Chapter 23 (24): The Boat Gods are Angry

5:00 am
Wednesday, December 29, 1999
Tierra Verde Resort & Marina
Tierra Verde, FL.

Well yesterday was another interesting day on the water. The one thing about this log is that there is certainly not a lack of information to talk about.

As you may notice by the location, we are still in Terra Verde. My plans to take off at noon, didn't agree with the boat Gods.

It rained hard overnight, and although it was cloudy early, the front passed, and you could tell it was going to be a pretty day. Jamie (the stereo installation guy) must have slept in, because he didn't get here till about 8 am. He dug right in, and you could tell things weren't going well.
The problem was that when someone stole the stereo, they pulled the radio out, and cut all the wires. Then these wires fell back behind the panel, and they were very difficult to find. He was not having much luck (so much for it taking a few minutes). He also told me that the plugs I needed for the rear speakers wouldn't be in till noon. "Will that be ok?" (What's my second
option)

9:00 The girls went for groceries, and Steve, and Carl went to the marine store. I found out later why Steve was so eager to go to the marine store.

When Carl got on board, he had on a new pair of Rockport boat shoes, and Steve couldn't get a new pair fast enough. He just knew the huge marine store had some. Wrong!

While everyone was gone I decided that this was a perfect opportunity to fire up the engines, and make sure everything was ok. To my surprise, all I got was a faint clicking sound from both engines. Both banks of batteries were dead. The engines use 24 volts to start, and it looked like the 24 volt charger was dead. This did not make me happy.

So by the time Carl and Steve got back, I was down in the engine room pulling batteries. I had already tried to jump the engines, but there just wasn't enough power in any of the batteries, so I talked to the marina, and they were going to put them on charge. The time it would take to do this?

Several hours. So much for leaving today.
10:30. Jamie came back (with someone with him) and he said "I have some
good news, and some bad news, which do you want first?" Either way I tell him, so what's up? Well, he says, those parts for your rear speakers are on a truck alright, but the truck broke down last night in South Carolina.

We're not exactly sure when they'll be here. And the good news, I ask. Oh, he says, it's a gorgeous day isn't it. (as he charges me by the hour for finding these missing wires).
The guy with Jamie turns out to be a car stereo installation expert. He has his ohm meter out, and he is testing everything trying to figure out what wire leads where. All of a sudden they call me and say they have come to the conclusion that two of the top speakers are controlled from down below because that is where the wires lead. I almost lose it when I explain "Look, this stereo up top is the only thing controlling these speakers. I know this for sure, because I had it installed. All these wires are here somewhere, because they were here before. If you can't find them, and fix this, you need to let me know. Soon." The next question they asked is "do you have a coat hanger?"

A short note in here. While all this was going on Carl, and I decided to walk over to the marina, and get our e-mail. On the way over my computer started beeping. Dead battery! We looked at one another, and just turned around, and laughed all the way back to the boat.
11:30 The girls return with lots of groceries. Jamie, and his buddy are all excited, because they use the clothes hanger to reach behind the panel, and find.......you guessed it........stereo wires. No problem now, they say, we'll have you out of here in no time. Oooooook.
As we sit waiting Chris starts shaping the now famous hanger, to try to fix the mini blind problem. After she gets it just right, she and I go to work, and pull out the cord out of the blinds, untie a knot that had developed, and presto.....mini blinds work again. YEA.

Somewhere during all of this the guy who was fixing our table shows up with the table bottom in his hand. He had somehow got the keys to the guys shop, and got our table base out. It was fixed, but it had not been stained yet, so it was unfinished. No problem. It looks funny, but we have a table again.

3:00 Stereo works. Truck showed up with the parts, and the rear speakers
work. Jamie is gone. We get the batteries back, and I install them. As soon as I do this they tell me there is a beeping on the dash, and the port engine computer is flashing off and on. After a couple of calls, the early predication is that when the charger went dead it damaged one of the computers on the port engine. I've got to tell you, at this point I have about had it. A call to the Detroit engine folks gives us not a lot of hope, because he tells me they are very busy, and he's not sure if he can get someone to help us very quickly.

After sitting down for a while and thinking I go back to the engine room, and start tracing wires. When I hooked up the port engine batteries there were 2 suspect wires that looked like they could go to either battery, and I didn't mark them when I took them off. After tracing these, and comparing them to the starboard side, I figured out that I hooked them up wrong. I switched the wires, and yeeeeeeha, no more beeping, and the engine fired up!
What a relief.

6:00 After buttoning up the engine room, we all sat and had a drink, and
laughed about the day. In the end it turned out just fine. Stereo fixed.
Mini blinds fixed. Table base.......almost fixed. Batteries charged, and hopefully will start the engines in the morning. Everything was stocked, and ready for the trip. A lot of progress.
Dinner at the marina. (we were too tired to cook) To bed at 10:00

It is now 6:30 am. No one is up yet, but Carl probably will be before long.
The weather channel says upper 60's or low 70's today, and bright sun shine.
Our plan is to leave at 10:00 am, and head for Long Boat Key. I predict this will be a great day.

Talk to you soon.

BK.