We woke up at the Marco River Marina a third time in expectations that there would be a mechanic at the boat when promised, at 09:00. He showed up after 10:00, after going through the list of problems his only comment was “that is weird”. Another alternator was installed and we got a call while we were out scoping out an anchorage close by saying that the boat was ready. The third time was a charm and after only ten days we finally had a boat with a functional charging system. We now have only four days left on the charter.

The county sheriff was not impressed by Yachting Vacations either, while we were out in the dinghy he pulled us over for not having FL numbers displayed on the dinghy. Yachting Vacations’ answer was that we should not have had the outboard engine on the dinghy that they had provided us…if only we would have known that they had given us the wrong dinghy…

After leaving Marco River Marina we motored up the water way a couple of hours to Little Marco Island. Two dolphins followed us most of the way. It is a very pretty anchorage after all the boat traffic stops at the end of the day. Little Marco Island is a sliver of a piece of land that has the Gulf on one side and the inland waterway on the east. We anchored on the south end of the island and could hear the breakers all night.