Second Day!

Coming back from a doggy pit stop!


Toys, who needs toys!! I have a doggie water dish!


Steering the boat with a sleeping babe in arms!


"I am king of the world!!"

We were all up at 6:00 am, had our breakfast and decided to head a bit up the sound to another anchorage that was closer to a nice island with a beach for the dogs. Unfortunately the port engine would not start!
Dan tried everything he could think of, then we called the boat company. They gave us a few ideas, none of which worked. They suggested we call the harbormaster at Useppa Island Marina and he would find someone to work on it.
We left a message and then Dan got impatient and dinghied into the marina. He met up with a mechanic who said we needed to bring the boat in and he would fix it at the marina. Dan dingied back to the boat where we pulled up the anchor and tried to steer with just the one engine, it was impossible! We turned around and dropped anchor again. Dan dinghied back to the marina but the mechanic said there was some rule that did not allow him to do work off island. He suggested we call sea tow $$$.
Dan came back and told me and while we were discussing our options we saw a boat coming towards us. It was another Endeavour 44 that just happened to be passing by and saw us and came over to say hi!! We told him we had an engine that would not start and he had just had some work done on his and knew just what to do! What a stroke of luck! He rafted up to us and jumped on board. He had the engine started in 5 minutes!! He also saved us a lot of money$$! Turns out the safety neutral switch was screwed up and would not let the engine start. This switch makes sure you are in neutral before the engines will start! Of course it had also starting raining! We quickly pulled up anchor and headed back to the marina!
The sun did come back out and the waterway was so clear. We saw tons of dolphins in Pine Island sound. The dogs were going crazy as they jumped all around the boat! We got back about 4 and our neighbors helped us bring in the boat. Dan did a great job turning the boat 180 degrees with almost no extra room.
I had everything packed and ready to go.
It was a very frustrating experience for us all. The weather was just too hot, poor Victoria had a horrible heat rash over most of her body, and we were tired from lack of sleep.
We think we will more than likely just do day trips and weekend trips for now and then try another weeklong trip once the weather cools down a bit.
Once the house sells we will be moving to the Jacksonville area which will give us nice little boat trip to get the boat up there. We are also looking forward to having new boating areas. From there we will head up the coast and probably spend some time in the Chesapeake till it cools off.
It also gave a bit of the flavor of what it is like with all of us on board.