We slept in after such a trying day yesterday. I actually slept until about 8, Beth pushed 11. My knee was in a good bit of pain after all the jumping around yesterday and this was a good day to take it easy. I checked in with the marina and went around to thank everyone for the help yesterday getting Second Chance docked.
The marina was pretty quiet today since it started out with a thunderstorm and threatened another after noon that didn't happen. About 3pm I decided to check out the motor and see what was needed. I swapped the carburetors with a spare I had on board but didn't have the right gasket. A complication occurred during the work that could have seriously hampered our departure. I dropped the throttle linkage rod into the water. The water is very murky and the bottom very soft mud. It is only about 5 ft deep but we had a visitor that kept us in sight most of the day. He seemed quite interested in Catie and Cocoa.
I was very lucky to have retrieved the linkage by strapping the boat pole to the fishing net and dragging the bottom. It took about 2 1/2 hours for the luck to appear but the linkage was retrieved along with a catfish and some other crap that was on the bottom. I reassembled the motor and fixed the neutral switch ( an actual easy fix once I could get to it ). A test run showed that a new gasket was necessary but it started quickly and ran smoothly. The gasket will get ordered in the morning and hopefully will be in stock and be delivered Tuesday which means we can leave that afternoon or Wednesday morning.
We met George, a retired veteran doing the great loop raising money for children of veterans to go to college. He had just started his voyage on a 26ft pontoon boat as his starting point is Ft. Myers. We invited him for dinner and traded stories. Beth cooked BBQ chicken, grean beans and shells and cheese. Quite a nice dinner for boat people.
As long as there is a breeze the bugs are not bad other than the love bugs which "swarm" around 5 pm and just cover everything. It appears that they are attracted to white things, like boats. The gator, doesn't seem agressive and just sits and watches waiting on what I assume is his next meal. I wouldn't want to tempt him by actually getting in the water and Beth keeps a close eye on the babies.
Tomorrow we will work on a few other items that need attention but it will be an easy day. Maybe we will venture into Indiantown proper and explore. Supposedly there are free roaming peacocks here.
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