2/23/16
Florida Keys, Tarpon Basin
Position 25 07.416N, 080 25.863W
Posted by Bill
Well, building up to yesterday, we saw a weather window to get to the Bahamas for this Wednesday and we left the grip of Harbour Cay Club yesterday morning. A bit of a false start though. We are traveling with Mark and Jan on Island Bound (same that we traveled with to the Bahamas last year), and Bob and Cat on Sea Lyon (friends we met a year ago at Harbour Cay Club. We all fired up our engines around 7:00, said our goodbyes to the many friends we have at Harbour Cay Club, and started to untie the dock lines. Then I noticed that the alternator light was on, meaning that the alternator was not charging the batteries. If you remember from previous blog posts, we have had intermittent issues with this system and I isolated it to the voltage regulator. It was behaving until we got ready to shove off. So, we told the other two boats to go on ahead and we would hopefully resolve the issue and catch up. We helped them with their lines, and after 20 minutes or so of troubleshooting, I decided to replace the regulator. Fortunately, we bought a spare, and after figuring out which wires went where, we started the engine up and had a working charge system! Yay! I did the rest of the install and we got off the dock just and hour and a half later than our friends.
Our original destination was an area called Tarpon Basin, about half way to Key Biscayne where we will cross to the Bahamas, but due to our delay we wouldn’t make it before dark. The others were good enough to take their time so we could catch up, and we opted to anchor on the Florida Bay side of Tavernier. Position 25 00.287N, 080 32.900W. It was a delightful anchorage, calm and quiet. 
Next to where we anchored there is a cut called Toilet Seat Pass. People have taken decorated toilet seats and hung them on poles all along the sides of the cut…it was hilarious. Of course we had to check it out in the dinghy, and when I get time to download the pictures I will post them in another post.
Waking today, we saw that the weather window we thought we had, had slammed shut…too rough for our liking, so we decided to slowly work our way north through the Keys and Biscayne Bay until another opportunity presents itself. We made our way to Tarpon Basin and anchored just in time to escape a major squall. After the fronts move through we will launch the dinghy and find a Tiki Bar on shore!
It is nice to be on anchor again and moving. Our stay at Harbour Cay was really nice except for the crazy weather, but we like being on the move after sitting at dock for 2 1/2 months. Nothing like a beautiful protected anchorage to renew the soul!
Solar update: The panels are performing very well and it will save us from using the generator to charge the batteries every day as long as we get adequate sunlight!