And Now......Plan C

Okay, we're not out in the gulf on our way but sitting back at the Treasure Island YC. It is a nice place but we're here for the wrong reasons. We stopped to fuel up before going out the St. John's pass and there was this smoke coming from the engine compartment, never a good sign!! Turns out the alternator had given up the ghost. No problem, we naively think, we have the original. David pulls it out and realizes it's not wired the same as the one installed. Still no problem, we still naively think, we'll call Les back at the yacht club, he knows everybody. Sure enough he put us in touch with a great guy, Dave. Dave comes out to the boat on his day off, I did say he was a great guy, sees our FWYC burgee and pulls out his own membership card. Turns out he is an out of area member. The two Daves put their heads together, get the new/old alternator installed and wired and lo and behold, it's bad, too. He tells us about a shop that can repair either one or both but not until Monday. So, we thank him, thank the nice people at the fuel dock who let us stay tied up until we could figure out the problem and limped back to our same slip at the club. Turns out this is the day for their annual Blessing of the Fleet and they asked us to participate. We take on two very nice members, Bob and Michelle to be a part of the event with us. We parade out in the bayou and then pass before a reviewing stand and are blessed by the commodore. At this point we need all the prayers and blessings we can get!!! While waiting for our turn, we talk with Bob who turns out to know all about Caliber yachts since he was the dentist for the two brothers who build the boats. That is a cool bit of trivia and makes the sting of boat issues easier to take. Later, we head to the bar to watch the horse race. We have placed "donations" on a few horses. We need to win so we can pay the bill Monday without having to sell major body parts after all.

Assuming we can get the alternator(s) rebuilt we still have to wait for a weather window. That puts us in hold status until at least the middle of next week. At this point we feel that we need to get back asap before anything else fails on us. We're still grateful to be alive and well and living our dream of cruising. We knew stuff could happen, we just didn't think so much would in one trip!! Well, off to the races!!