Fort Pierce

When we left Stuart we headed north to Jensen Beach for a day, and then Nettles Island Marina to get water and charge the batteries. Several people recommended that we go to Peck Lake so we turned around and went back south. We took the dinghy to shore to Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge on Jupiter Island and walked along the Atlantic and collected shells.

This is where we met Paul Johnson, sailor extraordinaire from the Shetland Islands and an accomplished boatbuilder and artist, who regaled us with stories of his past sails and current life living on his boat.

Stuart

We're spending the weekend on a mooring at Sunset Bay Anchorage at Stuart on the St. Lucie River, east of Lake Okeechobee. It was a pleasant trip from Cocoa with a stop in Ft. Pierce to fill up the gas cans and water tank. Even with our new GPS with charts, we almost went aground twice with Gilles at the tiller, looking around instead of watching where he was going. Fortunately, I came out of the cabin both times (always looking at the depth finder on my way out) and saw that we were out of the channel.

We spent one night at Manatee Pocket near the Crossroads of the St Lucie Inlet, the ICW and the St Lucie River, where we met Hal, a friend from the boatyard at San Mateo. Manatee Pocket is a small, pleasant anchorage with a luxury marina and restaurant nearby. Since he's always looking for something to do, Gilles climbed up the mast to adjust the radio antenna.

Stuart is a nice little town with art galleries, a historical museum, a waterfront park, and stores to pick up supplies. Gilles worked on the boat some more and I cleaned up only to discover a leak (minor) in the water tank.

Cocoa

The scenery along the ICW is typically wild natural Florida on one side and mansions/condos on the other.

We're hanging out in Cocoa for a day or so to replenish supplies and get another GPS because ours is intermittently losing power.

Jacksonville to Cocoa

Leaving Palatka on Sat, Feb 21, we headed north on the St Johns River to Jacksonville, where we docked at Jacksonville Landing alongside the pilot ship, Virginia. She followed and then passed us as she headed out to sea and we turned south on the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), stopping for the night at Jacksonville Beach, Daytona Beach, Titusville, and Cocoa Village. Along the way we went aground twice (not unusual on the ICW especially during low tide) and managed to outrun dark threatening clouds and thunderstorms on the approach to Titusville.

Cafe Bleuu, Welaka, Florida

We couldn't start the cruise without a farewell dinner at Cafe Bleuu in Welaka. Afterwards, we walked down to the city dock and saw this egret.

In the Water At Last

This is how you move a 7,000 lb sailboat into the water. After morning thunderstorms of heavy rain and strong winds, Tommy and Jerry came by with the marine travelift and gingerly picked up Dolfijn and took her to the water. We're tied up at the dock for a day to make sure we don't take on any water and to finish organizing our stuff and replenishing supplies.

An Update

Gilles is still working on the boat, sawing wood and getting paint on everything and asking me to get out of the way. I've read three books: "The Best American Travel Writing 2007" edited by Susan Orlean, "The Cure for Anything is Salt Water: How I Threw My Life Overboard and Found Happiness at Sea" by Mary South, "Moral Disorder" by Margaret Atwood, and just started a fourth, T.C. Boyle's "The Women."

I'm anxious to get going. We're only a few miles from Satsuma where five year old Haleigh Cummings disappeared. Everyone seems on edge as the search continues and there is still no sign of her. It's becoming commonplace to see people handing out flyers, helicopters flying overhead, and fleets of police cars and television microwave trucks.