Day 9
By day 9, cabin fever is starting to kick-in. Besides the quick trip to shore to socialize on Friday night, I’d been on the boat since we left Venice! So I was very much looking forward to getting off the boat or at least having the boat repaired and then heading farther south (maybe Ft Myers?).
But we couldn’t wait on the mechanics. We needed to get off the boat and get some food. And the waves were finally to a level we could travel by dingy. So we checked it for gas, put it in the water, and headed to shore. But the waves were still there, so I was getting soaked in the front. Oh well, at least I’m gonna get a hot meal! But, about 15 yards to shore the boat stopped. Chad checked the gas, and it was out! Believe it or not, it used a lot of gas just moving through the rough water. So, in an effort to not float out back into the rougher water, we had to paddle. And yes, the water was cold. And no, we didn’t have a paddle. Just our old fashion hands to get to shore.
We made it! Then pulled the boat out of the water, cussed a little for being so damn cold, tied the boat to a post well out of the water, and then walked a block to the restaurant. While we were eating, we asked about gas for the dingy. By the time we were done eating, we had the owner of the restaurant volunteering her truck to us to go get gas and had a stranger at the bar who said he had some gas at his house. He said he lived only a few houses down so we graciously accepted his offer to help us. We put gas in the boat, returned the gas can (with money, gotta keep Karma in check), and headed back out to the boat.
By the time we got back to the boat, the mechanics had just arrived to work on the boat. After further tearing down the motor, the determined that there were some really bad engine problems. And no, it wasn’t an engine gasket. There are a lot of things that go wrong with a boat motor since it exhausts into the water. Chad knows more about what went wrong and probably has something on his blog about it.
Anyway, once we knew the motor has shot. We gathered up a couple days worth of clothes, and jumped on the mechanics boat to head to shore. In another mind-boggling act of kindness, the owner of the boat repair shop offered his boat for our personal use around the island. He also set us up in a motel near by. We got dropped off, got a hot shower, and headed to Woody’s. A bar/restaurant right on the water channel. We ate while being entertained by a polka/keyboard player, and then headed down to Froggy’s.
When we got there, we ran into Sailor Jim again. He is such a nice guy. He bought our first round of drinks and gave us the number to his son’s place where we could wash our clothes and have a place to hang out. Pretty cool. We had a few drinks while we listened to more awesome stories about Jim’s travels. 
A couple next to us overheard our bad luck of the day (or week actually), and said they’d be more than happy to help us and do our laundry. Yeah, you heard me, they WANTED to do our laundry and take us to the grocery store. Crazy how nice people are on this island! They ended up giving us a ride back to the motel after last call. An awesome bonus with the cold/wind the way it was.
So though Monday started off rough, like a typical Monday, it got better as the day went. Well, I’m sure Chad had it worse than I did. He has to contemplate a new motor for his sailboat.
