AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Sarasota Florida to Cape Haze Florida

Nov 27^th – It was another hot and sunny day today. We did a little rocking and rolling since we arrived here, mostly because of the boat wakes from the GICW. We’ve decided to stay one more night on the mooring ball at Marina Jack, however we’re looking to move farther south tomorrow morning but we still haven’t nailed down our options. I was working in the man cave this morning to carefully look at the wiring on the positive and negative side of the alternator. On the negative side (ground) I found that one of the major ground cables going from the ground on the engine to the negative post on the battery had a loose connector which I recrimped. On the positive side I found that the connection from the alternator to the positive post on the battery came loose … I assume from vibration. Thus I fixed these 2 issues and hope that this will fix my charging issue on the Port engine. I plan to call the Alternator repair shop tomorrow morning to discuss my findings to see if they agree that this could have caused my issue. After I cleaned up my mess we went by dingy into town and visited the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota which has a wide variety of plant life including a desert setup. After our visit it looked like it may rain so we rushed back to the boat since all the windows were left open, however the rain never arrived thus we sat back and watched the boat traffic along the GICW.

Nov 28^th – It was a hot, sunny and windy day today. We left the mooring ball at Marina Jack this morning and travelled 37 miles down the GICW to the Palm Island marina in Cape Haze Florida. Unfortunately the port side charging issue still haunts us and the alternator repair shop really isn’t able to help much without hands on support thus I may have to try switching parts from one engine to the other to see if the problem moves. Unfortunately it takes 2-3 hours of run time before the issue shows up thus it may take a fair amount of time to isolate the issue. I may exchange the alternators to see if the problem is alternator related since I’m still within driving range to take advantage of the 1 year warranty on the rebuild. On the bright side, we were met at the marina by a bunch of Krates north people: Don, Jim, Liz, Greg and Joanne. It was Exxxcellent to see familiar faces from Canada. We even had dinner at Don’s favorite Florida restaurant. Our plan is to stay here for either 1 or 2 months to see what it’s like to be part of the Krate’s South crowd to see if the Snow Bird gig is for us or not.

Nov 29^th – It was another hot, sunny and windy day today. Don picked us up this morning and gave us a tour of Rotonda Florida which really helped us understand why they enjoy Florida so much. We relaxed at Don’s place for a while and during the middle of the tour we stopped at Greg’s and Joanne’s place and had a couple Canadian Caesars which was a treat since we haven't had a Caesar in a while. Afterwards we went to Donny’s Bar for Happy Hour and dinner with Don, Jim and Liz. We enjoyed a great day with a great group of people! Maria and I could get attached to this lifestyle pretty quickly. Perhaps we’ll become members of the Krate’s South group … however we learned that Don has moved his boat to Starport which has surprised us since he was our neighbour and seen to be a fixture at Krates. We’ll be spending another day with the group tomorrow on Jim's and Liz's boat. Exxxcellent!