On Thursday night we discovered that our TV didn’t get the network stations in Vero Beach. That meant if we stayed for the weekend we couldn’t watch football. Decision made – off to Stuart. The journey was good – more of the same we’ve been having. I am enjoying the ICW in Florida. Other people hate it because of all the bridges, but they don’t bother me. We only had one opening bridge on Friday and we didn’t have to wait for it at all.

We anchored someplace close enough to take our sails to shore for our sail maker to come pick them up. We had taken the two head sails, the jib and the staysail, down while we were under way. There wasn’t much wind so Bill thought we should try it. We have never attempted that before. Amazingly enough it was so much easier to do it while we were moving than when we are in a slip. When we had felt secure enough with our anchorage we loaded the sails into the dinghy. That must have been a sight to see – too bad we didn’t take a picture. We have an 8’ dinghy and the sails pretty much filled it. Bill and I had to squeeze in too. We got them to the public dinghy dock and waited for the sail maker to drive up. We asked if we could go with him back to the sail loft so we could see it. Bill said it was just a mile and a half and we would walk back. It seemed a lot further than that by car. It was probably just a mile and a half but you need to walk the right direction for that to be true. We did not. It was a much longer walk, and Stuart wasn’t the cute artsy little towns we are used to walking in now, at least not the part we were in.

On Saturday we set out to do some of the maintenance projects we have been avoiding because it’s been so incredibly cold. We are no longer cold. Our days are now sunny and in the upper 80’s. That makes us happy! Of course the cold was a great excuse to not have to do any work. Stuart used to have a West Marine within walking distance of the anchorage, but as they apparently keep doing in other places, they moved much further away. Now it’s very difficult to get to the West Marine without transportation. Our cruising club, SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) has a cruising station in Stuart. We decided to have our mail sent there. We called on Saturday morning and he said he had all day set aside to help us with whatever we needed. Bill decided to go to West Marine on Saturday afternoon, and I needed to go to the supermarket. I never really need any food, but it’s nice to provision when someone is there to drive you. Our host, Mike, could not have been nicer. He drove us around everywhere we wanted to go and even took us to his favorite bakery and produce market. I bought way more than I needed, and thought I may even have had room for. Let’s just say Bill was very happy to have to eat all this delicious bread while he watched football this weekend.

This morning I had a first! Bill has been listening to the weather reports on the Single Side Band radio. We listened to the cruiser nets today also. For one of them you need to have a General Ham license, which we both do. I have never actually used mine. This morning I checked in on that net and had to say my call sign over the radio. In case you are curious I am KB3UTF.

We will continue doing our maintenance projects, and hopefully get our sails back tomorrow or Tuesday. We may connect with Mike again and have him give us some tips about going to the Bahamas. One day we may actually get there. For now we are taking each day as it comes and enjoying the sunsets when we can. The picture above is tonight’s over Manatee Pocket.