Heading south but not very fast

Cristy McCaliff Bridge on Merritt Island

Vero Beach evening on the mooring

After leaving the Titusville harbor we immediately experienced a problem with our gages and then the engine died.  After changing the filters and resetting a tripped breaker I was able to get things going again.  Things ran great as we headed to Dragon Point near Melbourne, FL.  However, after about 3 hours we started to experience engine problems again and it finally died completely.  All my best attempts to fix things on the water failed.  So, with our Boat US membership card in hand we called TowBoat US and got a tow to Harbortown Marina in Port Canaveral.  From there we contacted 3 different shops to see about a mechanic .  None of them could do anything for 2 or 3 days depending on who you talked with.  We made arrangements with 3 to see who could get there the fastest.  In the mean time I started to do some trouble shooting which resulted in my finding a major clog in the fuel line inside an “Algea-X” fitting.  This fitting which is not stock and was there when we bought the boat, is supposed to eliminate algea in the fuel by means of a magnet system.  When I saw the clog and the limited space for fuel, I made the decision to remove it.  The engine has run great since it was removed.  So I called the mechanics and said never mind. 

After leaving Port Canaveral we made it to Dragon Point and then on to Vero Bech where we took a mooring and stayed for 3 days.  Early February 23rd we left Vero Beach and headed for Peck Lake close to Stuart, FL.  We arrived there about 3:00pm after fighting the Sunday afternoon boaters cruising around the St Lucie Inlet.  Lots of fisherman, big power boats and no one that cares what happens to their wake.  Peck Lake is a nice anchorage, but the Army Corp of Engineers currently have dredging operations taking up about half of the lake processing dredged material from the St Lucie Inlet.  Normally there would have been a dozen or more boats anchored there, but this night there were only 3 of us.

Plans were to be up early and head for North Palm Beach.  After we left the anchorage we had only just  begun when once again we had a high temperature alarm.  We immediately shut things down and anchored.  Found that the fan belt had broken.  I had a couple of spare belts, so I quickly changed it and restarted the engine.  Unfortunately our pesky gage problem had returned, so I shut down the engine to reset the breaker.  Long story short, the breaker wouldn’t reset and we therefore couldn’t restart the engine.  Tow Boat here we come.  We got towed back to the Stuart, FL area and the Port Salerno Marine Boat Yard.  Like Marilyn said, she thinks we stepped into an episode of “Duck Dynasty.”  Lots of good old boys working in and around the boat yard.  The good news is that they had someone that in about an hour found the frayed wire that we had on our alternator.  After repairing that and easily resetting the breaker, it fired right up.  We hope that’s the last of the breaker problems.  Once again we now plan to head for North Palm Beach in the morning.  We will be hitting a marina so we can get a better shower and maybe even watch a little TV.  Stay tuned for the next episode of fix this old boat.

We made it to Lake Worth, North Palm Beach and took a slip at Old Port Cove Marina.  Compared to the Salerno Boat Yard that was like Duck Dynasty, this place is like Dallas Dynasty.  They were extremely helpful coming into the slip and their rest rooms, showers, laundry and boat center are wonderful.  They also have transportation that they provide to the Publix grocery store and West Marine.  We're going to check that out sometime today.  Hopefully the rest of our trip south will be a little smoother.