Locks and Bridges

 TRAVEL DAY 8 - St. Lucie Lock to Stuart

February 23, 2023

4.1 Hours/19.7 Miles

    The last Lock! This one was a 13' drop. On the other side, back to currents and tides. Return to the brackish and then the salt water. We had to revert back to spring lines and current change anchor swings instead of the lazy waters of the river.

13' drop to the St. Lucie River

    We cruised toward Stuart with our intended goal of tying up to the Stuart Riverside Pier, have lunch and explore some of their riverwalk. We reached the Roosevelt Bridge outside of Sunset Bay Marina at 10:18 am and got in line holding position in the mild current until the next opening. The 12' vertical clearance bridge and more importantly the 7' vertical clearance of the railroad bridge have to both open in order to transit. Both open every 1/2 hour. As soon as we could see the car traffic halt on both sides, the railroad bridge began to swing open first and when it had fully opened, the horn sounded and the Bridgetender announced the opening of the span and the green steel halves slowly went up. The boats paraded through in single file with a few coming from the opposite direction. 

Roosevelt Bridge

    We rounded the point and made our way to the entrance markers to the Stuart Riverside Pier. Once we got close to the floating docks, we could see that the water at the main docks farther in was shallow and since it was mid outgoing tide it would get even lower. We opted to tie along side of the outermost floating dock. It was in pretty rough condition and exposed to the wakes of the St. Lucie River but the wind was mild so it seemed tolerable. I twisted the boat along side and Beth "lasso'd" a cleat on the dock from our midship and I backed down to allow Pau Hana to lay along side, then we got a bow and stern line on and some fenders to keep us off the ragged edge of the dock.

    We unloaded the scooters and headed down the long gangway to the shore and the Riverwalk. We road around the streets to see so many cute shops and restaurants until we settled on "Duffy's" sportsbar. We decided to sit inside in the air conditioning for a change and had a great lunch. Beth asked about the Gluten free options and the waitress said the buns were so good folks buy them to take home. After Beth had her hamburger, she agreed that they were great and the waitress agreed to sell us 4 individually packaged buns which we tossed into our portable freezer when we got back to the boat.

    After a little more exploring we headed back to the boat. The conditions had changed some and the wind and wakes pushed the boat hard against the dock. It took a little more throttle and effort to get the nose to swing out, clear the stern and shove off. It can take some creativity to make a boat do what you want it to do, everything from using the tide and wind to your advantage and creative line handling to get the boat to pivot. Every dockage is different and at times my skills are right on and at other times it looks like my first day. "Getting smarter everyday"....sometimes.

    We proceeded east on the St. Lucie, then turned south past the St. Lucie Inlet down the ICW. The water was spectacular and the confused nature of the waves made for a little bit of a bumpy ride with triple and quadruple engine boats racing past making even more wakes. I've always thought that your combined horsepower should not exceed your IQ, but that hardly ever seems the case.  

St. Lucie Inlet

    

Once past the inlet, the water flattened back out and it was a relaxing cruise to Peck Lake and our anchorage for the night.  We got our anchor set, attached the bridle and launched the dinghy for a short ride to the Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge and the Atlantic Ocean beach. 

The "Hobbit Hole"

    Some chicken on the grill and a nice dinner. As the sun went down I remembered I had brought my Conch, so I moistened up my lips and blew the most pathetic Conch horn of my life! The cool thing was, another boat in the anchorage sounded back with a Conch horn!