Clearwater Beach

Clearwater Beach is the beach town to Clearwater.  It also serves Tampa Bay and is ordinarily quite busy.  However, we arrived just as Florida was emerging from its long COVID19 lockdown.  Jan and I watched as streets and beaches went from empty to mobbed.  Restaurants went from barely open to packed.  The waterfront concessions such as fishing charters, sunset cruises, and (my favorite) the floating tiki bar went from closed to barely open on a reduced schedule.  But at least they were out on the water.

We were shocked to see such crowds on the beach 

The trip from Egmont Key to Clearwater Beach was only 40 miles.  It was a lovely day and sailing would have been nice.  But as I mentioned in the previous post while we were still in the Tampa Bay ship channel when the engines control panel failed.  A big surprise was that the motor kept running.  I need to make a technical point here.  Older diesel motors, such as my old 3GM, do not need electricity to keep running.  I would stop the 3GM by closing the choke.  The newer Yanmar diesel engines such as the  3JH require continuous 12 volt power to maintain fuel flow.  The stop switch on the control panel works by interrupting the circuit to the fuel pump. I knew immediately that this mystery would be a problem to remedy.  Indeed it took 11 days to satisfactorily diagnose and fix the problem.  In the meantime I was afraid to stop the motor fearing that it would not start again.  We made it into the municipal marina without incident.  By the way the motor restarted easily which was another surprise.

Control panel died on the way to Clearwater Beach

I checked the fuse and all of the electrical connections.  Everything was intact. The motor had originally come by way of Mastry Marine of St. Petersburg.  I called them and they recommended Sea Farer Marine. Tom, the owner of Sea Farer, came out.  He worked on the panel and harness for about a week including twice taking the panel and harness to Mastry Marine where diagnostic equipment was available.  Eventually the problem was determined to be a short in the start switch caused by an extra wire that had been added to the original wiring harness when it was installed 5 years ago.  Unanswered questions are why was the extra wire added in the first place and why did it take 5 years to fail?  And why did the switch start the motor when it could not power the control panel?  While I am very grateful to Tom for his diligence, my recommendation to the reader is that if this ever happens to you--please just buy a new panel and wiring harness.

Tom from Sea Farer Marine works on the control panel

Starting switch was the culprit

While waiting for Tom to fix the motor Jan and I spent most of the days exploring Clearwater Beach on foot.  The beaches are broad and sandy,  There are numerous restaurants all reasonably priced.  The expensive restaurants remained closed due to COVID. Walgeen’s sold liquor as well as ice cream bars.  Publix was a long albeit scenic walk away. We were pleased to see how many sea birds frequented the docks. 

Pizza for Mother's Day lunch was a treat after lockdown ended

The beaches reminded us of Padre Island with whiter sand

Herron on a dock line

By now the season was getting quite late.  Already we were into May which is the tropical storm season in the Gulf of Mexico.  Tropical storm Bertha had just formed off of the eastern coast of Florida.  It was time to leave.  So White Pepper cast off lines from Clearwater Beach and headed north towards Dog Island and Caribelle, Florida.