What have we been up to?

I referred to this picture in my last blog, but somehow, I never added it. It shows our loop from Key Biscayne, FL, to the Bahamas and our return to Stuart, FL.

During one of our longer legs in the Bahamas, as we slowed our speed while approaching our destination, the port engine would stall and fail to restart. Restarting could happen after the engine cooled down. Gerry talked with other PDQ owners, and we believe our issue is that the fuel injector pump need's to be rebuilt. The pump uses the recirculating flow of diesel fuel going through it to maintain a cool temperature. But as the fuel tank empties, there's less fuel in the tank to keep it cool, the fuel warms up, and the pump doesn't like the additional heat. Unfortunately, we know of a couple of other people that we've been traveling with that are suffering from the same issue. Other than the injector pump issue, our boat has performed flawlessly for the over 4,500 miles we've traveled.

We have a mechanic lined up to complete the work, but he was out a couple of weeks. We took advantage of the downtime and took a week to fly back to Connecticut to deal with taxes, see friends and family, etc. We left AdventureUs on a mooring in Manatee Pocket, Port Salerno, and were fortunate enough to have Mike Hendry, a fellow PDQ owner on Easy Riders, look after our boat. Thank you, Mike, for keeping an eye out for us!

Here are a few pictures of our time in Manatee Pocket.

We flew back to Florida on Wednesday, 3/19, and enjoyed the Manatee Pocket / Port Salerno area for a few more days before we were able to bring the boat to Camp Carol for the work to be done. During these few days, we continued to explore the area with Bryan & Lori Sneinka on Island Time, and Chris & Julie Head on Head Way.

My dad Wayne and his wife Marsha came to Florida to visit relatives on the Florida East coast. It was great to see them and Marsha's family, who have a place in Manatee Pocket.

Our original plan was to stay on the boat while the work was being done, but that turned out not to be an option. We drove our rental car to the West Coast and Burnt Store Marina to pick up our pickup truck! It was a long day: 3 hours west and 3 hours back east, but it was great to have our wheels!

We decided to head up to Clearwater Beach to visit Gerry's brother Steve and check on our rental condos. We used to spend a lot of time on Clearwater Beach when we were first dating and married, and it was nice to be back. The middle picture is the area where the pirate ship, sea screamer and little toot used to be. They are completely rebuilding the docks, marina and walk way.

When our condo in Burnt Store Marina became available on Saturday, 3/29 we drove down and moved in. We had lunch with family! Dick and Diane, Shelley and Jim, Aunt Carolyn and Makayla!

We are now staying in our condo, the temperature is in the 90's, and it's hot! At the restaurant next door, Cass Cay, they have events every night during the season. On Monday, we played BINGO, and on Tuesday, 4/1, they hosted a Beatles tribute band, "Liverpool Live Band". Gerry and I have been playing a new card game, Kings in the Corner. Love the game!

As soon as the boat is ready, we will head back to the East Coast, park the truck, jump on the boat and head north! But, we are in no hurry and plan to enjoy places we haven't seen during our last 2 trips up and down the ICW and East Coast.