I was wrong when I said the marina we were going to equalize our batteries at was in Lake Worth, it was actually in North Palm Beach, the Old Port Cove Marina – a very nice marina - they even give you a bottle of wine when you check in. We arrived there Friday at noon. Bill had spent the morning researching the right battery charger to buy. He found out that the only West Marine in Florida that had the charger that would work best for us was in Daytona Beach, a three hour drive north of our destination. There were numerous ways to deal with that situation but the one we picked was to rent a car from North Palm Beach, drive to Daytona Beach, and turn back around and drive back to the boat. It was crazy but we got what we wanted when we wanted it (kind of) and we got to listen to music and NPR for six hours and eat dinner at Olive Garden!

Saturday was spent installing the new battery charger and waiting the eight hours it takes to actually equalize the batteries. We have to turn all the 12 volt power off while we do the procedure, everything on our boat runs on 12 volts, especially the refrigerator! We spent the waiting time utilizing the fresh water on the dock. One of the disadvantages of never going to a dock is that you never get to really wash the boat. We also did some other outside work. Bill went and borrowed some lamps we could plug into the 110 volt outlets and rearranged our TV and DVD player so we could run on shore power. We couldn’t use the batteries again until 11pm. We had to do something with all that time.

There is always some kind of silver lining though, right? Bill heard one of the marina workers tell the cruising family a couple of boats away from us about the Christmas lights parade that was going to be held last night. When Bill asked him he told us we could just walk to the other side of the close by condo buildings and sit along the seawall of the ICW where the parade would start at 6pm. The boats in the parade decorate with Christmas lights and music. We have watched the parade in Annapolis, and one time even rode on a boat in the parade but it is always freezing! Not here! It had rained off and on during the day but was clear and warm when the parade began. We walked over to the seawall and saw a couple sitting on one of the few benches. We asked them if we could share the bench with them and they were happy to share. We had a good time talking – they are cruisers too! The parade was a lot of fun to watch. Maybe the boats in Annapolis might be more creative but the venue of the narrow canal of the ICW was perfect. They start the parade with a boat shooting off fireworks and it continues as it travels up the canal. The picture above is of the start of the parade. We finished the evening with takeout Chinese food brought back to the boat and eaten by borrowed lamp light.

This morning we went to a great place for breakfast. It is the first time ever we have taken home doggy bags from breakfast. We finished up our time at the dock and decided to anchor just behind the marina rather than spend the money for another night. As we pulled out we were reminded of one of the reasons we never go to marinas. The boat doesn’t back well in the direction we needed to back up. We did not do a good job getting out of that slip. Luckily we didn’t hit anything very hard… As soon as we calmed down from that we realized that Bill had left his very expensive sunglasses hanging in the marina shower. Good thing we were only going within dinghy range of the marina, even better good thing, they were still hanging there when he called the marina office to ask them to get them for him. We dinghyed over and got the sunglasses then went to check out the incredibly nice power boat that the couple we shared the bench with the night before has just purchased. They have just made the move from sailboat to power boat.

Now we are anchored and watching football. We are heading to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow. We might decide to take the ocean route this time to skip the many many bridges we would have to wait for on the ICW. We will see what the morning weather brings.