From Apalachicola at daylight so we could get over to Dockside Marina in Carrabelle, Fl. where the mechanic would be waiting for us! It took us 4 hours to make it 27 miles, the weather was beautiful the seas were great, and watched an amazing sunrise. The mechanic Eric Pfeufer met us at the dock! He hopped right in and got to work! WOW!! Amazing service! While we all thought we were dealing with a bad fuel injector, we got quite a surprise when that wasn't the case after all!! It turns out that a valve keeper had broke and was no longer holding the valve in the cylinder. The stars must have all been in the right order because for some reason (we are very thankful) the valve did not drop! The parts were ordered right away. Mastery Marine in St. Petersburg, Fl. is where this little part was coming from! Wouldn't you know that they would closing the entire week between Christmas and New Years! With any luck they could overnight the parts. Unfortunately the parts did not make it the next day! Looks like Christmas would be spent in Carrabelle!
Christmas eve day was spent across the river at C-Quarters doing laundry and grocery shopping at the IGA. Since neither of us have had much experience on the whole "laundry mat" thing. This is a new experience! We never realized how hard it would be to find enough quarters in a tiny little town to do a couple loads of clothes! We ended up making several trips to the grocery store asking them for quarters! The last of the laundry was put into the dryer, time to go back to the IGA and get groceries!
We were having a great time filling the buggy up with all kinds of goodies! It wasn't till we checked out that we realized that we needed to get all of this stuff back to the dinghy at C-Quarters! I (Brandy) elected myself to push the buggy from the store down the road back to the marina! I felt like a bum! Although it worked out great and yes, I pushed it all the way back!!
Christmas was great! We had a nice quite day! We cooked a turkey breast, stuffing and some green beans for dinner! Had our own nice little celebration!
Finally! The parts are in and we are getting repaired! To our amazement we would have never guessed that this tiny little part would be such a pain to install. Since, it was almost dark we could not go for a sea trial today, but would be the first thing on the list to do in the morning!
Thursday, December 30th the "MV Bama Belle" went out on a sea trail and received a clean bill of health! There is no longer any signs of smoke, engine sounds perfect, and it all looks like we are ready to make the big crossing!
Weather would be the only delay now! Because, we are going to venture out into the Gulf of Mexico on a 150 mile run, the seas ant the wind need to be just right! The delay allowed us to spend a lot more time with the Pfeufer family!
We were invited to go out and listen to Eric's band play on New Years Eve, by Gavin. Gavin is one of Eric's son that said he would be happy to pick us up at the Marina and take us to Hamaknockers in Panacea, Fl. This little BBQ joint had some of the best food we had eaten yet! The band started playing around 8:30pm and of course we stayed until the ball dropped at midnight and rung the New Year in with a midnight beer!
Let me tell you about MS Dockside Marina in Carrabelle. This is a family owned and operated place! I will tell you that if you are going to be stuck somewhere for any length of time, this is the place to be! This family and entire marina welcomed us with open arms, and took us in and offered to be of any assistance that we needed! They loaned us their vehicles so we could run into town! We spent several days using their electricity! We can not express how much we appreciated the hospitality! We would like to thank Eric, Angela, Bryce, Gavin, and the rest of Dockside Marina for everything!
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