AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: Cape Haze Florida – Our Southern Home

Dec 6^th – It was a windy, hot, humid and overcast day with a period of heavy rain today. I went over to the pool to swim some laps this morning as approximately 20 boats were arriving from Punta Gorda for a 3 day Christmas lighting get away at our marina. Afterwards I talked to the Harbor Master to make reservations for tomorrow at an exclusive Island club called Useppa Island which we have access to by boat twice during our visit. Don called to invite us to Donny’s bar for cocktails and dinner with the group and we met another Canadian couple that came to visit. Afterwards the whole group went to Greg’s and Joanne’s house for a night cap and we were quite impressed by their Christmas lights … It reminded me of the Griswold’s house in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation movie!

Dec 7^th – It was a sunny and warm day today with low winds. Don, Jim, Greg and Joanne met us at our boat at 10am for a boat ride to Useppa Island for lunch. On the way there we were greeted by a number of dolphins swimming beside our boat. We learned that they put on a show when you make noise as they perform. When we arrived at Useppa we called them on the VHF and they asked for membership confirmation. Once we were tied up to their dock we had to go to the registration office to verify our membership information. After everything was confirmed we walked to the restaurant taking the scenic route … and the wildlife and the plant life were amazing. I’ve never seen so many turtles in one place at one time in one day. We had an Exxxcellent lunch with the group and then walked back to the boat. On the way back we pulled into Pelican Bay which is a great anchorage by Cayo Costa Island. We made it back to the marina just before it got dark. We then walked around to check out the Boat Christmas Light show that was put on by a Punta Gorda Yacht Club which is at our marina for 3 days. Oh … and by the way the charging issue showed up briefly on the port engine again thus the alternator is not the issue. It must be in the wiring somewhere … back to the drawing board!

Dec 8^th – It was a cool and cloudy day. I decided to use this as a day to work on the boat. First of all I closely looked at the wiring and connectors for the port charging system. I noticed that the electrical plug connector between the high output alternator and smart regulator had an issue with the battery sensing prong within the plug that may have resulted in a loose connection. I’ve fixed that issue and maybe I’ll get lucky and it will resolve my intermittent charging issue otherwise I’ll have to dig deeper into the wiring. I also washed the boat to remove any salt from yesterday’s cruise. After a number of other odd jobs we headed over to the hot tub to relax. Tomorrow may be another day for boat jobs since it’s going to be cooler with a greater chance of rain.