To Useppa & Fort Myers

Busy Anchorage @ Useppa

On Saturday -- after changing out fuel filters to address our WOT issues -- we departed Venice and cruised down the outside to Useppa....it was a nice afternoon sortie, with seas much friendlier than the previous day at 2 to 4 feet.  The anchorage at Useppa was a bit busy, but we managed to squeeze in without cramping any other vessels.

Bad Alternator or Bad Gauge?

On Sunday we slept in since we had a relatively short day ahead of us for the final leg back to Fort Myers.  Winds had finally died down a bit and it warmed up into the 70's as well.  We discovered another small problem after cranking up the main engine...the digital gauge for the 175A alternator wasn't reading anything.  After a few minutes of troubleshooting we determined the alternator output seemed normal, as the house bank of batteries were showing a good charge state (confirmed using the Batt Test switch and the LinkPro Battery Monitor.)  Hopefully that will be a simple part swap.

The ride down the inside ICW was very pleasant, with weather conditions permitting a full afternoon of driving from the fly bridge.  Not bad for late February.