St. Joseph Bay, Fl.

May 10, 2016
We had a wonderful time in Panama City, the Vicker's were wonderful hosts, they took us to tour the local sights and also allowed us use of a vehicle to run errands and shop. Took advantage of their generosity, loaded up on wine, groceries and got our Florida fishing license.
We left at 6:30am and headed to Panama City Marina for fuel, took on 56gal of diesel. Today is partly cloudy with a chance of showers, winds SSE 10kts seas less than 2 ft. Shortly after entering the Gulf we noticed the alternator is not working. Had to make a decision whether to continue on to Port St. Joe or return to Panama City for repairs (making decisions this early in the morning can be painful)- Decided to turn back as we would have better luck finding parts and/or repair facilities in Panama City. Imagine their surprise at seeing us back in a couple of hours... as always they were very accommodating and lent us their vehicle to take alternator for repairs.
Found an alternator/starter repair shop highly recommended by local mechanics. We left the bad alternator and our spare that had a broken connection and they would try and have them done by next day. As promised they had repairs complete the next day at a cost of $95, repair connectors and bench test, not bad. Installed the alternator only to find out it is not working properly, surely must be something in the wiring since they tested just fine at the shop, spent the next 8 hours replacing wire harness, redoing connections and trouble shooting, still no go. Now, installing an alternator is not rocket science, called the shop they insisted they had tested fine. They did offer to come down and check it for $100/hr - I don't think so... As a last ditch effort I used our spare alternator and voila, it works. But, but, they were tested and worked fine... what ever, its fixed, we will deal with the other later.





May 14, 2016

We have good weather to set off towards Port St Joe again. Had very light winds and smooth seas, after three hours I decided to put up the iron genoa (start the engine and motor), and much to my dismay the !%$#&* alternator is not putting out. I'm not turning back, we have enough solar and wind generator to maintain our power needs, we'll figure it out when we get there.
By 3:30pm we were anchored on the east side of St. Joseph Peninsula 1/4mi off the beach, in nine feet of water. This seems like a nice spot to rest and figure out what to do about the alternator problem.

 

Breakfast at anchor

Fortunately we have good internet service here thru our hot spot, and phone service. Called to see about repairs to alternator and were informed they take them to the same place we dealt with in Panama City. Not going down that road again... Contacted auto parts store in Port St. Joe and ordered a new alternator $279.
This is a nice quiet and secluded anchorage with lots of wild life, did get a bit bouncy with north west winds, nice sandy bottom, good holding and no bugs. Plan on going in to Port St. Joe Marina Monday if weather holds.