Merry Christmas
24 December 2014 | North Palm Beach
From Vero Beach we made our way to Stuart, only stopping because this was a good place to buy batteries. They have a very nice mooring field and sailor's lounge. Early in the day we were passed by a 50-60 foot power boat going much to fast; his wake knocked everything off shelves and the table! Later as we entered Stuart he was coming out the shallow, narrow channel much too fast and caused a small fishing boat to lose control in the wake - what could have been serious injuries or a fatality turned out to be just some damage to our stern pulpit and our dinghy thanks to the quick action of Ron and the driver of the fishing boat - still probably about $1000 in damage! We called the power boat - he seemed oblivious to what had happened. He is a danger, so we reported him to the Coast Guard and posted information on some suitable sites on Facebook. We were far more upset by this than we expected and were glad we planned to stay put for a couple of days. On our second day, we walked through the lovely little town and in the afternoon had our new batteries installed.
From there, we travelled to North Palm Beach. We have now entered an area where there are many bridges that must lift to let you pass which slows you down quite a bit. The winds picked up over the afternoon to a point where we knew we (I) wouldn't be comfortable at anchor so we called a nearby marina. They had room for us, we got 25% off as Boat US Members, and since it's Christmas they gave us 3 nights for the price of 1 and a bottle of wine - what's not to like! So this is where we will spend Christmas! It's quiet as most people have gone home for the holidays but it's very comfortable!
Merry Christmas everyone! We hope to be on the move again on Boxing Day.