Whew...that was hard

I try not to whine about hardships when I blog. I fully understand the privileges we are afforded and respect how hard everyone else is working- trying to balance a career and childcare etc., so when I complain- it's fo' real.
Today was ***** rough.  It started out leaving our lovely island dockage, having to use our deep-cycle batteries to start the engine instead of just the staring battery- not good...must check that.  We tested our auto-pilot an hour into our cruise and determined that it was broken as well- a disappointment- but it may be fix-able yet!  Keeping a stiff upper-lip, we continued toward Vero Beach- where we thought we'd moor for the night and motor south on Monday, then rent a car and drive Cyrus to the Fort Lauderdale airport to visit Grammy and Grampy and Maddie and Brooke and Zeno and Zahara and maybe even Leah in Denver for the next 7 days.
Navigating to the Vero Beach city marina involves a left turn across the ICW to another channel.  All day, we'd been passed by gigantic motor boats (throwing large wakes) and passing rather closely in a narrow channel.  About 100 yards from our harrowing left turn across the ICW and the large motor-yachts, the diesel engine of Mirage began to change pitch and choke and then die....in the middle of a channel- sure to run-aground on either side and gigantic luxury yachts screaming by ....the engine simply died.  We quickly dropped an anchor and attempted some repairs- meaning Tyler had an idea of what was wrong and I just stood there and made sure he felt better.  We were able to limp (engine would run and sputter-then Tyler would squeeze the fuel pump bulb and the engine would run again....IN THE MIDDLE OF A CHANNEL)  to the Vero Beach marina and hook to a mooring (an anchored buoy).
All good! we thought...  we decided to get a slip for the night so we went to the office and asked for a slip and a clean out (pump-out of the sewage holding tank).
For some reason, the marina clean-out would not suck the ***t from our boat.. Another item to address tomorrow.  After that, when we attempted to connect to shore power with our cord,  no power was available... and its probably our cord....so no electricity tonight.
We then tried to walk from the marina to Vero Beach for beer (after the unsuccessful attempt at Malabar) and ended up with a lecture about leaving Zander outside a restaurant from an over-zealous humane society employee (who was tanked by the way).
I was ready to punch someone when I found a local mini-mart establishment that boasted fine wine and cigars, beer food etc.  I am not kidding that Ode to Joy was playing when I entered the store.  After that, we were able to find a restaurant that would allow Zander to hang out with us while we ate and then took a cab home....

Tyler and I are currently fantasizing about selling the boat and moving to Peru.

Everything will be ok...I still would rather stay on the boat than in a hotel.