We set off with fond memories of Ft. Pierce

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?