Day 301 - 302, April 17 - 18, 2023

 Day 301 Monday April 17, 2023

Pirate's Cove Marina Stuart, Florida to Fort Pierce Florida

It was a short travel day to Fort Pierce. The day was warm, grey with some sprinkles.  Susan and Danny helped us off the docks.  It felt strange to be saying goodbye to them again.  They have finished there Loop and are prepping their boat to sell.  They have a potential buyer coming from California.  Hopefully the boat survey and sale will go smoothly for them.  Once sold they will be moving back into their camper and traveling the country visiting family.  They have already promised to visit us in Fort Pierce!

There was lots of current getting into the marina but as usual Jerry handled it well.   Loopers on Anna Dee, Mobile Home, DeTour and Child of the Sea were also in the marina.

We did a bit of a discovery tour and ended up at Cobb's Landing after walking the downtown area.  Surprise -- it was Margarita Monday. Two for one served with chips and salsa.

 Fort Pierce area is known for sailfish fishing.

Day 302 Tuesday, April 18, 2023

We walked to Sunrise City Café for breakfast.  What a great experience.  It was all about customer service and the food was excellent.  We were barely in the door and had been directed to a table and greeted by multiple staff.  Our food was ready in no time and several servers checked on us to see if are food was good or we needed anything.  Jerry and I each ordered "Tony's Favorite".  So good -- an omelet with chorizo, tomato, onion, green pepper, mushroom, topped with avocado.  They also have specialty coffees can be loaded and served with whipped cream in a rimmed glass.  Very decadent. 

From breakfast we walked to the Manatee Observation and Education Center.  Run by volunteers it was small but informative.  Too bad we didn't see any manatees.  

 

 These wire mesh containers are seeded with grasses.  They are hoping to reestablish the grass beds to feed the manatees.

Guess who joined us for dinner -- Laura, Joe, Susan and Danny!!  We are all having a bit of separation anxiety.  Back to Cobb's Landing for dinner.

Tomorrow we head to an anchorage in Melbourne, making our way towards Jacksonville.

Day 297 - 300 April 13 - 16, 2023

 Day 297 Thursday, April 13, 2023

Old Port Cove Marina, West Palm Beach to Stuart, Florida

Florida has experienced record rain and flooding, even closing the Fort Lauderdale airport.  Gas shortages are occurring because flooded roads have hampered fuel delivery.  Today is dreary but winds have decreased.  We left Old Port Cove Marina at 10:20; we only have a 4 hour travel day.  We will spend a few days in Stuart with Danny and Susan on Phil-N-Wild and have a chance to visit with Laura and Joe some more.  Sharon and Grant are traveling on ahead but we will be catching up with them in Daytona.

 

 Lots of beautiful homes along the way.

We passed North Old Port Cove Marina and were surprised to see Mountain Mermaid -- we had traveled with them while in Canada.  

Most of the trip required minimum wake travel due to the number of docks and manatee zones.   We passed the Jupiter Lighthouse and the Jupiter Bridge under construction

.   

Dolphins met us at the busy Manatee Pocket entrance.  We consider them a good omen.  Manatee Pocket is a bay off the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway.  Once again we were met at our slip by Susan and Danny.  Good thing -- the slip was very narrow and the dock quite short and high; the marina dockhand wasn't very helpful so it was great to have help from Danny ad Susan. 

Once settled we headed to the Pirate Cove Tiki Bar with Susan, Danny, Joe and Laura.  Our timing was excellent as it rained buckets while we enjoyed live music, drinks and snacks.  From there everyone headed back to Phil-N-Wild to visit.

  

Day 298 Friday, April 14, 2023

Stuart, Florida

Today we cleaned the boat in anticipation of a visit from friends, Linda and Ted.  They winter in Jensen Beach and spend their summers on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh.  They arrived by boat  to visit us.  We had a great lunch with them at Shrimpers.  

 

Later we joined Susan, Danny, Laura, and Joe for bowling.  Joe and Laura are members of the Stuart Corinthian Yacht Club that had organized the event.  Lots of fun, but no real champion bowlers....  

 

We worked up an appetite for Mexican and ate at Casa Tequila.

  

Good food and tableside guac.

Day 299 Saturday, April 15, 2023

We got the marina okay to stay until Monday.  Originally we had planned to leave Sunday morning.  Ted picked us up and brought us to their condo.  We had another great visit and an awesome meal.  Linda treated us with homemade lasagna, salad, homemade blood orange gelato, and snickerdoodle cookies.  We are so lucky that we have been able to visit friends along the way.

 

 

Day 300 Sunday, April 16, 2023

Can you believe it?? DAY 300 of our Great Loop Adventure.  It has been 300 days since we left Mooney Bay; only 110 have been travel days.  Our longest stretches without moving the boat have been in Clearwater, our trip home for Christmas and our time in Stock Island, Key West. 

Today we headed to church at St. Andrew Roman Catholic Church.  It had a very formal atmosphere and not very friendly.  They even had a "Church Etiquette" card in each pew which included how to behave and dress for church.  For your information -- men should wear suit coats, ties, no sneakers, shorts or sandals.  Women should refrain from tight fitting, low cut or revealing clothing, no shorts, or sandals.  Our least favorite church experience so far.   

More fun with friends today.  Since we had prolonged our stay we were spending the evening with Laura, Susan, Joe and Danny.  Laura served a delicious pork ragu, salad, and italian sausage with peppers and onions.  She also made brownies and her famous cheesecake, enjoyed over a game of 7's.   Yummy and fun!

 

Tough to say goodbye again.  The four of them will try to visit us in Fort Pierce. 

Day 292 - 296 April 8 - 12, 2023

Day 292 Saturday, April 8, 2023

West End Bahamas to Palm Beach, Florida

Off to the USA!! 

We were underway at 07:50 for our 56 mile crossing.  Weather prediction was for sun with 2-3 foot waves from the east, southeast.  All weather resources confirmed that conditions would be good.

We traveled in 12 feet of water for about 20 minutes and then we were in depths over thousands of feet.  Water color changed from turquoise to a deep color blue with 3-4 foot swells.  Waves were giving us a push and twisting us a bit off course.  We saw a hammerhead shark in the clear water and a bird floating on wood debris in the middle of the ocean!

The cargo ship "Pelican State" requested we pass him at his stern.  He was anticipating the need to alter his course for a sailboat.  

LAND HO at 12:45.  It was exciting to see it.  

At 1:55 we entered our request to arrive using the ROAM app on our phone.  We would need to hang our quarantine flag and start throwing away any prohibited  food items if we didn't get a quick response from customs.  It took 40 minutes for them to approve our request.  I had already dumped the remaining quart of milk.  We weren't required to report for an inspection.

We made it to the busy Lake Worth Inlet and understood why we have been advised not to travel on a weekend!  The inlet and waterways to our marina were crazy busy with boat traffic.  Peanut Island is a popular spot for boaters.

 Peanut Island

We arrived at our slip at around 4pm.  We ate dinner at the marina restaurant, Belle's, with Sharon, Grant, and Melinda and Duane, from Surface Interval III.

 Gift from the marina.

Day 293 Sunday, April 9, 2023

Safe Harbor Old Port Cove, Palm Beach Florida

It's Easter Sunday!  We celebrated mass at St. Paul of the Cross.  They have 3 masses, with 2 "overflow" masses (starting 15 minutes after the regular mass), traffic control and standing room only.  

  The Bunny came!

Easter dinner was celebrated at Laura and Joe's with their sons and families along with Susan, Danny, Sharon and Grant.  What a generous offer to share their family AND a delicious meal with us.  Laura cooked for 2 days with ham, lamb, beef tenderloin, glazed carrots, sweet potato casserole with peaches, roasted potatoes, asparagus, mushroom gratin, (all amazing) and FOUR deserts.  Her homemade cheesecake, carrot cake, key lime pie, and berry trifle were all delicious.  Yes, we had to have the sampler.  Lucky us, we went home with desert leftovers.

 Our hosts.

  

The whole family got into the act!

 

 

Day 294 Monday, April 10, 2023

Old Port Cove

Rainy, dreary day was spent doing our taxes.  Back to reality...... sorry, no pictures of that job.  LOL

Day 295 Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Today was grocery day.  Although the marina has a shuttle it doesn't seem to be available when we ask about it.  We Ubered to Publix and managed to fill 4 bags and a backpack in addition to wine and beer.  No way we could do all that on our bikes.  We also got what has become a routine purchase from the deli at Publix -- a crispy chicken sub.  So yummy -- thanks Matt for craving one.  We understand why.

  Boats in the marina. 

 Tiger Woods' boat "Privacy" on the left.            Another pic of "Privacy".

Day 296 Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Another dreary day.  Tired of the wind and rain we decided to go on a field trip.  Our first stop was West Marine, after a golf cart ride to the end of the marina property by Robert, it was only a short walk away.  We checked out Doris's, the Italian market next door, and then Ubered to The Garden Mall.  By now it was raining HARD and the wind blowing.  It took 30 minutes to get a ride back to the marina.

Raining hard.

 Doris's

 On the ceiling of our Uber.

Jerry braved the rain and wind to grill our hamburgers.  Grilling on your boat isn't allowed in the marina so he got lots of looks from the boaters going by at the grill provided by the marina.  Who grills in weather like that??? We experienced wind gusts up to 40 mph; so glad we are tied to a dock.

Wizards on Call Me Curly and planning our departure tomorrow.  We are headed to Stuart while they are moving on to Fort Pierce.