Palm Coast to Stuart, FL

Ship’s Log – November 26 Palm Coast, FL to December 16, Stuart, FL

Two weeks in ME flew by with much visiting and catching up with friends and family and I was able to get the gardens put to bed. It was fun to get my hands in the dirt for awhile.

Another week was spent in Palm Coast while Al and Mark did a lot more work on the engine. It is a small and very sweet marina with very friendly liveaboards, no matter the size of their boat - like that giant one in front of us.

I spent some of that time ferrying to the grocery store on a bicycle to start the provisioning process and dug out the piano to work on some arrangements. One evening we were glued to the TV (cable in all the marinas now) watching the tornado warnings and the weather map as a nasty front passed through – side show from Ida. Our last evening we were treated to the local Parade of Lighted Boats. I got out our lights so we could get decked out and we got set up with lights and hats.

We left Palm Coast on Saturday the 5th and spent three nights on the hook going down the coast: New Smyrna, Titusville and Eau Gallie. The area just after New Smyrna was lagoon-ish; a shallow area with lots of small islands. The wildlife was spectacular with dolphins and birds – herons, pelicans, osprey, terns and gulls . We saw more dolphins that day than I think I have seen my entire life. They swam all around the boat, rode and leapt in our wake beside the boat and would periodically turn to look up at us. It was so amazing. The weather was a bit rainy but it was warm and smelled so nice.

Our next stop was the Vero Beach Municipal Marina, a place with a mission. Our friends from S. Portland, Joel and Becky have a place here in Vero (they were not there right) and they have friends from Maine whom we have met with them over the years at various functions who were there. Those friends, Bob and Mariele Schaedel lent us their 2nd car which was a huge help, while we were in Vero and we spent the better part of two days (Thursday and Friday morning) doing the BIG provision to carry us through the big part of the trip to the Bahamas where a roll of TP or a boat part is LOTS more $. That would include paper products, beer and wine, canned goods, condiments, parts and piece for the boat, new snorkel masks, etc.

From there we moved 15 miles south to Fort Pierce. The boat has now gone full circle. Fort Pierce is where we purchased the boat and we were at the home of the previous owners of the boat, Nels and Suzanne Hallstrom and their five – count them – five Chihuahuas.

They were awfully cute and had

amazingly different personalities.

Mark has Madeline and I am holding Carlton. Suzanne rescued him as he tried to cross Route 1!

Their home is on the water in Faber Cove and we stayed in their slip. They also lent us their 2nd car so we could get all the stuff that we either forgot or couldn’t find.

We had dinner with a third acquaintance, Carl Smith on Friday night. Carl (from Saco) is taking all the recordings of the PSO and digitizing them to be “rereleased”. Quite an interesting project and he is having a grand time with it. Back at home the PSO Magic of Christmas was in full swing and not being present to defend myself I seem to be getting the blame for starting the red socks tradition – so I sent them a photo of red socks in FL. Saturday night we had dinner with our hosts and another couple, staying up well past our bedtime having a grand time. Those few days were warm and rainy but Sunday cleared out and the temperature rose quickly to 84 degrees necessitating setting up our aft cockpit shade covering which is working out very well. We ended up spending a few extra days in Fort Pierce as we were waiting around for a delivery. The chart program that we bought for the Bahamas would not properly load onto the computer and I had spent hours with the tech guy on the phone Wednesday. He said he would put a new disk in the mail to us that would be in Fort Pierce on Friday….NOT. Tracking says Monday – so, shucks, we’ll just have to wait.

The program did arrive late Monday and is still being a problem but at least we can run it from the disk. Nels and Suzanne suggested a cookout so we combined forces and had another fun dinner on their patio. I just love outdoor dining.

After a few more chores and some laundry we reluctantly departed Tuesday, late morning and did a short day down to Stuart, FL. We headed up the St. Lucie River to a very nice anchorage where we could actually get a mooring and it was only $10 a night. Bargain!