Sheet Music 323: Arrived in Stuart, FL, Our Winter Home

Saturday, Nov. 9:

We left Vero Beach this morning under sunny skies and high winds. The forecast was 20-25 with gusts to 30, but we decided at 8 a.m. to leave and get to Stuart.

It was sunny and warm, high 70s. The Indian River was wide, but there were a lot of markers because the channel was narrow.

We arrived at North Fort Pierce Bridge at 9:45 a.m. It is an on-demand bridge, but the bridge tender had orders from the U.S. Coast Guard NOT to open the bridge until 11 a.m. So the skipper pulled out the sails and shut the motor off and we sailed around for an hour. At 10:45, he pulled them in to get ready to go through the bridge.

Hours later, as we were approaching the Old Roosevelt Bridge, it was readying to open for a barge and the tender told us she would let us through too and we should catch up. We did, but then had to wait while the barge slowly went through the bridge. It looked like it barely fit! There was another sailboat waiting with us.

We arrived in Stuart, FL, around 3:15 p.m. and hooked on mooring ball #30. We put the motor on the dinghy and went to the office to pay for the month. Then we went to Annalee to see Patti and Bill, former A dockers at Viking, who are liveaboards. They came up from Marathon to spend some time with all of us. They made salad, spaghetti, meatballs and sausage for dinner for us, so we went back to Sheet Music and got showers, left Jazzy on the boat and went to Annalee for dinner. Our friends, Chrissy and Carl, came as well and they brought warm Italian bread and a big bottle of wine for Chuck. It was great to see everyone.

We have plans to go to dinner Sunday night with all of them and Ralph and Bette, friends from our marina at home.