All's Well That Ends Well

Day 261  |  Pelican Bay  

Dense fog descended upon our anchorage this morning and greatly slowed the pace of our daily preparations. I did take the opportunity to give Crossroads a good chamois wipe-down since the heavy dew provided a level of wetness that was just as good as pulling out the hose. While I was outside, Barry went to turn on the generator to top off our batteries. It turned on and ran for about five seconds, then turned itself off. Good grief. What now? We both went into diagnostics mode. Unfortunately, the generator is located under the salon. Up came the table and the massive hatch opened, leaving only little slivers of floor to use for walking. I had responsibility for flipping switches while Barry was under the floor with the volt meter. Our headsets, primarily used for docking and anchoring, came in very handy for this. It didn't take long to diagnose that it was the generator fuel pump causing our issue. We checked with NAPA in Punta Gorda and they have one in stock. Satisfied that we did all we could do, and frustrated about this little kink in the plans, we loaded into the dinghy and set off for the Cayo Costa State Park boat ramp. Barry was the last one out, so he closed the door. A little separation from the mother ship was just what we needed.

Cayo Costa can only be reached by boat. The staff even commutes by ferry each day. The dinghy dock is a popular place for both boats in the anchorage and day-trippers. We set off on the half-mile hike across the island to the Gulf of Mexico beach. The sandy path led through an assortment of trees (pine, oaks, and palms among others). A surprisingly plentiful occurrence along the way were cacti.

Barry, Chuck and Babette (from Vu Ja De, who we met last night) chatted on the beach as I went walking in the surf. I found one keeper of a shell, but found no sand dollars -- the little girl I passed had three and must have cleaned the beach of them. Despite its slow start, it was another gorgeous day here in southwest Florida and we soaked up as much sun and scenery as we could. We retraced our steps along the path and back to the dock. As we reached the Pelican Bay side of the island, the staffers were piling into their boat to head back to the mainland. We headed back to Crossroads and cleaned up a bit as the dropped lower towards the treeline.

It was another great light show and we gazed around our anchorage where the number of boats had grown to over 40. Most folks were on their bow (a light breeze was blowing conveniently from the west) watching the final moments of daylight. We even heard a few conch "horns" sounding in the distance.

Tomorrow morning we will go back to Cayo Costa State Park for a final quick visit before pulling up anchor and heading back to Punta Gorda. Low tide is at 8:00 and we hope to be underway by 10:00, with enough water underneath us to clear the sandbar. We'll head to the Laishley Park mooring field, take the dinghy into the dock, and then walk up to NAPA to pick up the fuel pump. It should be a quick swap and fingers crossed that we'll be back underway on Thursday morning. Our time here has been wonderful. We could get used to this.