We finally got Mer Sea away from the dock! We had planned a short run for our first day so that we could have dinner with some “Loopers” we had met in Fort Myers, so we were not trying to set out at “oh-dark-hundred” as we often do. Consequently, we were taking our time finishing up the last-minute things to prepare to get underway, and would look at a task and say, “Well, we’ll have plenty of time to do that tomorrow morning before we leave – we’re not in a big hurry, after all.” That list continued to grow, so that when “tomorrow” finally came, we still had quite a bit to do!
But I get ahead of myself. The evening before we left, we had a lovely last “cocktails and hors d’ouevres on the dock” with our Q-dock friends. What a fun time that was!
The next morning, we went about crossing off the items from the “list of things to do before we leave,” and our dock mates started gathering around, chatting with us and having a last visit before we left. FINALLY, around 10:00, we cranked the engine, and our friends manned our stern lines while I retrieved the bow lines. We even received a “fire hose” salute! What a send-off!
And so we were OFF!!
We had the most beautiful weather to begin our adventure, and the water was an amazing color of blue-green. There were dolphins playing around the boat, and life was good!! We had a delicious and fun dinner with our friends on their boat in Fort Myers, got whatever last minute tips we could about the Loop, and went to bed to sleep the sleep of the just!
Our run the next day was to Moore Haven, a small town close to Lake Okeechobee, which we’d chosen exactly because of that proximity. We’d be crossing the lake the next morning. The dock at Moore Haven is brand new, but not properly designed for boats! It looks real nice, but is too high and the boat tends to ride up underneath it – not a good thing! Fortunately, Roy had made a fender board while at Burnt Store this winter, so we were able to use that to keep us on the right side of the dock. There were no power or water hook-ups, either, although we saw evidence of a future installation, so we pretended we were on the hook and used the generator. No problem!
We set out early the next morning to cross the lake, which can get quite rough because of its size and shallowness. When we left, the wind hadn’t come up yet at all, and we had a very smooth crossing. Just for fun, because we hadn’t really tried Mer Sea since we’d installed the new dinghy and motor, we spooled her up to see what she would do. Well, were we pleased: 17.5 knots and she hopped right up on plane! No more dragging the swim platform and ploughing when we’re trying to make some speed. It was impressive!
We ended up going further than originally planned, since Indiantown didn’t have any transient dockage available. We went on to Stuart, where we’d not been before. We had the fun of using our new bikes for the first time, with the exception of riding around Burnt Store Marina. We printed a map using our Streets and Trips program, and headed the mile or so into town.
Stuart is a lovely little town, and we parked our bikes and strolled around, window shopping and menu snooping. It’s one of those artsy kinds of towns, with lots of art galleries and doo-dad shops, that’re fun to look at, but not tempting for me to buy from.
We found a FANTASTIC Italian restaurant, Gusto, with wonderful, authentic Italian dishes, served up by wonderful, authentic Italian waiters (dishes!). It was a real treat!! We were there on a Thursday night, and were eating at around 6:00, so didn’t figure the lack of reservations would be a problem, but we ended up having to sit at a bar table because all the regular tables were reserved! Shows you what we know!
We planned on anchoring out the next two nights, and reorganized our schedule to accommodate our new location. It actually made for an easier two days running, having ended up in Stuart rather than Indiantown. Our runs were calm, warm, and picture perfect – and we found a couple of really nice places to anchor. The generator seems to have gotten with the program, and all is right with the world!
We were looking forward to our stay in Daytona Beach. This was a favorite marina of ours from our trip north last year, Halifax Harbor Marina. Well-run, clean, well-maintained docks, knowledgeable and helpful staff, and reasonably priced. Also, now that we have the bikes, we can do more exploring (like going to the beach, etc.) a little further afield.
The trip to Daytona Beach was interesting. It goes through numerous “no wake” zones, mostly because of manatees, and for the first time in any such zones we saw lots of manatees in the channel! Also, there are several very picturesque areas this portion of the ICW goes through, and there were lots of people out in small boats fishing (this was Sunday). It all adds to the charming atmosphere. The weather was again calm and lovely, and we just sort of chugged along, enjoying the ride. As we approached the area around Daytona Beach, we passed an inlet leading to the ocean, and as we came around the corner, all of a sudden, it was as if we were under attack!!! There was a virtual wall of boats of all sizes and descriptions coming towards us at considerable speeds! You’d have to have seen it to believe it! We think what was happening was that these guys were all bound for the ocean, and they’d just come out of a “no wake zone” and were finally able to spool it up, and so they did!! Also, as it turns out, I think most of them were coming out of the marina that we were headed into.
We made it through them unscathed (we always worry about the smaller boats, as we create a considerable wake, and they could be in real trouble if they hit it fast and don’t know how to handle their boats in that situation), we don’t think we killed anyone, and we pulled into the marina channel only to have to continue to do battle for our side of the channel with more of these guys. Whew!! Were we ever happy to finally get tied up at the dock, where we could then go on top and have a beer while watching the passing parade!
Today we took our bikes to the beach in the morning, and we’ll do some grocery shopping later this afternoon. These bikes have already paid for themselves ten times over – we’re so glad we sprang for them!
Tomorrow we’re off to St. Augustine, where we’ll only spend one night if all goes according to the new schedule. We’ll stay at the downtown marina, which is not as nice as where we’ve stayed before, but just steps away from the old downtown area, which is what we want this time. I’m looking forward to having a chance to explore it during business hours.
So far, so good. Stay tuned for more adventures as the trip continues!