It's always hard to push off from the dock. But it has to be done sometime. Yesterday (25 January) we said a fond farewell to the group of friendly boaters on 'F' dock, and set off. We had been waiting...and waiting for a package to arrive for quite a few days. But with no sign of it (or so we thought) we decided to get going at 1:45 p.m. - cutting it fine to get to our anchorage at Peck Lake, just south of Stuart, before dark. When, at 2:30 p.m., the marina called us to say that the courier had just arrived, there was a lot of hot air around 'Southern Vectis', but no turning back!
That was not to be the only frustration of the day. Our timing to Peck Lake was perfect. We eased carefully around green buoy number 19 as the sun set, and flocks of white ibises swooped low over the water en route to their night-time roosts. Unfortunately we took a little longer to settle in our roost as we ran aground! It's easy to do this in Peck Lake because the sand moves constantly and causes little underwater hills here and there. We managed to get stuck on a sandhill, surrounded by a lot of friendly and helpful boaters - mainly Canadian - who had managed to miss it! As much pushing and shoving by dinghies didn't work, we called 'Tow Boat U.S.' for the very first time in our boating career. Within half an hour a young man in a boat fitted with engines that would not look out of place at Cape Canaveral, roared up, lassooed the boat and dragged us off accompanied by much cheering. He deposited us in a 'sand valley', not hill this time. We anchored, and he jetted off. Wonderful service and worth every annual subscription we've paid over the years!
Now we are waiting for the tide to come in a little before we venture back out onto the ICW for our day's run to Lake Worth. The sun is shining, the sky is blue...but who knows what awaits us around the next bend in the river?
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Florida here we come!
The moon was new and the stars were out when we set off from Niagara-on-the-Lake for our drive south on Sunday 8th January 2012. The inflatable dinghy in the back of our car caused no hiccups at the U.S. border crossing, and we had passed through Buffalo by 7 a.m.
For the next ten hours we drove on snow-free roads, through New York State, Pennsylvania and Ohio - where we discarded our coats and stopped for a roadside picnic - to spend our first night in London, Kentucky. The next day our drive took us through the narrow and winding mountain passes of Tennessee in thick fog and occasional heavy rain.....but still no snow! Last year we had snow right up to the Florida border, so this year we counted ourselves lucky. Chatanooga and Atlanta flashed by as we headed for our second night's stop at the La Quinta Hotel in the small town of Valdosta, just north of the Florida border.
Now we were on the 'home stretch', and, despite getting lost in Orlando and ending up in an area which featured a variety of 'Correctional Institutions' and Bail Bond stores, we managed to get back on the highway to the sun. As we drove into Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce the thermometer in our car read 28C. We had arrived!
Since then winter has returned to Florida with night time temperatures of 2C and a daytime high of 11C one memorable day! But we are used to the vagaries of a Florida winter, and whereas in our early years as snowbirds we may have felt discouraged, or maybe even 'cheated', we just shrug our snowbird feathers, and get on with scrubbing the boat!
'Southern Vectis' was launched on Wednesday 11 January. Her starter motor didn't fire up, so the marine yard gave us a boost and we made it safely to our dock - F38. A new starter battery is needed before we can make our move south. But after eight months on her own, 'Southern Vectis' looked and felt good to us.
Since then we have been getting ourselves organized and provisioning the boat. We've also renewed our aquaintance with the newly renovated 'Harbor Cove' waterfront restaurant. We've even stolen an afternoon to sit beside the pool.Yesterday we went to the Stuart Boat Show but couldn't find one sail boat! In the evening we met up with Al & Maggie, friends from last year, and swapped boating tales at the bar.
We plan to stay here another week. We've booked tickets to see a Gordon Lightfoot concert next Saturday. After that we'll head off and see where the wind...or our engine....takes us!
For the next ten hours we drove on snow-free roads, through New York State, Pennsylvania and Ohio - where we discarded our coats and stopped for a roadside picnic - to spend our first night in London, Kentucky. The next day our drive took us through the narrow and winding mountain passes of Tennessee in thick fog and occasional heavy rain.....but still no snow! Last year we had snow right up to the Florida border, so this year we counted ourselves lucky. Chatanooga and Atlanta flashed by as we headed for our second night's stop at the La Quinta Hotel in the small town of Valdosta, just north of the Florida border.
Now we were on the 'home stretch', and, despite getting lost in Orlando and ending up in an area which featured a variety of 'Correctional Institutions' and Bail Bond stores, we managed to get back on the highway to the sun. As we drove into Harbortown Marina in Ft. Pierce the thermometer in our car read 28C. We had arrived!
Since then winter has returned to Florida with night time temperatures of 2C and a daytime high of 11C one memorable day! But we are used to the vagaries of a Florida winter, and whereas in our early years as snowbirds we may have felt discouraged, or maybe even 'cheated', we just shrug our snowbird feathers, and get on with scrubbing the boat!
'Southern Vectis' was launched on Wednesday 11 January. Her starter motor didn't fire up, so the marine yard gave us a boost and we made it safely to our dock - F38. A new starter battery is needed before we can make our move south. But after eight months on her own, 'Southern Vectis' looked and felt good to us.
Since then we have been getting ourselves organized and provisioning the boat. We've also renewed our aquaintance with the newly renovated 'Harbor Cove' waterfront restaurant. We've even stolen an afternoon to sit beside the pool.Yesterday we went to the Stuart Boat Show but couldn't find one sail boat! In the evening we met up with Al & Maggie, friends from last year, and swapped boating tales at the bar.
We plan to stay here another week. We've booked tickets to see a Gordon Lightfoot concert next Saturday. After that we'll head off and see where the wind...or our engine....takes us!
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