February 16, 2013  Day 281

Vero Beach City Marina
Vero Beach, FL
Total miles to date: 4801.3

Farmers Market
full of Indian River fruits and vegetables

This was day two in Vero Beach and the sun was shining. We took a 20 minute walk to reach the Saturday Farmers Market which is a block from the beach.  We bought tomatoes, asparagus, new potatoes, green peppers, and fresh bread to bring back to the boat – and crab cake sandwiches for our lunch!  We walked out to the small boardwalk on the beach to see the ocean. This was our first glimpse of it since we were in New Jersey last May. There were just a few brave souls in the water (70 degree water temp) and a few playing in the sand or collecting shells. 

Vero Beach is an upscale community with many high end boutiques and clothing shops, spas, etc., along the main street, Ocean Drive, that faces the beach. There are numerous well groomed parks, some of which are on the beach front (where we had lunch!). Definitely not the touristy beach scene with t-shirt shops!  Vero Beach is also known as "Velcro Beach" - once you come, you don't want to leave!
 

Ocean Drive, Vero Beach

The city also has a free bus system with scheduled stops that include the marina and the farmers market, so we rode the bus back to the marina.  We spent the afternoon doing some boat chores including the ever present laundry. Bill tightened our lines because the wind started to pick up in the afternoon.  We have wind forecasts for 20-30 mph tonight.



Our home for two days



Beautiful flowers at the Farmers Market

We met one Looper, The Duddon Pilot, who is spending the month here. Tomorrow we will leave and continue north on the ICW and anchor out.



Atlantic Ocean

February 15, 2013  Day 280

Vero Beach City Marina
Vero Beach, FL
Total miles to date: 4801.3

The constant rain yesterday kept us on the boat all day in Stuart.  This morning we only had a light rain so we made the decision to depart for Vero Beach.  Bill and Joy (Proud Lady) were so very kind to come over and help us cast off our lines!  We left at 10:00 and headed out into the St. Lucie River which led us to the Indian River and ICW.  Our 44 mile trip took us over 5 ½ hours.  There was very little boat traffic which we attributed to the weather.  In spite of that we saw several dolphins today. 

We arrived in Vero Beach at 3:40 and tied up on a long face dock.  The docks are fairly full as are the mooring fields. We will stay here two nights as high winds are forecast tomorrow.  We do plan to spend the day seeing Vero Beach! 




Our greeter - the blue heron!



Another lovely sunset!

February 13, 2013  Day 278

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

We took advantage of the free courtesy bus the marina provides and went to Publix this morning for provisions.  The bus was filled to capacity with other boaters who were also taken to West Marine and Walmart.  Choices are good!

Bill and Joy
Looper friends on Proud Lady

After lunch we received a call from Joy and Bill (Proud Lady) that they had arrived so we met them at the dock and had them over to our boat. They are on a mooring ball for a month.  We met them again for an early dinner at Duffy’s, a busy local grill. Next stop, Hoffman’s for frozen yogurt!  Then we did some window shopping and followed the riverwalk back to the marina.  We returned to Carried Away for a very nice bottle of dessert wine that Bill and Joy brought. We had a very nice evening together!  We first met Bill and Joy at the fall rendezvous at Joe Wheeler. They were docked next to us!

Tomorrow’s plans are indefinite. We had just planned to stay in Stuart for two nights, but we are waiting to make a decision based on the weather forecast.

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.

 

 

February 11, 2013 Day 276

Indiantown Marina
Indiantown, FL
Total miles to date: 4736.4

Sunrise at our anchorage

We left our quiet anchorage at South Bay at 8:30 this morning and once again headed east on the Rim Route.  We had the water to ourselves!  We passed one trawler and saw a few fishing boats at anchor – and that was it for 33 miles!  

Although there are times when this route is too shallow to take, we had 7 ½ feet of water two miles before the Port Mayaca Lock and we had at least 10 feet the rest of the route.  When we arrived at the Port Mayaca Lock we were pleased to know that since the water level was high enough, both gates were open and we just had to drive through without locking. 



The bridge tender had to hand turn the bridge to open it for us

We arrived at the Indiantown Marina at 1:00 and tied up on their face dock.  We spent the afternoon on the boat getting a few things done and decided not to take the one mile walk into town.  We had dinner on board and made plans for tomorrow when we will complete our trip on the Okeechobee Waterway.







Love the motorcycle!

We have enjoyed seeing and photographing the wildlife and we continue to identify more birds!  We have enjoyed the peaceful surroundings of nature, complete with sunrises and sunsets. We are the intruders in these natural habitats, so when we see alligators, we know this is their home, and we are just observing and learning.

We will arrive in Stuart tomorrow and for the first time since last spring, we will be headed north.

This portion of the route actually joins the edge of the lake and is
shallow and narrow! 

 

 

February 10, 2013 Day 275

At Anchor
South Bay, FL
Total miles to date: 4702.7

Sunrise at Moore Haven

The Moore Haven dockmaster knocked on our boat at 7:10 this morning to collect the fee for docking, and apologized for not stopping by last night. Fortunately we were up at that hour! 

We departed the city dock wall at 8:00 and a few minutes later entered the Moore Haven lock. We had the lock to ourselves and were raised two feet. We were on our way about fifteen minutes later, leaving the Caloosahatchee Canal and entering the Okeechobee Waterway.  We followed this to the town of Clewiston.


At Clewiston, boaters must choose to cross Lake Okeechobee or follow the Rim Route on the southern border. The Rim Route is ten miles longer, but more scenic and was our choice.  We continued on this route, primarily a canal bordered by a levee.  We spotted many birds along the way, including herons, egrets, and pelicans.  We were passed by several fishing boats and an occasional motor yacht.  The wind was gusting to over 20 mph and we decided to stop after four hours and anchor in a protected basin at South Bay.  Other than the occasional fishing boats that came and left, we had this quiet anchorage to ourselves. We did share it with many birds and one alligator.  We spent hours photographing and watching them through binoculars.


The waterway splits here - the Rim Route goes to the right
and the lake goes to the left

In flight



The resident gator at South Bay anchorage

Sunset at South Bay

After a spaghetti dinner we spent a quiet evening at anchor!  Tomorrow we will go as far as Indiantown, which is beyond the lake on the St. Lucie Canal.

 

 

 



February 9, 2013 Day 274

Moore Haven City Docks
Moore Haven, FL
Total miles to date: 4677.7

We left our peaceful dock at Franklin at 8:00 and headed east on the Caloosahatchee River. We had over 41 miles to travel today and wanted to get an early start.  We expected more boat traffic since it was Saturday but were surprised to see few boaters out today.


We let this larger work boat pass us.
We did not want to be in the lock at the same time!

We reached the Ortona Lock before 12:30 and had it to ourselves.  It raised us 8 feet and then we were on our way again.

We arrived at Moore Haven at 2:30 and tied up to the city dockwall. They provide 50 amp power and water.  There was no one here to help but we did fine by ourselves.  There are only a few spots available on the wall, so we were happy to have arrived in time.  Shortly after our arrival, Lady Catherine, a 60’ Trumpy, built in 1947, pulled in behind us.  It is a beautiful restored yacht!


The lovely Trumpy!

We took a short walk and visited with some other boaters then came back for pizza on the boat.  We watched a movie and planned our course for tomorrow.  We will enter Lake Okeechobee and take the rim route rather than go directly across the lake.

We did not see any alligators today but Bill spotted a few manatees swimming near our boat just as the sun was setting!