We finally ripped ourselves free of “Velcro” Beach Sunday morning, headed south. The route was set for Lake Worth, the area around North Palm Beach, but while we were on the way, we opted to head up the St. Lucie River for Stuart. We’ve never been to Stuart, and have had some cruisers mention that the mooring field at Sunset Bay Marina is a good stopover spot. So we re-charted the course to Stuart, a detour from the ICW, also the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway that heads across to the West Coast.
Stuart is a very pleasant spot, the mooring field is adjacent to the Okeechobee Waterway, so there is a fair amount of traffic during the day, but it settles down considerably in the evening. Sunset Bay Marina manages the mooring field, the marina was recently renovated, and is a top notch facility. Very nice, pleasant staff, restaurant & bar on site, and an easy walk to shops downtown. Shepard Park is just off our stern and makes a handy spot for evening dog runs! Free wifi, although not a speedy connection, it’s free with the very reasonable ($10/day) mooring fee.
Monday was a great day, with temps in the 70’s, calm winds and warm sunshine! What a welcome relief from the wind and cold! For the past few weeks, overnight temps are in the low 40’s, occasionally dipping into the 30’s. Makes for some chilly sleeping! Yesterday we had sustained winds in the 20 kt. range, gusts over 30.
I spent part of Monday and Tuesday doing some maintenance on the pilothouse door. It had begun to delaminate a bit on the hinge edge, so I removed it, injected some epoxy and adhesive thickener into the void and clamped it to the original thickness. It will seal the edge against further water ingress. It’s a fairly common issue on the pre- Diamond Sea Glaze -door boats, but not a difficult thing to correct if it’s taken care of before it deteriorates. Not a particularly fun project, especially since it’s just straight maintenance, not an upgrade or improvement, other than keeping a small problem small. Still, an important part of upkeep. So many of the initial problems (the list numbers over 160 items) we encountered in our 1st year of ownership were small things where the previous owner either made shoddy repairs or simply ignored or neglected the problems. No good words about that behavior from Mr. Anal…. 👿
We’ll stay here for a few days, our next planned stop is Ft. Lauderdale, to catch up with friends Chris & Joyce on Celebrate and visit with Barb’s relatives who are probably getting tired of being receiving agents for stuff we’re having shipped… We know we’ll be there for sure at some point, so it’s a prime shipping depot!
This afternoon we’ll brave the still-howling winds and head shore-side to do some exploring – sans dogs, and maybe visit some shops. There’s a Kilwin’s in town, and for those readers who have visited the south, you know that’s a good thing!! For our PA Dutch visitors who don’t know, read: schleck!!
Todd & Belinda on 17 Feb 2010 at 7:30 PM #
Great to hear it is warming up a bit. We visited Stuart also. Had a friend living there, lost track of her now though, she was a trainer for West Marine. Demi Warner, just in case she is still in the area and coincidence brings you together.
Snow is still about 2 1/2 feet deep at the end of your driveway. Sorry, haven’t been in to check the house for a few days. No lights on though.
maerin on 18 Feb 2010 at 10:49 AM #
We’re really distraught about missing all the snow, the cold, the heating bills, SHOVELING! Speaking of which, I could shovel it a little deeper but you know that it’s a LIE! Don’t like the wind and cool weather, but it trumps snow by a long shot!! s