Merry Christmas from WHO DAT and Clearwater Beach!

A lot has happened around here since the last post. Some good and some bad.

Let’s start with the good. They were out last Monday to start repairing the dock after the storm last Sat/Sun. Two barges with cranes and about 10 guys worked on the dock for 4 days. They are all fixed and we are good now. I would say the dock is better now than it was before the storm!

The best part was that we did not have to move to another part of the dock or leave the harbor.

That is a really good thing as they were still working on the engines and we could not move anyway! We decided to go ahead and replace both water pumps on the engines as preventative maintenance so that we would not have any problems as we continue around our Loop. That’s were the trouble started.

It took them two extra days to get the Cat water pumps, and then they showed up last Thursday to install and get the boat up and running. Cat sent them new pumps with the wrong tooth count on the sprockets. They actually installed them and did not count the teeth. As they tried to start the motors after 6 hours of installation, it sounded terrible. Some of the teeth on the water pump, and only the water pump we hope, broke off in the engine.

Lots of parts to put back into the engine room.

New water pumps getting ready to be installed.

Tooth count after pulling the new pump back out of the Starboard engine.

What the port engine pump looked like after pulling it. 8 teeth missing.

So, they spent the next hour trying to fish out the 8 broken off teeth in the engine. They have to get them all out! They had to call it a day around 5 PM and headed home for the Christmas holiday after only finding 4 of them. So, we are tied to the dock with a raft at this time. Both engines are down and waiting for them to return Wednesday with a plan on removing the 4 remaining pieces of metal. I believe the plan is to drop the oil pan. This will be another 8-hour day to preform this. We believe they will still be able to get the boat put back together the right way and get us out of here by 1/2/24. We will see, we just want it done right.

This has given Amy and I time to explore a little more of the area before Bradley arrived for Christmas on the boat.

Local dolphins around at a lot of the establishments, I liked this one!

First time our feet have touched the sand on this trip!

Beautiful sunset from a local bar at the harbor.

Shark tour boat tried to attack me at the fuel dock!

But that’s ok, it missed me and went after a little boat out in the Gulf.

Bradley arrived to spend Christmas with us on Saturday around noon. We showed him the area and started to relax for a day.

Sunday, yesterday, was Christmas Eve and we had big plans for the day. We got up early and headed north to Crystal River to swim with manatees! We made the two hour drive up and jumped on our tour boat with 9 total people to go out into the freshwater springs and swim with these large gentle animals. They need warm water to survive, so when the Gulf is below 68 degrees, they come into the rivers to hang out by the 72–74-degree freshwater springs.

You wear wetsuits because the water is 72 degrees, but you just float around to not disturb them. We spent two hours in the water with a lot of these animals.

Two swimming by the boat as we set the anchor.

Our boat in the background after our journey with the manatees.

They are very curious and actually come up to you. You are not supposed to touch them, but we all felt them as they don’t follow the rules. They swim up to you, nibble on your wetsuit sometimes, and even hold you with their arms and push you around. This was really neat to experience.

Then back to Clearwater Beach and out for a nice dinner for the three of us.

Bradley is still sleeping at this time, 7:50am, so we will enjoy Christmas with him after he decides to get up.

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Be safe and enjoy time with family.