.

February 12, 2013  Day 277

Sunset Bay Marina
Stuart, FL
Total miles to date: 4757.4

Today marks a big milestone for us.  We have now been gone exactly nine months since May 12 – and for the first time, we are headed north.  We arrived in Stuart, Florida around noon and are docked at the lovely Sunset Bay Marina. 
 

We passed this relic of a sailboat  today on the canal  - love the
reflection in the calm water

Our travel today was easy. We left the Indiantown Marina around 9:00 and entered the St. Lucie canal portion of the Okeechobee Waterway.  We entered the St. Lucie Lock at 11:00 and were lowered 14 feet. Once again, we were the only boat in the lock.  The lock master stood on the wall and talked to us the whole time!  He said that there were manatees in the lock yesterday and that he has to record their numbers!



Another relic we passed today -
this one had a for sale by owner sign and a no wake sign!

Once we got docked and registered at the marina, we had lunch and then cleaned the outside of the boat – Carried Away looks so much better now!

We took a walk around the historic district of Stuart, which mainly consists of small shops, restaurants, the Lyric Theater, museum, etc.  It is a popular area and is just a block from the waterfront on the ICW.  Many of the shops were closed (at 6pm) so we will try and return tomorrow after we do some provisioning for the boat. 

More houses lined the waterway today!

Tomorrow, Joy and Bill (Proud Lady) arrive, and we will have dinner with them. We have not seen them since we were in Panama City before Christmas.

We plan to stay here two nights but will watch the weather forecast and remain flexible.