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

Stuart

    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.

Sailfish is King in Stuart, FL

    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"

All alone

A day at the beach

    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! 

Time to blow the Conch





Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2023 at 8:47 AM

    Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rachel EnsingMarch 3, 2023 at 8:21 PM

    Do you have AC on the boat??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pau HanaMarch 8, 2023 at 6:21 AM

      Yes but we have to run the generator when at anchor or plug in at a marina. The nights have been cool and breezy so perfect sleeping weather without it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Bottom Line

Image
    H ere in the Crystal River area where we keep our boat, underwater fouling is minimal. This is due to the amount of fresh water we have. Our canal is "brackish" with not alot of salinity and the closer you are to King's Bay and the springs the salinity goes way down. Out to the Gulf and further south, hull bottom fouling becomes worse. Go to the Keys and the Bahamas and it is very aggressive.  Wintertime when the water is cold, the growth is minimal, but when the water warms it is alive with billions of tiny organisms ready to cling to something and start reproducing. Now that our boat is in Tampa Bay and the water temperature is moving into the 70's the growth is accelerating.  How do we combat this? The list of ways is endless but the basic method is to apply Anti-Fouling coatings. Bottom paint. There is a whole science and tons of info about anti-fouling coatings so I won't go into all of it but basically there are 2 types of paint. Hard & Ablative. Bot...
Read more

Pre Loop Madness and Monotony

Image
   The build up was huge, the anticipation was killing us. Now we're here, living on the boat in Bradenton, FL for the next 14 days before we "shove off". With everything we think we will need for the trip in the back of our car, we load it onto the boat. Where in the heck are we going to put all of this stuff? Organizing and storing in every nook & cranny, sorting and reprioritizing. Re-looking at something and saying, "Do we really need 3 of these?" "Put it back in the car." After two full days, Beth managed to get it all labeled and packed away, somewhere. This little boat has a lot more storage space than we thought. Now, to be able to find it when we want it. I looked for my work gloves for 20 minutes!  "Where is all this stuff going to fit?"     Meanwhile I'm doing the same for all of my tools and gear, gallons of oil, fluids and filters, spare parts and odd things that we just might need to get us out of a pinch.  A few last mi...
Read more

The "REAL" Journey Begins

Image
TRAVEL DAY 1 - Palmetto to Sarasota February 14, 2023 4.2 Hours/31.6 Miles     Today is "really" the day we start of the Great Loop, as opposed to the "Unofficial Start of the Great Loop" . We felt pretty confident that all the preparation and work would pay off . Well, feelings are one thing, realty is another.     We pulled out of our slip and headed for the fuel dock to top off the tanks with a few gallons of diesel and pump out the holding tank. Of course the predicted wind was not what we got, neither was the air temperature, still it was a decent day for a cruise. We're still in our home waters so we basically knew the way. Our destination was Sarasota and a free anchorage. We had planned to pick up an anchor ball at Marina Jack's but it was full. Free anchorages mean more money for food, snacks and drinks! Out of the Manatee River and around Ana Marie Island     Beth had planned some routes on her Navionics and Aqua Maps apps and was ready to assume ...
Read more