Friday, Feb 28, Stuart to West Palm Beach - Saturday, Feb 29 Happy Leap Day!

We weighed anchor at 7:45 AM after 15 minutes of pulling up the anchor which was deep in the mud of the St Lucie River.

And we got to open and go under Old Roosevelt Bridge and the other 2 bridges before our 1st cup of coffee was down. At least it was calmer than last Sunday. Boat and wind wise. 

There are so many LARGE and beautiful homes in this section of Florida. Bella is wondering how a house that LARGE doesn't have any grass! 

Passing Jupiter Light at the inlet. The water is this area is just like the Bahamas. It's not like this most of the area.

On our way to West Palm Beach area, we have 9 bridges with 

only 2 having to open for us.  We should be able to slide under most of them by a couple of feet. 

We got to Riviera Beach Marina around 1:00 and we took on 302 gallons of diesel, tons of fresh water and got a pump out. Then 3:00 we were at our anchorage going a bit further south than last time we were here as it is less crowded. We are anchored amongst some BIG GIRLS here! 

It was a beautiful day, sunshine though very chilly in the morning. The wind got a bit frisky as we anchored so hoping it will quiet down later. 

Our plan is to stay here the weekend unless it looks good enough to go offshore tomorrow (Saturday) for Key Biscayne. 

Below is our anchor mate!

A beautiful evening with city and lots of boat lights!

Miles today: 40

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Saturday February 29 Happy Leap Day

We stayed put today and it was a little bumpy from the north winds coming and chilly! Darn! We are in south Florida and it is cold!

Our plan A for tomorrow Sunday as of this morning is/was to leave early and go offshore with the N-NW winds and 2-3' seas but by mid afternoon, the forcast predictions have changed to NE winds and that is a NO GO. We could go down the ICW but that means playing with all the little boats that zip zap around us and we have 23 bridges, 9 of which must be opened for us, so NO we will at least wait till Monday to enjoy that route! Plan B!

A new anchor mate tonight. 

We are feeling quite small here in West Palm Beach!

Monday, Feb 24 - Thursday Feb 27

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Still in Stuart! 

Still anchored in the north fork of the St Lucie River behind Becky and Chuck's beautiful home. 

We've had a good week visiting with them in the evenings, having dinner out with Linda and Howard. All except for last evening, Wednesday with storms and 2 fronts were barreling down on us. 

Rosie had some good time to paint finishing a commission, doing several Toogoodoo 365 series (from the Ring camera!) and starting on a local scene.

We had some afternoon rain but the evening was pretty dry though it was quite windy but still with a great sunset.

 The real wind began around 3:30 AM and we were both up checking on the anchor alarm and looking out the windows. All good! 

Summer Breeze was all over the place but she stayed within the circle.

We were able to have the use of one of their cars to run errands (Publix, Total Wine, Target and marine stores). We got the part for the generator and it seems to be working great finally. 

Summer Breeze at anchor while we do laundry at the house.

We had our 1st dinghy boo boo. When leaving the dock on Tuesday evening, one of the tubes was deflated by the time we made the short trip back to Summer Breeze.  It seems that we put a 1" slice in the side on the dock by a very sharp barnacle or perhaps a nail. It was a very low tide that night and dark so it's hard to know exactly what happened. Thankfully, Captain Bruce had bought some Tear Aid, a repair tape for Type A dinghy material. So Wednesday, we repaired the hole and we made the short trip to their dock today and it seems to be great! 

Our plan is to leave tomorrow morning, Friday to our next destination at the Palm Beach/Riviera Beach/Lake Worth area.

We had a great dinner with our back yard house hosts, my beautiful little sis Becky and master chef hubby, Charles. 

We will be back on our way home~

Sunday, Feb 23 Arrive in Stuart

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Today makes 3 weeks on the waterway! Time flies!

Sunrise from the master stateroom port light.

We left the Ft Pierce marina dock at 9:50 AM, about an hour before the slack tide but the tide was gentle, no wind and the other boats around us were gone, so it was time to head out!

City and marina view from the waterway.

Captain Rosie at the helm with the auto pilot.

We arrived at our anchorage behind Rosie's sister and brother in law's house, Becky and Charles on the north fork of the St Lucie River at 2:20. It was an easy trip down except for all the crazy small boaters around the bridges and closer to the city. They were actually in our opinion, "crazy"! We went up the north fork of the river to get to their house and thankfully it is quiet up here!

We dinghied in for a great walk and an even better dinner. We plan on spending the week in this area, running errands and waiting out the next storm system before heading south. 

Becky feeding Bella a little treat.

 They have the best sunsets from their home!

31 miles today

Wednesday Feb 19 - 22 , Ft Pierce City Marina

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What a weather week! 

Here in central-south Florida, we experienced beautiful HOT days and COLD wet, gale windy days! I'm talking going from tank tops and shorts to jeans and sweaters!

Blah, blah, blah

say you who are up north where it has been cold and wet all week and snow in Charlotte! I hear that Charleston is 27 this morning!

We planned on staying here these days to take care of some chores and maintenance. We were glad to have been in a safe place with the winds we had yesterday which created white-cap waves inside the marina where there is a rock jetty protection!

Earlier this week, Bella had a grooming appointment with Olga at Pampered Pets

We met up with Ron and Pam (newly ex-Legacy owners) and friends for dinner.

We met up with Steve and Ann (ex-Sassy Kat) again while boat shopping here in Ft Pierce.

(aw, no pics!)

We did boat maintenance, major cleaning, 

replaced a broken VHF radio and the anchor light.

And Rosie got some painting time!

We enjoyed going to some of our favorite restaurants.

I've been taking bird photos for painting references and this pelican was not pleased with us

Saturday market in Ft Pierce. One of the great things about this marina is that you can walk off the dock to one of the best markets ever! We got fresh bread and produce, local honey and good "stuff".

Last sunset here, we hope to go to Stuart tomorrow. The winds were crazy today, not as bad as yesterday but coldish and windy. 💨💨💨💨💨

Tuesday, Feb 18 Arrive in Fort Pierce

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Our dolphin escort down the ICW! Hope the video works this time.

The video did not play at my last post so maybe it will now. Click on the link below.

https://youtu.be/sjf6edb_qHI

We had a short trip into the marina today so we didn’t leave until 9:30 but we still got here a bit early for slack tide. Heading into the current wasn’t an issue as much as the wind!!! 

💨💨💨 

It loves to grab our fly bridge with the isinglass enclosure and toss us around! 

Anyway we docked fine with the help of dockhand Kenny. 

12:45 all tied up to dock A in Ft P Marina 

2 sunset pics tonight as it just gets better and better until it is gone.

We will spend the rest of the week here doing some maintenance, house chores and painting! And tomorrow is Wednesday Market! I hope they still do that as I am looking forward to visiting some of the vendors.

Miles today from Pine Island anchorage: 19

452 SLOW miles from our house to Ft P! 

Monday, Feb 17 Titusville to Pine Island, north of Vero Beach

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Feb 17 is a big day! Rosie’s brother Rey’s birthday and our 3rd year anniversary with Summer Breeze and most importantly our kid’s childhood dog’s birthday! Booger is forever celebrated on Presidents Day.  This photo of the Rey and Rosie is several years old! 

We left the mooring field at 7:10 AM with a beautiful morning (no wind or rain!) and sunrise. 

A painting I did yesterday while at anchor. Another from the Toogoodoo 365 Series

www.rosiephillips.com

A dolphin swam besides us for several minutes. 

We (Rosie) watched the rocket launch! We waited and looked and then suddenly we had an emergency sound go off so Bruce runs down to the ER. 

If you zoom or look into the upper right area, you can see the rocket.

Our Port engine over heated! 

That’s why Bruce missed the rocket launch!

           

After checking sea strainers and impellers, there was no explanation. He looked at the sea chest and noticed what he thought was an object. We had shut the engine off and we were running slowly on one engine and thankfully there was no wind, no current and we were in a wide channel. So after a bit, we restarted the engine and the temperature ran up again. Stopped again and rechecked. Started again and the engine ran fine for the rest of the trip just fine! We have about 20 miles tomorrow to Ft Pierce where we can hire a diver to check the sea chest. 🛳🤷🏼‍♀️

We got to our destination anchorage at Wasabbo bridge and there was a sailboat right in our perfect spot but we have been there before with another boat and it was fine. We could not anchor there as we tried 3 times and it was too shallow in 2 spots and the 3rd was ok but it put us too close to the other boat. So, we bailed. We had another possible anchorage 2 1/2 miles to Pine Island and we decided to try it. We feared it was too shallow for us before but we got behind it and anchored with 3’ below our keel which was good enough. We did get to 1.2’ in our spot search. A sailboat came in after us and went the other direction and ran aground.

We anchored by 4:45 and we love this spot! EXCEPT for the bugs. 

We managed to fill our main cabin with biting gnats and big skeeters.

Tomorrow we have a short trip to Ft Pierce marina and we stage for the perfect tide to enter!

Another great sunset.

9 hours,10 min 

Miles 64

Sunday, Feb 16, Titusville day

We stayed can extra day here to trouble shoot one of our generators that keeps shutting down so Bruce spent most of the day with that. We also took Bella ashore for a good walkie and a trip to CVS. It was much calmer and warmer but the day ended with some light showers again.... 

We spotted a manatee at the marina on our walk today. 

Summer Breeze sits out at the mooring field. 

An early sunset with the marina from the mooring field.

We leave tomorrow and will stop somewhere between Melbourne and Ft Pierce to time our entry into the marina for the next day. 
There is a space launch rescheduled for tomorrow morning and we hope to be in the area at the right time! 
 

Friday, Feb 14 - 15, St Augustine to Daytona to Titusville

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Friday, Happy Valentines Day!

We left the mooring field in St Augustine at 9:20 AM after the line of showers passed us. It is much cooler today and cloudy with early morning fog but it is lifting.

It was a pretty uneventful day, just cold and windy. The most exciting thing was to follow this catamaran through the bridge opening with only one side open! 

We anchored at 4:00 in Daytona, south of Bethune Park, a new anchoring place for us with the wind howling!

54 miles today 

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Saturday, Feb 15

Daytona to Titusville

Anchor up at 7:40

 It was a very windy night and the wind kept us in the same direction despite the change in tide so it was a bit bumpy during opposing times. Today is better weather wise, still windy but we see patches of blue sky! 

And a beautiful sunrise. 

We were moored at Titusville by 1:45 but not until after 5 attempts to catch the mooring ball pendant! The wind had picked up to about 30 mph and the waves were a bit choppy and it was a challenge but we snatched it and latched on! Amazingly, it was not too bad to get Jasmine off the top and dinghy into the marina where Sassy Kat (now EX- Sassy Kat owners as it was totaled by Dorian in the Abacos) drove over to meet us for dinner. It was great to get caught up with Steve and Ann again!

The winds and waves have calmed down tremendously this evening which will make for a wonderful night here!

Miles today 46