TwoGether

Friday 3/9/12.            The idea this morning was to leave the slip, refuel and pump out the holding tank, then get back on the canal eastbound.  But Indiantown Marina seems to have a habit of tying up the next few boats to be hauled out, at the fuel dock.  Linda and I walked to the office to settle up and I heard the captain of the sailboat in front of the gas pumps tell the lady in the office, it would be an hour until he was ready.  With 105 gallons of fuel on board and the holding tank not quite half full, we paid for the slip and got underway eastbound at 8:40A. 

Less than a mile east of the marina there is a railroad swing bridge.  When Linda called for an opening the tender radioed back “It’ll be 'bout ten minutes… I gotta train com’n.”    This was expected since we could hear trains going all hours of the day and night.  Some times as close as twenty minutes apart. So we patiently waited, easily holding station on glass smooth water, with no wind.   In a few minutes another boat, coming westbound, called the bridge… The tender said it will be a few minutes.  The captain answered back “Is there a choo-choo train coming?”  That one made Linda laugh out loud.

Around 10:30 we entered the St. Lucie Lock for a thirteen foot drop.  St. Lucie has the friendliest crew.  He had the lines rolled up and threw it to Linda and told her "This is for the bow".  She had us tied up and ready for the ride in seconds.

We arrived at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, FL around noon and got fuel and pumped out. Heading out the St Lucie River we passed the sternwheeler “City of Stuart”.  She is really propeller driven so the stern wheel just spins like a millwheel but it looks cool.

 As we neared the Atlantic at St Lucy Inlet, the waters got a bit choppy.  The tide was going out so we were making good time being pulled along on the St Lucie River.  But when we turned north into the Indian River we were running headlong into the outgoing tide.  It felt like we were dragging an anchor behind.

As we neared Ft. Pierce we noticed the clouds building to the west.  As the cool wind coming from the east off the Atlantic went over the warmer land west of the river, the thermals were quickly building storm clouds.  Soon it was getting darker to the west and after a while there was lightning to the north.   About three miles south of Ft. Pierce we left the channel and went about a hundred yards east and dropped anchor at 4:00P.  While it put down a good shower the two storms split us; one about two miles north and the other two miles south.  This is a good place to spend the night.

 All together it was a pretty good day.  Waited for a choo-choo train and bridge opening; locked through St. Lucie Lock; stopped for fuel; waited for the Roosevelt Bridge to open, and still made 47 miles.

Ft. Pierce anchorage:          N 27 23.976             W 080 17.446