Underway again !

After a wonderful month in Stuart, it was time to venture south.  We said a temporary goodbye to our friends Dave and Joanne this morning and set a course south.  Not too far the first day though.  We made the 7 mile trek back to the intracoastal waterway, then turned south for an approximate 5 mile run to Peck Lake.  Peck Lake is more of a wide spot in the ICW than a Lake, but hey, I didn't name it!  There is a nice anchorage on the side of the ICW and with the 20-30 mile winds today, the short trip was just fine for us.  What Peck Lake does offer is access by boat only to a isolated stretch of beach.  After anchoring, we watched to see if our anchor was holding, ate lunch, watched to see if our anchor was holding, had a Captain Morgan and Coke, watched to see if our anchor was holding, and checked our chartplotter track to see if our anchor was holding......we finally determined.....our anchor was holding!   In our 45 day journey south so far, this was the first time we anchored.   We managed to stay on mooring balls prior to today.  We have limited experience anchoring, and there is always a little more stress involved, particularly when there are high winds.  So, with the confidence that we could leave TIKA and find her in the same place when we returned, we took the dinghy to the beach on the ICW side, walked about 200 ft to the ocean beach side where we had miles of beautiful water and sand to ourselves.  We collected some shells, walked the beach, dipped toes in the water, and came back to the boat (still in the same place) for a much needed Corona light.  All in all, a successful first day back on the water.  

Why they named this Marina Bay Sunset Bay

On cloudless evenings we are treated to beautiful sunsets over the South Fork of the St. Lucie River.   This is overlooking the mooring field from the Marina clubhouse, but TIKA is slightly out of the photo covered by the palm tree.  Note at the bottom of the photo, the dinghy dock.  Every day, all the boaters on the moorings balls, dinghy in to the Marina to shop, eat at restaurants, etc.  Parking in the dinghy dock is like playing bumper boats, particularly in the center finger of the docks. Our dinghy is less than 10 feet, but some dinghies are 15 feet or more.  If the center finger fills up with longer dinghies, it is possible to get trapped inside unable to get between the dinghies to exit. Finding a parking spot is a little drama we go through every day.  Ok, boating is pretty low key, so we need a little drama in our day occasionally.

Birthday Ice Cream Break

Admiral Marlene celebrated a birthday while in Stuart so we headed to the local Dairy Queen for a Blizzards with our friends Joanne, Dave and Jim (who took the photo).

Floating for a month in Stuart, Florida

Sunrise over Stuart

TIKA's amazing little galley

TIKA's lower helm, entertainment center (ha) and table.

Ok, where is Stuart, Florida?  Stuart in north of Jupiter, Florida, where Burt Reynolds has a theater, or a little further north of West Palm Beach, home of Rush Limbaugh.  Stuart is a real boater city.  From Stuart, you could go south to the Keys, east to the Bahamas, west to Fort Meyer's (through canals, locks and Lake Okeechobee). Or you can go north all the way to Canada on the intracoastal waterway, inland rivers and canals. It is a great place because Stuart is boater friendly.  What does that mean? Well the marina's are near downtown and it is a short walk to the historic business center with many restaurants and shops.  Boater friendly also means they have a free bus system that takes you to all the shopping centers and movie theaters.  The marina we are at also has a free bus service twice a week to take you to places like Publix (grocery store), Home Depot, CVS, Harbor Freight Tools, West Marine, and the most heavenly place of all Wal-Mart.  Boater friendly also means easy to bicycle around.  Our marina has free bicycles you can borrow and pedal to your hearts content.  Most importantly, Stuart is in the most southern of the three climate zones of Florida.  Generally days are in the high 70's and lows are only about 10-15 degrees less.  This is important if your boat is on a mooring ball and you don't use a heater or air conditioner without running a generator.
So some of you might want to know what it is like to live on a boat for several months while you cruise to some great destinations.  First of all, boaters have hours like farmers....up at sunrise (see the beautiful picture) and in bed not too long after sunset.  In the winter in southern Florida, that means up before 7 and in bed not too long after boaters midnight....8:00pm.  You can watch TV in the evenings, but when you are on a mooring ball, that means using precious battery power.  We usually recharge our house batteries in the evening every other day and watch TV while the generator is running.  Life on board means preparing meals just like at home.  We mix eating at local restaurants and fixing meals on board.  A boater friendly town means many "happy hours" and "lunch/dinner specials" Stuart has a great place called Duffy's Sports bar which has 40% off between 2-4 pm weekdays, if you have their customer loyalty card.....we do, of course.

We have a gas range and oven, small refrigerator, microwave, and even a Kuerig coffee maker.  Our most valuable player in the kitchen is the sodastream.  It saves a tremendous amount of space storing beverages and you can make what you need on demand....and believe me, Captain Morgan and Coke is in demand when at sea.  We have managed to store about a months worth of food on board including some frozen meats.  We also have a gas grill for cooking out.  With grocery stores close, we are typically running in to resupply items with shorter shelf lives, like milk, yogurt, fruits and fresh veggies.

Daily life on board is a combination of work, (boat repairs, laundry, etc), recreation (riding bikes, visiting, eating and drinking with boat friends....wherever and whenever),  and provisioning trips (shopping).  We keep in touch with the world through the internet.  Our Marina has a lounge with free Wi-Fi or we have 4G service through a personal hotspot on our phone.

While on a mooring ball, trips to the marina are by our trustworthy inflatable dinghy.  If our boat is our home, the dinghy is our car.   You can't get anywhere without taking the dinghy in to shore.  My goal this season is to get Marlene "dinghy qualified" to go in and out to shore on her own. For some reason, women don't have the upper body strength to easily start an outboard.  The Admiral is getting better, however.   While Stuart is a great place for a break, it is also a great place to study the weather and determine where our next destination will be.  We are thinking Miami and the Keys.  We still have a couple weeks here to make plans.

Happy New Year from Stuart

January 1, 2013

After staying 4 nights in Vero Beach, we got up early New Years Eve morning and made our way to Stuart. Our friends from Michigan had saved us a mooring ball at Sunset Bay Marina and we arrived around 2:00pm.  We also had been invited to a New Years Eve Celebration with their cruising friends so we had a great dinner, a few too many drinks, and some great boating conversation.  We managed to stay up until.....10pm....which is the latest we have stayed up recently.  When cruising, there is generally not much to do on a boat after dark, so we tend to get up with the sun and go to bed when the stars are out.  We did  pop our head out of our front hatch at midnight to see fireworks.  We are going to stay in Stuart for awhile and plan our next adventure further south.