Back on the again heading South

Day 2:  February 25, 2015



What we left behind.  (Two days before leaving)

We got up and away from Charleston at about 7:00 am heading for Stuart FL.  Our destination is where we plan to launch the boat and store our truck and trailer.  We have a late afternoon appointment with a manager of a storage lot..  We have had a bit of trouble finding a place that will take both our truck and trailer.  Combined, they are about 47 feet in length and folks don’t have that kind of space. 

Compared to yesterday, the drive was a walk in the park.  It was great not having a pressing deadline that we had to meet so liesurely driving down through the flat coastal land from South Carolina, through Georgia and south in Florida was really quite pleasant. 

One little problem that we have encountered on the road is trying to find a place that has the room for us to park the truck and trailer when we stop for lunch.  We pulled into one place, packed the boat into the corner of their rear lot and were heading in when a group of cars began pouring in.  They began parking in front and so we ran back to the truck and made a hasty retreat.  The remainder of the drive through Florida was quiet uneventful.  We arrived in Stuart at around 4:15 and found our storage manager, Kathleen, to be a great person who was willing to work with our special problems of short term leases and over length vehicles.

From the storage area we traveled the short distance to Sand Spit Point park where we snuggled the boat back into a corner of their trailer storage area in preparation for a good night’s sleep and the rigging of the boat for our anticipated launch tomorrow.

One thing I really enjoy about these adventures are the people we run into.  As we were transferring our perishable foods from the truck to the boat, a young man pulled up pulling a beautiful homemade fishing boat.  I went over and complimented him on his boat and he told me that prior to having a family, he had a Hershoff sailing vessel and he and his young bride sailed over to the Bahamas on numerous occasions.  (For those of you who are sailors, you know that the Hershoff boats are of the highly regarded early design beautiful seaworthy boats.)  He said that he was a sailor at heart and had done research on boats and ran across the Seaward brand boats like ours and would probably have one someday. 

Also, parked near us was a lady who had been fishing and came and offered us a mackerel fish for supper.  We struck up a long conversation about all sorts of things sailing.  She had lived on and sailed on a boat from California through the Panama Canal into the Caribbean ending up in NYC.  She was really interesting as well offering numerous suggestions for our trip.  She ilnsisted that we get cabbage for our roughage.  She says that it will keep on a boat for months.  We told her that we were using tortillas for our bread source and she got all excited and told us of a little Mexican grocery in the area that sells a tortilla press and the mesa (sp?) flour for making her own.  She says that she takes the press and flour with her when she camps and only eats her own tortillas.

By the time she left it was dark so we went looking for an eating establishment.  The fish lady suggested that we eat at a place called Shrimpers.  After some hunting, we finally came upon this interesting establishment.  It was an open air building right on the Manatee Pocket.  You could pull you boat up to their wall and have a fine meal as did we.  Janine had a salmon club sandwich and I had grilled Grouper. 

Back at the boat, sleep came early and quickly.