Stuart, Florida

Our goal for today is to reach Stuart, the last stop on our trek south and only a short cab ride from home -- the plan is to leave the boat on a mooring for a few days while we unload and clean her up and then put her "on the hard" until next spring. Originally I was hoping to put the boat in a slip in a marina that is a 5 minute walk from our home but we were unable to contact it -- it appears that it was a victim of the economic downturn and is strictly "private" at this point.

Our route would take us south on the Indian river, turn west at the St. Lucie inlet and then north up the St. Lucie river for a few miles to Stuart. We would be leaving on a rising tide: the current would be with us until about halfway down to the inlet; against us to the inlet, then with us again until we arrived in Stuart.

The condo building we lived in before we moved into the house; Nettles Island is in the left foreground

The area where the Intercoastal meets the St. Lucie river is called the crossroads  -- it is an area of shifting shoals and temporary markers -- there are many sand bars that can trap the unwary. The channels are well marked but can be confusing because it is a 5 way intersection (Intercoastal in/out, St. Lucie river in/out and an offshoot that goes to the Manatee pocket) and there is always a lot of traffic. Fortunately, we had been through the crossroads a few previous times on other people's boats, so we had no real trouble navigating through.

The weather was threatening all morning, but it never rained. We arrived in Stuart about lunchtime and put My Weigh on the courtesy dock offered by the marina -- it would make unloading the boat much easier. We emptied the refrigerator and packed and unloaded all of our bags, piling them up at the marina office -- it was pretty impressive pile by the time we were done. We then dropped off the courtesy dock and motored out to our mooring.

The mooring loop was overgrown with barnacles, so overgrown I was concerned that they would 'saw' through our mooring line if we were to tie up. We called the marina and they sent someone out to clean it off -- we motored around the anchorage while we waited.  A half hour later, My Weigh was safely riding on her mooring and we were waving goodbye to her as we made our way to the dock on the launch.

We called a cab and shortly thereafter were home -- of course, nothing is that simple  -- when we got to our house, we discovered that we had no Air Conditioning or Internet -- but that is another story ......