Day 113,114 - Dec. 7,8. Biscayne Bay
The dinghy dock is inside a park with some very nice walking trails. Based on the honour system, we dropped the $8 fee into a box to enter the park, then we walked out to town where we found a Winn Dixie grocery store and lots of expensive looking restaurants and coffee shops. It seems everyone is walking, or driving around in their gulf carts, saying.. "Look at me, I'm made of money", even the kids! I could never live here as I would always be an outcast.
We saw a '58 or '59 corvette convertible in pristine condition. It was gorgeous, and for a moment I thought Greg was going to jump in (after he stopped drooling). If we ever had more money then we knew what to do with, this would be the car he would buy.
The next day, Monday, we went in to town for coffee and internet catch up at the Artisan Cafe, with Quick Sticks and GloryDays. The chocolate croissants were sooooo good :) It was a beautiful day and nice to relax with friends.
Once back to the boat, Glory Days moved up to Hurricane Harbour and QS and P&Q moved up the shoreline a bit to try and get out of rough water. ( we draw too much to get into Hurricane Harbour). It seemed like a good spot until 11:30 at night when the tide/wind changed. Greg ended up sleeping on the couch and at one point I thought I was going to be thrown from the bed because of the turbulent wave action.
We had Ken and Meridee over last night for Sundowners and enjoyed a very nice visit. Laurie and Francis could have come too if they hadn't abandoned us for a good night's sleep ;)
Day 115 - Dec 9. Coconut Grove, Florida
We moved into Dinner Key this morning. It was such a bouncy night last night. It will be worth the $22 to not rock and roll tonight. The showers and laundry facilities aren't great, but it's better then doing it on the boat.
We had just taken off in our dinghy for shore when the motor quit. I'd start it and it would run for a few seconds and then quit again. Ken and Meridee came along in their dinghy and towed us in. We had a very nice walk around town, stopping at a small restaurant for lunch around 2:00, strolled around the shopping district of Coconut Grove and then headed back to the dinghies. I fully expected to have to row back to the boat but the wind would be pushing us so I figured a good upper body workout would be good for me. I rowed to the water hose on the dock and while Greg was filling up the jugs, I played with the hoses on the gas tank again for the umpteenth time, but this time the connection felt wobbly so I took it off and really pushed hard on it. Presto.... We were able to motor all the way back to the boat without a hiccup. I so hope it was only a loose connection!
Yesterday we reset the discharge amp hours on the battery monitor to zero, which now shows our batteries to be fully charged and discharging at what we think is a correct rate. However, the battery tester still indicates our house batteries are discharging too quickly. I'm putting my faith in the monitor and hope the tester is out of whack. This is a very good example of how I like to stick my head in the sand. If I ignore it, it will go away. I know Greg is not of the same opinion and he is determined to find out what is causing the discrepancy. To top it off, it looks like our solar panels are collecting energy, but not downloading to our batteries. Geesh...will it never end!!
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