Alligators and the Indian River

It is Friday, December 12th and I am sitting in the cockpit with Caja at the Mariner Cay Marina near Stuart Florida. We turned off the ICW about a mile ago and all that is left is about 30 miles along the Okeechobee Waterway to Indiantown Florida, where I have decided to leave the boat while we return home for the Christmas and ski seasons. A fair bit of distance has been covered since I last wrote. Today's slip is right outside the marina office so my wi-fi reception is excellent. Time to get caught up.
I left New Smyrna Beach with a good current behind me and made it to Titusville in the early afternoon on Sunday the 7th. The trip down for the most part was along the Mosquito Lagoon, a body of water that was several miles wide and about 20 miles long. It was generally shallow except for where the channel was dredged out. The channel was wide enough that I could use the autopilot to do most of the steering. This is my most valuable piece of equipment. After going the length of the Mosquito Lagoon, we crossed over to the Indian River Lagoon and the balance of the trip along the ICW to Stuart was along this body of water. It was similarly structured - i.e. a few miles wide, shallow and long.
After arriving, I had time to change the oil and filter and still get to take Caja for a long walk along the waterfront. A great deal of the waterfront there was devoted to parkland. There is a huge municipal park that stretched for at least a mile along the waterfront; another park was a tribute to those who contributed in any way to the US space program - we can see the huge erector building at the Kennedy Space Centre from the Titusville waterfront. Another really well-done park pays tribute to those who have fought for the US is recent wars. The rest of the town, however, is far from the classic beauties that we visited in the Carolinas and Georgia. I wandered around looking for a wi-fi spot and struck out wherever I went. I did manage to get stocked up on food and even found a vet where I was able to get some of Caja's regular food - it was about a mile away, though. We had a quiet day on Monday; I found a used book store and picked up a few more paperback "who dunnits",and got to bed early since Tuesday we had a 40 mile day planned- to Melbourne and the city Marina.
We left early again and soon found ourselves pounding into headwinds that increased in strength through the day. The chart indicated that the winds were going to be right into the mouth of the harbour where the marina was located. I tried to call the marina on VHF and on my cell phone but I was unable to raise them, so I decided to cut the trip about 5 miles short and took a slip at the bottom end of the Banana River which was very sheltered from the wind. We tied up for the night at the Telemar Bay Marina. Once we were tied up, I walked and fed Caja and went down to the local sports bar for a quick dinner of hoagies, washed down with a Yuengling beer. We again crashed early since Wednesday would now be the 40 mile day - to Vero Beach.
We left before 7 on Wednesday and again travelled down the Indian River. The wind was again on the nose and fairly strong -15 to 20 mph but the marina at Vero Beach was up a very well-protected river. I had booked a slip there for 2 days but when we arrived, I was told that there was no record of the reservation. This was critical since the weather was forecast to be really bad on Thursday and Vero Beach was a favorite spot to hide. They had no slips available. I protested and they found me a spot in a 3 foot deep lagoon where the dinghys tie up to a floating dock. I had to power into the slip through the silt at the bottom of the lagoon - but - this was a really secure spot to be if the weather got really nasty. The big question was how easy or hard would it be to get out. That would be answered in 2 days.
I treated myself to a great dinner of breaded conch fritters, fried shrimp, and key lime pie at a nearby waterfront restaurant. Vero Beaach is a great place to stay for a while - the county provides free bus service to the shopping areas in the town across the river. There is a very large park where people with dogs meet each morning and evening to exercise the dogs and chat. In many of the marinas visited recently there are found more and more people who live aboard their boats and who stay in marinas for months at a time. The other thing that was very striking about Vero Beach is that many more boats are tied up to mooring balls - in fact, most of the moorings had 3 boats rafted together - there is no anchoring allowed in Vero Beach. The storm came and went - the wind was strong - the rain was heavy, but by about 7 p.m. on Thursday, things had settled down and we had a quiet night. I made up a dinner of tuna and pasta - enough for tomorrow as well.
Friday morning arrived and we again planned to leave around 7. The tide was out and I was stuck in my slip. I managed to push myself back about 10 feet and then put the engine in reverse, and got on the dock and pushed and we slowly moved out into deeper water. We left without incident and started off on the last day of ICW travel. It turned out to be a great one since the wind- at 15 to 20 mph, came from behind, over my shoulder. We were able to put out the genoa and move at an average of about 6 knots for the entire trip. We arrived here in the Manatee Pocket near Stuart, after fighting a bit of current, and wind, were tied up by around 1:30. I think that I may try to upload some photos here later tonight, but now, Caja is begging for a walk. Dinner is leftovers from yesterday and tomorrow, we take our last boat ride ...for a while.

TTYL
Mike