The weather finally cooperated for an excursion to shore today. After launching the dinghy, we took a picnic lunch to a nearby sandbar. It felt good to stretch our legs a bit and the warm sunny afternoon was a welcome reprieve from the cold front that just blew through, and I mean BLEW through!
After a mandatory nap required by the rules of the newly retired, we ventured to Cabbage Key for some sightseeing, cocktails and dinner.
At Cabbage Key, it’s a thing to sign a dollar bill and hang it up… then try to find it on your next visit. There’s a bunch of Hula Girl dollar bills hanging there. And a very special new one we put up today. We hung “Hula Girl Steve & Alicia Retired 2025” right under Jimmy Buffet’s dollar bill. So perfect as we literally set sail the day after we retired to live out the songs he wrote. We all miss you Jimmy!!!
Hula Girl below Jimmy Buffet’s dollarDouble Secret Hiding Spot One from last yearA Drunken Dragon and a classic Cabbage Creeper
We witnessed a remarkable sunset from the top of the water tower on the island.
Finally topped off the day with a fine dinner and wine
Hula Girl all lit up to help us navigate back to her in the dark
Another hunkered down day on the boat with bitter NW wind from the cold front. It will be down to 53 tonight…that’s cold for us Floridians. 🥶 The wind will moderate tomorrow and we are planning to go to Cabbage Key for dinner.
We are learning about off-grid life. Power is critical. With the cloud cover yesterday limiting solar output, our battery bank was down to 40% this morning. I ran the engine for an hour and half first thing in the morning to give the batteries a boost, run the coffee machine, microwave and make hot water. Fortunately we had a sunny day, which enabled us to generate 3kw of solar power, double from yesterday. I also spent some time tuning the charger settings to maximize the power generation. A 10 minute engine run at sunset topped off our bank to 100% for the evening.
For cooking, we have a propane grill and stove/oven as well as an induction stovetop and microwave that also is an air fryer and convection oven. Using those options conserves the propane in favor of the solar power. The solar also powers our refrigerator and a small freezer.
With power, we can also make fresh water from the ocean’s salt water. Since water is readily available as we are hopping south we haven’t started using the water maker yet.
Hot water is created as a byproduct of running the engine. The engine heat is used to heat the water, much like a heater in a car.
Tonight we made tacos on the propane stove as it added some heat to the cabin. Then used the air-fryer option to heat up the taco shells. The air fryer option uses twice the power that the microwave does, but taco shells are quick so it wasn’t too big a power draw. And this microwave uses half the power our old one did. It was a nice upgrade.
The boat has a starlink satellite dish for internet service which allows us to stream movies and shows, as well as stay in touch with our family and friends.
Those of you that know me well know I drink a LOT of Mountain Dew… More than we can practically carry on an extended trip. We have a “Soda Stream” which we used today to refill Mountain Dew bottles. We can also make other flavors for drink mixers. This was pretty fun and tastes very similar to the real thing. Now if we could only make our own beer!!!
Alicia enjoying the sunset with a sister ship to Hula Girl in the background.
Today we enjoyed a lazy day in Pelican Bay off of Cayo Costa. It was cloudy and super breezy ahead of the cold front that came through, then wet although the worst of the storms ended up well North of us. We had made it far enough south yesterday to this protected anchorage to avoid the worst of it. With the mostly cloudy skies, the solar only generated 1.5kw, so we couldn’t fully recharge the battery bank. We’ll see how it does tomorrow.
It is promising to see the progress at Cayo Costa. The island was ground zero for hurricane Ian. I’ve stopped here the last five or six years but haven’t been able to go to the park since Ian destroyed it. They will let you on the beach if you come by boat on the Gulf side, just not from Pelican Bay and there’s still no camping yet. New docks are in progress with what look to be 15’ tall pilings that should survive future hurricanes. Perhaps they will be back open when we return home n the fall. 🤞
Spare fuel cans tied down securely
We used the day to take care of a number of things on the boat. There’s never a lack of things to do on n a boat. I finished the tie down straps for the spare fuel cans on the deck, made some new jack lines from some climbing webbing that’s rated to 4000lbs, mounted a storage net for our navigation charts. The VHF radio microphone cord cover was flaking off, so it removed wha was left and taped it up with electrical tape. I don’t know why B&G can’t make a cord that lasts… or is at least replaceable. I do not recommend it, will probably swap it out for a Garmin unit in the fall.
We capped off an our lazy day with a flatbread pizza and a Netflix movie.
