Into Manatee Pocket and Pull Out of the Water

Day 33: Saturday March 28, 2015

What a way to end this grand adventure!  Our last night on the water and it was a stormy, windy one.  We lay in bed in bed hearing all of the sounds of the wind in the rigging and the twang of the taunt anchor rode wondering which sound is new and which is significant.  Again, the anchor held and we were safe.  Last year, on two occasions, the anchor drug a significant distance causing us to do research over the winter and to purchase a new and improved model.  That said, the experts warn that there is no one anchor that holds well in all types of bottoms but our new one scored high.

We pulled the anchor in a strong north wind and headed towards Stuart which is only 5 miles north up the Intracoastal Waterway.  The air was quite chilly and I layered up against the chill.  The Waterway is quite narrow most of the way so waves were not a problem.

We pulled into the Manatee Pocket off the St Lucie River at about 10:00 with

Is she happy about being back in the US?

apprehensions of landing in the high winds but as we approached the dock we were rewarded with calm water and fairly light air.  I pulled in close to reconnoiter the area, made a 270 degree circle and glided alongside of the dock in a 9.7 grade landing. 

I called a cab to take me to pick up the truck and trailer.  He said he would be there in 30 minutes.  About 25 minutes later, I received a phone call from the driver asking me if I had called the cab and I affirmed that I had and he said that he was in the Lincoln sitting at the end of the dock.  He was this old guy retired guy (probably 3 years older than me) who was using his personal car to haul people around.  We had an interesting conversation during the ride to the storage lot.

Our welcoming committee

Back at the dock, I backed the trailer into the water and easily slid the boat onto the trailer and thus ended a truly epic journey for us.

The rest of the day was spent packaging the boat in preparation for the trip to the factory.  We have stored under our bed a lot of spare parts and stuff that we seldom need all of that will have to come out so that they can modify the wiring for the keel winch.  Some of it will have to go into the motel room while we stuff the remainder into nooks and crannies within the boat.

At dinner time, we drove around looking for a restaurant that is not on the water and not going to soak our remaining cruising fund.  We ended up at a place called Cowboys.  I had barbeque ribs and Janine had mahi mahi.

I wonder how we will sleep on a boat that is not rocking.