AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Clearwater Beach Florida to St Petersburg Florida

Nov 18^th – It was warm and sunny today. We’re staying one more night in our Clearwater Beach anchorage and then we are moving to St. Petersburg Municipal Marina tomorrow afternoon. Maria’s allergies were killing her today thus she just popped some pills and blew her nose all day while she was suffering in bed, on the couch, etc. When I look at her I think of “Rudolf the red nosed reindeer”! I decided to use the day to check out the systems in the engine room and I believe I found our intermittent alternator charging issue on the port engine. The relay stator terminal on the alternator came loose thus there’s an internal loose connection at this terminal, however the only way to fix the loose terminal is from the inside of the alternator. I removed the alternator and tried to take it apart, however I gave up and decided to take the alternator in to a starter/alternator repair shop in St. Petersburg to have them correct the issue and test the alternator to ensure everything is working OK. Fun, fun, fun!

Nov 19^th – It was a warm and sunny day today. We waited for the tide to go up enough to leave our Clearwater Beach anchorage and travelled 40 miles to St Petersburg Municipal Marina. The Gulf Intercoastal Waterway was extremely busy today … I assume because it was a Saturday, however it was also a great boating day. On route Charlie from the LSYC saw us as we went by his St Petersburg condo and called us on the VHF radio to say Hi. Once we arrived at the marina we secured our boat and then went into town for dinner. The town is filled with interesting restaurants, museums, pubs, etc. It’s filled with activity and there are horse drawn carriages on the streets. Many of the people in town are dressed to the 9’s and valet parking seems to be very popular here, however it filled up quickly thus the late comers had to self park their cars. It was a perfect time for us to come into a marina today since they are forecasting 30 to 50 knot gusts tonight! After we got back to the boat we relaxed and then all of a sudden there was an explosion … I jumped up to see what happened and close by there was an amazing fireworks display that caught us by surprise. I thought a boat blew up in the marina!

Nov 20^th – It was a very cool windy and sunny day. We are still in St Petersburg Municipal Marina and will be taking advantage of their weekly rate since we’re ahead of schedule and there’s lots to do in this area. I went to get my hair cut today and Jamie, my hair stylist, did a great job! Afterward we went shopping at Publix for a few things and then walked back to the boat. We then walked back into town and checked out an Art Festival that was taking place this weekend. We came across a nativity scene for Christmas … OMG I can’t believe there are Christmas decorations up already. It especially feels strange to see Christmas decorations in a warm climate like this. As the sun went down the temperature really started to drop and I hear that tonight is going to be the coolest night since February … I guess we’ll have the heaters going tonight! Tomorrow morning Charlie from the LSYC will be coming by to take me to an Starter/Alternator repair shop in town to fix our Alternator issue. Hopefully the repair bill is reasonable.