Cabbage Key
We pulled anchors on Monday morning, stopped in at Uncle Henry's on Gaspirilla to top off with fuel and water. It is only about a 10 mile run.
We get to Cabbage Key around 4 pm. Dropped anchor and was just settling in to watch the dolphins play when our generator died! The intake valves had sucked up a lot of the floating grass and "gunk" that was floating in the area. (Which might be why it was named Cabbage Key! Haha! It kinda smells!)
It took a while for Hoppy to get it clear and then do the same for both our air conditioners. Then it would not run! It was over 100 degrees in the engine room, which, when hatches were opened, so was the boat. This procedure of cleaning out hoses and filters continued until after dark. Finally, around 10:00 pm the generator started and stayed going...until midnight. Once again, plugged. After another hour, it started again, cooled down enough for us to get some sleep before stopping again at 5:30 am. Not a fun time!
So, no coffee! No breakfast! No A/C! Had to keep refrigerator closed! No ice! Let's just say "no fun!"
We spent most of the morning trying to get it going again. Then we decided to pull up our anchor and move closer to Journey, thinking maybe there was less grass. That did not help either. Barney came over and they played with it for a while, got it going and we thought things were better. We dropped the dinghy in and took a ride to explore a bit while the A/C cooled things down.
Before getting in the dinghy, we noticed two manatees playing around it. They were curious and kept coming up and checking out the outboard motor on the dinghy. They moved on and we followed them, taking pictures. Then went on our way to check out the two islands, Uspeppa (private island) and Cabbage Key.
When we returned, the manatees were waiting! They played around us and kept coming up beside the boat where the water from the A/C comes out the side. Until it plugged again and everything stopped again!
Another sunset missed as we were trying to get things going again. Finally started, cooled down, had a sandwich and went to bed. It ran all night! Yea! But that was all...
Wednesday morning we just left it all off. Got showers and went in to Cabbage Key to have the famous cheeseburger and enjoy the cool air at the Inn and walked around the island.
Once back on the boat, Hoppy started back to trying to figure what was going on. He and Barney decided to change out the water pump, that did not work. Then they just changed the impeller in the old pump and that helped. But by now, we are ready to get away from here. To quote Hoppy, "Cabbage Key is not my happy place!" If we do go back, maybe it will be better!
Thursday morning...headed to Ft. Myers!
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