Day 6, March 2

It was an extremely calm and smooth night on the St Lucie River. We all had a great night sleep without a/c. Becky took a video of us as we pulled away.

We left our anchorage at 7:30 am and had 3 bridges to go under in Stuart. Then we had to do the "cross roads".  And when we got there, there was a lot of boat traffic and the army corp was dredging. Of course! But Captain Bryan had it under control. Another learning experience.

After that, it was pretty quiet ICW the whole way. Dolphins were all around as we traveled north. We passed some beautiful homes and blue Florida water along the way. We got to our scheduled stop by 2 so. we decided to push on for a few more hours. We are already ahead of schedule and this is good. 

So it was another painting afternoon after I took a bit of time at the helm.  I worked a bit on the shrimp boat and chose a scene from the foggy sunrise at Ortona Lock a couple mornings ago. It had been quiet and calm but we were close to a city and there was a lot of boat traffic zipping around us which made for a bit of really loose palette knife work!

Bryan and Bella on the aft deck

We stopped just south of Melbourne and the front is coming with rain and wind. So we are anchoring in a wide area of the channel and hopefully will be protected from the winds. Tomorrow promises to be WINDY with choppy waters even in the intracoastal. Yeah! This is preventing us from going offshore at this point. 

It was my turn to handle the helm as Bruce handled the anchor. I had been doing the anchor so far with Bryan. It's easy. Push a button. Since we had lots of room and no other boats around us, it was easy. Heavy clouds tonight with the storm approaching from the NW but still a nice sunset.  

Sunset storm clouds

Today travel miles: 79

Total so far:  321.50