This morning, we sat outside the marina office drinking coffee and visiting with Sherri, the dock master and Wayne, their engine mechanic.
Wayne and Dave discussed our engine problem. He said that removing the fuel injector pump is not something he would do. We could take our boat to Jacksonville, FL or Savannah, GA to a Yanmar dealer, but we are risking having more problems along the way. He recommended having a Yanmar mechanic come to the boat to remove it. Then they take it to the service center. He had stories of people doing it themselves and then the timing was always off. I guess this is pretty precise work and can really cause bigger problems if not done right.
We called the Customs and Border Patrol to check back into the US. Sometimes you have to go into their office, which was within a mile from the marina. Before we ever left Alabama we became Local Boater Option participants which allows us to use the Small Vessel Reporting System when we return to the US. It allows us to check in by phone instead of physically going to their office. But they still have the option of asking you to come in. Someone told us that if they asked you to come in, pretend you have a bad connection, hang up, and call again hoping to reach someone else.
Well the CBP asked me for my cruising license number. I gave him our USCG documentation number. He said that didn’t sound right. I said, well I have the Local Boater Option number. Then he said “oh, are you American?” I think he thought I was Canadian. We get that all the time. He asked if we were staying here for awhile. I said yes. He said “well lock her up and have a nice stay. You’re fine.” That simple.
We walked to Maggie Mae’s restaurant for breakfast. Maggie, herself, had to come over and visit with us. Felt like we were home. When we were finishing our breakfast, another couple came in that we thought were cruisers. And as we were leaving, they asked if our boat was named Jupiter, they thought they had met us before. We started visiting and ended up joining them at their table and talked all through their breakfast.
Bob and Nina had just returned from 3 months in the Bahamas yesterday. Just like us. But they left from the Nassau area and had better wind and the Gulf Stream longer than we did.
After breakfast, the guys left together to get haircuts. Nina and I walked around downtown. We shopped in a consignment store where Nina found something. Then we went by the Ritz theater to see what was happening in town this summer. They post advertisements for the arts there. It was fun to have a “girlfriend” to just look around with.
We came back to the marina by early afternoon to move our boat to another slip. We moved the boat to dock #9. It takes some time to adjust the lines and fenders, hook up the power, get out the hoses and fill our water tanks, etc. By now it was about 4:30. This marina has happy hour Monday, Wednesday, and Friday with free wine at 5:00. We turned on our air-conditioner and decided to let the boat cool off while we showered and went to happy hour. We packed up our shower things (we have a ditch bag for emergencies and I have a bitch bag for showers).
We met lots of nice people and I saw a couple faces of people that were here last winter. About 8:00 we returned to the boat. When we opened the hatch, we immediately knew we were in trouble. We were hit with a blast of warm air. The air conditioner was putting out warm air. Dave went over to the controls as I started opening windows and turning on fans. Dave had the temp set at 66 and it kept flashing between 66 and 04 on the digital panel. He was trying to figure out if the 04 was a code for troubleshooting when we both realized it was 104 degrees inside our boat. Luckily there was a breeze and we were able to sleep OK with fans going full blast. At least we had electricity and didn’t have to worry about the batteries running low over night.
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