Back in Stuart, FL

We're back in Stuart! We left exactly 2 months ago and have logged over 2375 miles.  In some ways it feels like we left a week ago, in other ways it feels like it’s been much longer.   

I left off last as we were entering Jacksonville and recuping from a miserable weekend. Life got better and better from there. It was an uneventful run though we did scrape bottom once while running dead center in the channel. We ran south all day and into the early evening, arriving at Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona in the dark. As night fell we fired up our FLIR (Forward Looking Infrared Radar - aka secret night vision radar) and got to put it to good use.  It’s pretty psychedelic looking.

Martin and his FLIR

The marina had a night security guard meet us to show us to our slip and give us a key. We ate at the restaurant in the marina, filled up on water and washed down the boat. She was completely crusted with salt all the way up to the fly bridge.

We headed out at dawn. The forecast had improved from Cape Canaveral southward so we planned to exit at Canaveral Inlet.  We got as far south as the Canaveral canal and then missed the Christa Bridge in the canal that is closed from 3-6 for rush hour. (We’re about 35 feet high so we have to ask any bridge lower than that to open – some open upon request, others on the hour/half hour, etc).  Disappointed that we’d missed the bridge, we anchored out for a couple of hours to wait for 6pm. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  At 5:30 we pulled up the anchor and headed east into the canal. It happened to be peak high tide at +4 feet.  We had 1 to 1.5 feet under the keel throughout the turn!  So if we’d made the bridge before 3, at mid tide (low was .9) we would have been aground and waiting for 5:30 anyway.

We made it through the bridge and then through the lock where a very grumpy lock keeper works. It all went well and we were out of the inlet around 7:00. The seas were a comfortable 2-3 feet and rolling. What a difference! We ran for 12 hours and didn’t see one other boat the whole way.

We arrived at the St. Lucie Inlet in absolutely calm seas just at daybreak. Since we were a bit ahead of time, on a rising tide, and in dead calm conditions, we decided to calibrate our compass. This is done by spinning the boat around in a circle without stabilizers so we took advantage of the calm.  We’ve known that the compass is slightly off and have been wondering if this could be partially responsible for some of the autopilot issues we’ve been having.

A very benign looking St. Lucie Inlet

After the bumpy seas experienced a few days ago, we were grateful to arrive at St. Lucie when we did. This inlet is notorious for being dangerous in adverse conditions with crashing waves and confused seas while entering. It’s also known for extreme shoaling and shallow conditions. We hit it under perfect conditions - calm seas, no wind, and on an incoming high tide. We also had three “bread crumb” trails on our GPS from former sea trials and our departure that we followed in. We still managed to see .8 feet under the keel at one point in the crossroads.

It felt a bit like coming home when we docked at the commissioning docks. John, Chris and Rob were here and helped us with lines. The dock is full with a 47 and then the 68 and 76 that will also be in the Ft. Lauderdale boat show. We’re all leaving together for Ft. Lauderdale at the end of the week. I’ll write about the Ft. Lauderdale boat show in another post!

Boat Business:

• Compass has been calibrated
• Over the next two days we’ll have some cosmetic work done, the steering pump removed and sent off for repair and our carpet for the pilot house sized.