Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Ahhh, the resort life....

Well, not really, but it felt like it! We are lucky enough to have friends with a house in Melbourne Beach, and we really lucked out that they arrived there for a visit the night before we did! Once again we were having some minor engine trouble so we happy to pull into a dock. When we tried to leave our anchorage in Cape Canaveral the engine wouldn't start. After troubleshooting and narrowing down the problem, we discovered it was in the solenoid, yup, the one we just replaced a few weeks ago! After a quick call to our friends on Links, (they had abandoned left us earlier that morning) we came up with a plan. Whack it with a hammer! So, 5 minutes later we were on our way.  Toward the end of the day, our gauges started acting up again. Ughhh! Luckily we had an escort into the creek, because there is no way to make it in without local knowledge. What a beautiful creek filled with mangroves and tons of sea birds.

 
 
Once we were docked and had time to think about it, the gauge problem turned out to be an easy fix, phew! Now, we just had to replace the solenoid...again. We ordered the part and also found a mechanic that could fix our outboard. It hasn't been running right since the day we bought it, so we had to take advantage of the opportunity to have it checked out. The weather wasn't going to be ideal for cruising anyway, so we settled in for a stay at the "Mauro Resort". This place had it all! We kayaked, explored, paddle boarded, biked, walked, fished, shopped, ate, provisioned, did laundry, played games, and laughed! Maureen and I took a lovely nature walk. And by lovely I mean scary and heart pounding! After we saw our first snake, we could hardly hold a conversation. We were too busy looking and listening for other critters. I think we saw 4 snakes in the woods, and I ran one over on our bike ride back. That wasn't the end of the snakes either, we also saw one on our walk up to the beach. Oh yeah, Bud had a snake run-in too! The unfortunate thing was that it was on our boat!

 
Bud came walking off the boat and said "We have a problem!".  My first thought was, oh no, the toilet broke! But as he came closer he said "No, SNAKE!! I killed it." Now, I know how much Bud hates snakes, so I immediately felt so proud of him. He was defending our home! Then I said, "So, where is it?".  He held out a wadded up napkin. That was it? This was about the real size of the "snake" he found...
 

 
So, out came the blue tarp and we emptied the entire contents of the boat to make sure there were no other critters on board.

Maureen and Jimmy were the perfect hosts, and we can't thank them enough! Whatever we needed, they helped us out. They carted us all over creation, and even helped us with a massive provisioning trip to Publix in the pouring rain. We replaced our solenoid, no problem. We got our outboard back and it purrs like a kitten! Hopefully the weather will cooperate as we continue heading south.


Although it is tough to leave the resort life we have been enjoying! Thanks again guys!

~ Jen & Bud

1 comment:

  1. Well I just got chance to read the last 3 pages, from the end of Ga. to your experience with the snakes.. Now I know I need a bottle of hair dye.!!. Why didn't the cat catch the snake ?? Or is she afraid of them too? How the hell did it get on board ? So more engine trouble ? Boy am I glad your not going to the Bahamas don't count on that hammer trick to often There's no censes telling you two to be careful Danger is your middle name God Bless Love ya. xxx mom

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