Sunday, March 3, Fort Pierce, FL

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Fort Pierce

We have been here at the Fort Pierce City Marina since last Monday, Feb 25th. We really like this marina and all the amenities they offer. There is an abundance of restaurants and shops within a very short walk. Publix is a bit further, a good walk but would need an Uber/Lyft if carrying much back. 

Happy Hour at the Tiki Bar at the marina

This is the city marina. We are on the left side along the face dock which is very protected. 

FaceTime with Bella!

And Melissa and Caitlyn!

There is a First Friday Fest on the 1st Friday of each month and it was crowded! 

Food and drink trucks, live music and plenty of vendors.

The next morning, Saturday is the Farmer's Market with some beautiful local produce and food, arts, crafts, live music and it all happens right at the marina gate. The Farmers Market is every Saturday. 

Last week, we rented a car and spent the night in Stuart with my sister and did some shopping. This past weekend, Bryan and Mary came in from Fort Myers. 

We will be renting a car again but for the week tomorrow. Bruce will be attending a couple days of Diesel School as part of the annual Trawler Fest at Hutchison Island (Stuart/Jensen Beach area) and we will go visit my sister and hubby again. 

 Pelicans at the Fort Pierce Inlet

Sunday afternoon rainbow with the rain staying just south of us. Nice rainbow but near as nice as the Toogoodoo rainbow sent to me by Anne last week!

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Titusville to Wabasso and finally Ft Pierce, Feb 24-25

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Feb 25, Monday Arrive in Ft Pierce! 

Sunrise at Wabasso, Bruce is on anchor duty this morning.

We left our anchorage at 7 AM after a night of strong winds. We arrived at the Ft Pierce City Marina about 10 AM and had to hover in the small harbor basin for about 30 minutes with some fierce winds and a pretty strong current while other boats were leaving the marina. Because of the strong winds, they put us on the face dock (which is actually easier for us) because even the experienced didn't want to go into the slips right now.

The tricky part of the deal today was that we had to make a turn around in a very narrow channel between the boats and rocks with the wind and current and then wedge in between 2 boats. Captain Bruce was a master at it and definitely earned a celebration beer with his lunch. And yes, I do think he would've taken anything stronger to settle his nerves at 10 AM after this!

We will get moved in a couple of days when the winds and storms dissipate a bit. They like to keep these spaces open for the 1-2 day transients. 

We were so happy to be here and get somewhat settled. We took a short walk into town to the ACE hardware store (it's time to start on some repairs) and to check out the area and celebrating with lunch at the Tiki Bar on the marina grounds. 

Some of our new neighbors watching us...

A child was feeding the catfish on the dock. They went into a frenzy

Miles traveled today: 21.5

Total miles traveled: 457.6

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Feb 24, Sunday

We left our Titusville mooring ball at 6:45 AM hoping to get some water miles under the keel today.

Being a Sunday, there was a lot of boat traffic out. And 99% of  it was some small and fast! Some of the bigger and newer fishing yachts were blowing down the ICW causing huge wakes and about 8-9 out of 10 will slow down so we don’t roll as much. We did see several areas where the small boats gather on small islands or sand bars, kind of like our Botany Bay and Otter Island areas.

It was a windy ride and the temps get a little higher as we go south! And the sun feels it too! We are pretty protected under the large Bimini but in the morning and late afternoon, the sun is lower than the edge of the bimini. Kind of like your car windshield and top. Even though we are covered in sun screen, some of us use “extra protection”.

 I know! Not pretty!

We talked to the marina today and they will be able to get us in early. We are now planning on tomorrow.

We had never seen a baby blue tug from Houma, LA.

We’ve been traveling alongside Sandy Paws for a few days, passing them today. They came in and are our anchor mates for the night. The rain front that the north has been getting will be coming through tonight bringing a change in wind direction. We think we are set for it. 😛

We traveled 60 miles and were anchored by 4:10 at the Wabasso Bridge anchorage. 

(About 7 miles north of Vero Beach). 

Miles today: 53.8

Total Miles Traveled: 430.1

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Titusville, Feb 22 Friday and 23, Saturday

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Feb 23, Saturday

The Scrub Jay Festival is about the bird!  So we learned that this festival is highlighting Florida's only endemic bird and other critical species that rely on the Florida scrub.  And we walked over there and it was "cute" but not what we would call a festival. Oh well....

ICW Bob took this photo of us from the dock. We thought they had come by in the dinghy but it was from a long way. They made a print for us and we greatly appreciate it! He also took really great photos of the space launch. You can see those here. We were taking the dinghy down for a ride into town. Or maybe we were putting her up?

We did get a chance to meet Vic on Salty Turtle, a DeFever 44 like ours, but missed his wife. Fun to meet other DeFever owners!

Our face time with Bella today!

And one more Titusville sunset. We plan on leaving tomorrow and ending up somewhere between Melbourne and Vero Beach. Our slip in Ft Pierce is reserved for March 1 but we are hoping to take it a few days early.

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Feb 22, Friday

Today was a quiet day on the mooring.  I did some house chores, a bit of gallery chores and painted, Bruce got caught up on some reading.  I thought I was done with the painting but after photographing it, I realized I’m not! 

Another DeFever 44 came in today. Salty Turtle, we hope to meet them before we all leave. We never took the dinghy down today. Tomorrow, we will as there is a festival in town. The Florida Scrub-Jay festival. I had to ask what that was! Do you know? 

Great sunsets in Titusville! 

Titusville, Feb 20 and 21

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Feb 21, Thursday

The winds calmed down quite a bit today. 

We dinghied over to the marina and took a long walk, about 4 miles and toured Titusville. I think we saw it all. There is a small American Space Museum and Space Walk of Fame here that is dedicated with memorabilia of the men and women that built the space program (a lot of the really old space launch stuff), but it was cool. Veterans of the space program serve as guides and the nice lady there is adorable. She and her husband used to work over at NASA and she is so very excited about the launch tonight. Her eyes twinkled as she talked about it. 

We came across Dixie Crossroads which is a well known and popular local restaurant so we had to try it. It was good. Not downright great but good.

 And we had to try the Rock Shrimp which is what they and this area are known for. They are like tiny (and I mean TINY) lobsters. We had them broiled. With butter! They told us that the Rock Shrimp are only here off of Cape Canaveral or the other side of FL on the gulf and are called Mexican Rock Shrimp

We came back home to have a relaxing afternoon and I had another shot at painting. This one will not go in the trash but I sure do feel rusty! I have been working on another one but I can't show it as it is a  surprise gift for someone! 

This is "Augustus", the blue heron from St Augustine. 

5 x 7n oil on panel

Heavy and dark clouds came back around and the wind picked up again.

We are hoping that this does not mess with the launch. 

Tonight is the SpaceX launch (the 1st space launch of 2019) which will be exciting to watch. It will be a rocket with an Israeli module that will land on the moon.. Looks like we have about the best seat to view from! 

The launch is on!

Unfortunately, the ball of light (fire) looked a lot better with the naked eye vs the phone camera, and it was pretty amazing to see and hear!

What was even more amazing was the line of traffic lights waiting to cross over the bridge. Where do they all go to watch the launch? We are thinking the beach? 

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Feb 20, Wednesday

A very windy day here. We dinghied over to check in at the marina office and it was a bit choppy getting there. The marina slips are very protected from wind and wave action but the mooring today is not so much. Titusville Municipal Marina is very nice. 

We then walked over to to meet ICW Bob and Ann Sherer as there are staying in a slip here. 

It’s always nice and fun to meet people in person that you have met on fb or emails. And we met Hoolie and got some dog loving in. If you cruise the ICW, you must follow Bob Sherer on his ICW blog as his info and tips are invaluable. https://fleetwing.blogspot.com 

Speaking of dog loving, we face timed again with Bella and Maya today for a bit.

                           

 

We took the afternoon off to paint and get our income tax papers signed. Not all fun and games but at least it is all do-able on the boat! He got the taxes done and I threw the painting in the trash. For real.

 Sunset tonight