Day 6: March 1, 2015

Finally we have the right kind of weather

We awoke to a morning sky filled with bright stars and lightly blowing breezes.  Today was to be the day to be on our way.  We began with a wonderful breakfast of cheese omelets.  While Janine straightened up the inside of the boat, I bent the last two sails on the boats, topped up our water tank and hooked the truck to the trailer for the 100 yard dash to the boat ramp.

The launch was routine.  I hit the starter on the motor and cranked it for a few seconds before the battery, which we had been draining for 4 days, gave up its last juices.  This motor has a pull rope and on the third pull, it fired up and ran as designed.  With the motor running and the solar panell producing, the batteries came quickly back to life. 



Our 4 day home site from the water.

I left Janine with the boat and the motor running while I delivered the truck to the storage facility.  It was about a 2 ½ mile jaunt so I decided that I could use the exercise.  About ½ mile on my way back to the boat, I realized that I had left the computer charger in the truck so I turned around and headed back.  I then called a cab.  To heck with additional exercise!

We pumped up our new unnamed dingy, tied her (I assume she is a young lady and will maintain that position until she proves otherwise) on behind Second Wind and headed down Manatee Pocket for a brief shakedown cruise.  The boat, motor and autopilot all performed as we had hoped as we moved past the spot where, last year, the failed water pump caused the motor to quit and the stiff breeze blew us into the dock at which there were moored  several million dollar plus yachts.  Luckily, we avoided all of them and just crashed into the dock.  No damage reported!

From the Pocket, we headed out towards the St. Lucie cut which opens out into the ocean and then swung into the Intercostal Waterway (ICW).  We had a liesurely 3 hour ride passing beautiful mega homes and miles of untamed native mangrove landscape.  It being Sunday, there was quite a bit of small boat traffic but for the most part they were courteous and not a distraction.

Damn Dink's replacement heading
down the Intercoastal Waterway

Janine fixed up a lunch taco for me and at her usual PBJ.  This is how we cruise. 

At around 2:00 we came to a beautiful secluded private anchorage at Lake Francis which is a very small nondescript pond of water nestled in the mangroves.  We had spent our first night out last year in this nice spot and I decided that although it was early in the day, and we had no particular place to be, we might as well enjoy this spot again.  Most suitable anchorages are frequently crowded and noisy so finding one like this is rare.  The entrance to this anchorage has a shallow shoal that crosses that keeps deep draft boats out.

A passer by in our little secluded lagoon

We slowly motored the small river that leads to the actual entrance to Lake Frances.  We dropped and set the anchor at a wide spot at the lake entrance and settled down for a relaxed afternoon.  After buttoning up the sails we opened up a warm cool beverage (remember, we doing it without ice).  The Brits don’t have it all wrong.  Warm beer is not all that bad.  I must admit, I have a preference for cool ones but remember, we are cruising.  We began our evening meal with an appetizer of smoked oysters on crackers followed by meat balls on faux noodles (a low cal substitute for the real McCoy).  Our dessert was in the form of apple sauce. 

After dinner, we hung the little 2.5hp Honda on the back on the dink and took a cruise around our temporary neighborhood before heading back to the boat where we both spent the rest of the evening reading.  Bed called again at around 9:00.