Bump in the Road becomes Opportunity for Lunch

Last night we anchored out in Bimini Bay.  George had the idea to charge his computer and watch a movie.  When we tried to turn on the generator, it was dead.  Uh, oh.  We had felt so ready to leave today.  We realized that we hadn't used the generator for a month.  The batteries were dry.  We added water.  No luck.  We adapted our evening plans:  using only one light, no showers, no computers, cold dinner.  It was a plain Jane evening.  Happily, each of us had a great book to read:  George is reading Going Clear about Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard.  I finished The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer.   Here's a photo of us with our reading lights.

The wind was strong, and we were pushed around by loud, confusing waves for most of the night.  It was hard to sleep.  Finally, in the wee hours, the wind calmed.  We made lukewarm tea for breakfast since we couldn't use the coffee pot.

We called Cortez Cove Marina at 8:00 am and told them we needed a battery checked and maybe replaced.  Then we went over (about 7 miles) and Jimmy did the work for us.  He was terrific.  (We had read reviews of the marina and Jimmy on Active Captain, so that felt good.)  While we waited for the new battery to arrive, we walked around and found Cortez  Cafe with home cooking.  The food was just ok, but the atmosphere was perfect.  I think their strong suit is breakfast.

George said, "A bump in the road becomes an opportunity to eat out."  

Since we got a late start at 1:25 pm, we only made it to Sarasota today.  We tried to anchor, but we were getting a lot of pounding again from waves.  So we moved over to the mooring field at Marina Jack's. We still seem to be having a lot of movement and noise, but we are on ball #1, so maybe life will become quieter as night arrives.  At least we are not getting waked by boats coming under the bridge.  

We got some exercise today: walking around Cortez and paddling to pay for the mooring ball.

Tomorrow is supposed to be very windy, so we probably will travel just a bit and go to a marina.  The sun did come out once we arrived at Sarasota.  

This is a fountain across from the office of Marina Jack's, a fancy marina with two bars.  We decided to paddle home and have our happy hour.