7:00 am and feeling pretty good about ourselves. Once out in the Gulf, we couldn’t believe our luck as the water was as calm as pee-on-a-plate. This was going to be one great trip! All the way to Marathon, in the Keys, the water was so calm it was scary, the dolphins were playing in abundance and life was good. We had decided to make Marathon our first stop and it’s always interesting when you go from the Gulf side to the Atlantic side that the water changes so dramatically. Once we crossed under the bridge to go to Marathon, from the Gulf side to the Atlantic side, the water kicked up from nothing to about a 2’ chop, but not bad, really. We arrived in Marathon Cay Club marina at 3:30 pm and went directly to the fuel pumps – not wanting to fuel up in the morning, as we would probably be up and wanting to be out before the fuel pumps even opened. The starboard side took 164 gal. and port side took 187 gal. for a grand total of $1,007.26 – and the tanks were FULL when we left! Marathon marina is not really as dog friendly as I would like – all concrete and asphalt with not a blade of grass to be seen. We had a nice dinner at Cabot’s, the restaurant at the end of the dock and were back to the boat and in bed very early, after all, we had to get an early start, right? As Barry’s head hit the pillow, he said “no way I’m getting up early” and then he was asleep. Bonus of the whole day? The generator kept going all the way from home to Marathon – 9 hours – double bonus!
Monday, July 16, 2006
Typically, when we are moving to the next location, we are out of the slip by 7:00 am, but this time, Barry had decided that we would only go to Key Largo, stay overnight and then head off to Cat Cay in the Bahamas the next morning instead of going to Largo and directly over to Cat. These long runs are really no fun and way too hard on the Captain, let alone the crew! We left Marathon late that day at 10:00 am and arrived in Key Largo at 2:00 pm. The Atlantic was a little rougher than the first leg of our run in the Gulf but it was still a very nice ride – only 4 hours. Salty definitely does not like the wave action and gets quite irritated, nervous and “scared”. That could have something to do with the time we spent 6 hours on the boat before a hurricane, then transferred from the boat to a parking garage for another 11 hours as the hurricane went by. Salty definitely does not like wave action or too much wind. If I’m sitting beside him on the back bench seating, he’s on top of me. Otherwise, he wants to “hide” up under the front helm or up on the helm seat with the Captain. We put his new “Cool Bed II” mat under the helm and that seemed to work for something to lay on while he was hiding, yet still be with us. Poor baby – hopefully, he gets his sea-legs soon! We were in a slip at the Marina Del Mar marina directly behind the Radisson Hotel – nice place with nice grounds for my boy Salty to explore. We sat on the grass watching the boats go by (that would be Salty and I) while Barry had yet ANOTHER mechanic give the generator a whirl even though it was working fine at the time. This mechanic decided a new water pump had to be installed. Sid had just installed a new one on one engine, but now we were having one installed on the other engine – good thing we managed to wrangle a free new pump out of the manufacturer last year (it would have been at least $500.00). With all of the maintenance now finished, we went to an incredible Italian restaurant “Café Largo” and Bear said he had the BEST pasta dish he had ever had (he always says that!) We are all ready to head off in the morning to the way-point North of Key Largo that would point us to Cat Cay, Bahamas – if all went well, we would be in the Bahamas tomorrow by noon! Yeeee Haaaa!
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