Here is a photo of the marina building in Stuart all decked out in red, white and blue buntings for the Fourth of July:
On the Fourth of July the marina had a nice potluck dinner. That evening we were able to watch the fireworks from our boat. They were VERY close to us and it is obvious that fireworks are getting BIGGER because the largest starburst ones where the biggest either of us had ever seen in our lives!!
We waited until July 6th to leave so that all the "weekend warriors" would have to go back to work and stop terrorizing the waterways! The first day we sailed out the St. Lucie River to the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) and headed north to anchor off Jensen Beach. The next day we motored up the ICW and into a nice cove called Faber Cove in Fort Pierce. The cove is perfectly protected and very beautiful. It is surrounded by homes but large enough that we were anchored a good ways from the homes and we were the only boat anchored in the cove. Here is a photo taken from the boat:
The next day we motored up the ICW (narrow channel so we couldn't sail) to Vero Beach where we took a mooring in the harbor (Vero Beach Municipal Marina has moorings and slips with great facilities). We went ashore and walked about 2 1/2 miles roundtrip to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean, had ice cream, and stretched our legs after three days on the boat. The city of Vero Beach runs a free bus system that took us the next day to a shopping area (West Marine store, Publix supermarket, TJ Maxx, thrift store, dollar store, etc.). We spent 4 days in Vero Beach on the mooring. We had a nice lunch at the Riverside Cafe, a waterfront restaurant. Did the laundry. And met some people on a 42 foot boat who had us over for "sundowners" (I had "me daily ration of grog...arrrrrr!). Their boat has a draft (depth) of 7 feet 8 inches!! We draw 4 feet. In Florida you have trouble finding 8 feet of water to anchor in! I couldn't sleep for days worrying about their draft!!!
Here is a photo of Enchantress (on the right) on the mooring (taken with the new camera with zoom all the way from the waterfront restaurant!!):
Linda ready for our "hike" to the beach:
A banyan tree at the marina:
We left Vero Beach on July 12th and sailed up the Indian River Lagoon to anchor off a small uninhabited island with no name that we named "Gilligan's Island" when we stopped here three years ago. It is a spoil island that is man-made and then taken over by nature. When they dredged the ICW they dumped the sand/mud from the bottom of the channel in piles outside the waterway. This forms little islands that are just piles of sand that are barren at first but then nature takes over. Birds drop seeds in their feces, mangrove seeds and pine cones float to the island, and trees, bushes and other plants begin to grow on the island. Eventually, the island taken over by nature and what was a man-made island becomes a nice little island with a beach just for our pleasure! We went ashore, tipped "Little One" (our dinghy) up on her side on the beach and scraped the barnacles off the bottom, and then collected shells.
Here is a photo of "Gilligan's Island":
The next day we sailed up to Indian Beach Harbor across from Melbourne. We went ashore to buy groceries. The next day we met a friend, Bob, who we had known from when we were just starting cruising over in St. Pete Beach and we had also met up with him a few years ago in the Keys. He lives in Melbourne and has his boat in a marina near where we were anchored. We had a great lunch with him and had a chance to catch up with what we had been doing.
During our travels we see some unusual watercraft but this is the most unusual one we have ever seen!:
It is home-made geodesic dome built on pontoons. The guy is an old hippy who is "trying to save the world"! He built it in NC and is headed down the ICW to the Keys and then says he is going around the world. Of course, the "boat" is only capable of doing the ICW or other protected water. If he did try to go out in the ocean he would have to be rescued or would die as this boat could not survive that.
The next day we had a great sail up to Cocoa. We first anchored off Cocoa Village. But the wind was strong from the south and there is no protection from the south. Soooo...the waves were big and the anchor started to drag. So we pulled up the anchor and moved to the north side of the bridge/causeway where it was MUCH calmer. The next day we went to lunch with some old friends of Linda's who now live in Cocoa Beach. They took us to their house and we met their new puppy.
Then we sailed up to Titusville where we anchored off the municipal marina. We will stay here a week. Yesterday we had lunch with Dee and Lee from s/v About Time, who we met in the Keys. They have a condo right on the water. Linda and Dee made arrangements to do some shopping on Tuesday, of course. :-) Later in the week we plan to get together with some friends, Dave and Martha, who live up in DeBarry. They will come down for lunch or dinner out. After that we plan to move back down to Cocoa to be there when Amy, Mark and the girls arrive for vacation on the 27th.
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