11/26/2010, North Lake Worth, FL

November 21-26, 2010 Stuart to Lake Worth
I guess, maybe, we'll leave tomorrow . . .
This has been quite the season for spending boat units. Most of the batteries were not good. Mike called a car service to pick him up and take him to Walmart for more batteries. Before the pick-up time arrived, Sid walked by. Mike had dinghied out to meet Sid, on "Quest" the day before. He is a friend of Mike's cousin Martha from Washington. Turns out, Sid has a truck here and offered to drive Mike. "Cancel the car", came the order from the captain.
While Mike went on his merry way, I walked to the Publix (grocery store) with Steve, Kim, and Susan. More food? Where will we put it?? Ah, well. We do like to stock up before going to the Bahamas, but there must be an end to it. They do sell food there!
So, with new batteries and a full larder, we all headed down the ICW for Lake Worth. Lake Worth is a good jumping off spot for the Bahamas. We had just gotten underway when Night Hawk, who had left earlier, called on the radio to say they were overheating again and were turning around and heading back to Stuart. We debated about going back with them, but decided to continue on.
After 7 bridge openings (always an experience), we arrived in Lake Worth and anchored in North Lake Worth. A boat in front of us left, and not too long after, "Estelle" dropped anchor there. We had not seen Jim and Jeannie for 2 years, so it was good to catch up with them.
Well, another trip to Publix here-more food!-as well as a trip to West Marine and Duffy's for lunch. Kim and I also picked up some stone crab claws from a truck on the side of the road. Yum.
Since we did not leave, we did boat projects. We had purchased some Spiroll to pad our dinghy davits in places. The davits tend to leave rust stains on the dinghy. Spiroll is actually a product to use as a chaff protector on lines and it wraps right around them, but we hope it will work as a nice pad for the dinghy.
We were invited to "Fine Lion" for cocktails, so we decided to eat supper before heading over. We ate our stone crab claws, some cooked spinach, and a spinach salad with dried cherries, pecans, and Gorgonzola cheese, with an Asian sesame dressing. It was all good.
So, I believe we will be off today, traveling all night and ending up in Lucaya tomorrow morning. That means internet will be intermittent from now on. We will post when we can!
PS-someone sent a private message to us through Sail Blogs. I skimmed it and thought we could go back and read it later, but I can't find it. It was someone who had just purchased a Bayfield 40 and had some questions. Please email us at sapphire.mk@gmail .com and I'm sure Mike will be happy to chat on and on about the Bayfield 40!

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11/21/2010, Stuart, FL

November 19-20, 2010 Stuart, FL
We (Sapphire, Fine Lion, and Night Hawk) picked up some mooring balls in Stuart. The marina has a nice clubhouse, showers, and laundry. They also have a courtesy bus to Walmart, West Marine, and some other places on Wednesday and Saturday.
We walked the town to find the post office and Ace Hardware. With those jobs done, we headed into historic downtown Stuart. We had a nice lunch at Duffy's, and then the girls stayed to shop all the little boutiques while the boys went back to the boat. We had a very nice time.
Our batteries have not been acting "right" so Mike checked them and found one of them is dead and the others seriously need to be equalized. He took the courtesy bus to Walmart to buy a cheap battery to put in, just for the winter. We will go to the dock tomorrow if there is room so that we can plug in and get the batteries equalized. He will also change the oil, I will do the laundry, and we should be ready to head for the Bahamas-maybe next Wednesday.


November 14-18, 2010 Vero Beach, FL
We spent a few more days doing Vero things. We went to the beach restaurant for breakfast and walked on the boardwalk, took the bus to shop some more, borrowed Jim and Nancy's car again for some trips you can't make with the bus, and attended a lovely party at Jim and Nancy's lovely new home. There were current cruisers, and some cruisers who have given it up and are living in Vero Beach now.
We had been waiting for some things we had ordered, and when we had everything, we cast off for a trip down the ICW, up the St. Lucie River to Stuart.

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11/14/2010, Vero Beach, Florida

November 4-7, 2010 Charleston, NC
We took the courtesy van to West Marine, Stein Mart, and Harris Teeters (groceries) between sprinkles. Then I did laundry all afternoon. Mike jerry canned fuel to the boat, which took him a long time, as he had to wait for 1,086 gallons of fuel to be pumped into some big boat. That must have cost a few boat dollars!
The next day we met Kim and Steve for breakfast at Salty Mike's. Best breakfasts ever. I had a Greek omelet, but also love their low country hash browns. We returned to our boats and agreed to meet later to shop Charleston. We walked into town, shopped King's Street (high class), met the boys for a libation at the Noisy Oyster, did the market (always love to admire the sweet grass baskets), and walked around for at least 30 minutes trying to find the boys again. Hmmm, found them in another bar! We called the van to pick us up and headed back to the marina.
It's probably been mentioned before, but Charleston is just a cool town. You can walk around the town with no trouble-downtown is not that large an area. You can pick almost any restaurant and find good food. You can find entertainment, rooftop views, the City Market and lots of fun shops. It's just a great place to walk around and enjoy. We have a hard time passing it by, so we don't!
Kim, Steve, and friend Jack came over to our boat for snacks and cocktails. We were joined by some new friends from down the dock, Buck and Vicki, from "Victoria Gaye". It was a fun, if cool, evening.
Mike had decided that the water tank was leaking and had to come out. So on Saturday morning we took the floor out and found that we could not take the water tank out without removing the mast, or sawing the tank apart. Not going to happen. The tank was empty; we dried it out, and patched it with some stuff that is supposed to cure even under water. Hope that works!
Later, our friend Scott drove down in his flashy new convertible to visit. He was coming to help, but the work was done. We visited for quite some time, caught up on what we'd been doing, and went to visit Kim and Steve. Then we hiked up to Salty Mike's for a bite to eat. Back to the boat to visit some more. Good times!
In the morning, Scott and Mike made another visit to Salty Mike's for breakfast. I got the boat ready leave the slip to anchor in the Ashley River to be ready to leave early on Monday and head for St. Augustine.


November 8-10, 2010 Charleston, NC to Vero Beach, FL
We left Charleston a 7 a.m. to head for warmer climes. St. Augustine was the goal. The winds were supposed to be from the NW, which should give us a lovely sail. Yes, well, the weather people were so wrong. Winds were from the SW and after a few hours we were bucking waves. Conditions continued to decline and it was like riding in a washing machine. You didn't so much walk around the boat, as lurch around it. The motion even tossed you around in bed.
As morning dawned, the wind thankfully changed direction and calmed down considerably and we headed for St. Augustine. We intended to spend one night there and head back out, but as the weather was so nice and the forecast looking worse in the future, we decided to continue on to the Fort Pierce Inlet and head up to Vero Beach. What a difference a day makes! It was warm and lovely on the ocean that night. We had to motor-sail, but it was a nice ride. We arrived in Fort Pierce around 1 and were at the fuel dock in Vero by 3. We washed the salt off the boat, fueled up and went to grab mooring ball #57 and rafted with Fine Lion. We have the mooring ball that is the furthest one out.
We found that the lights on the starboard side of the cabin are not working and Mike heard a rattle down below when we were under way, so we have more projects to work on.

November 11-13, 2010
Mike, Steve and Kim left around 10 to head to Best Buy for some new computers (Mike and Steve). I was feeling queasy and elected to stay on the boat and rest. I napped and read and did little else until Night Hawk rolled in. I helped them get rafted to the other side of Fine Lion and we chatted for a long time, catching up. The shoppers returned around 4, and we all got together for some conversation and laughs.
The next day was girl's day out. We hopped on the bus around 10 and headed back to Best Buy. We picked up Mike's computer, which wasn't ready yesterday. Then we went to Office Depot to pick up some things, and Kim and I went to get haircuts. We also stopped at Bealls, and then headed to the mall to grab lunch. After lunch we hopped back on the bus and were back at the marina before 3. When you take the bus, you have to count on an hour on each end of the trip if you're going out to the mall area-but the bus is free!
Mike had the boat all torn apart when we got back, but the lights were working! He found some bad wire and replaced it. We got the boat put back together and went next door to visit some more with Night Hawk and Fine Lion. We came back and made dinner and then listened to the MSU Spartan's basketball game. They won easily and it was fun to listen to.
Mike worked on the packing gland and checked the prop shaft, looking for the rattle. He found some bad hose clamps, so it's off to West Marine. We packed up the laundry and headed over to catch the bus. We found Jay in his dinghy with no motor and they h hollered out and asked us to tow him to his boat. No problem. Mike took a shower and I check the mail. Our cruising decal has arrived! It's one of the things we've been waiting for. I ran into Jay again and he said we should take his car. Okay! We went to Publix for groceries, made a stop at the liquor store and West Marine, then stopped in at O'Kelly's Pub for lunch. They have the best sandwiches!
Back at the marina, Mike hauled everything back to the boat while I did laundry. With laundry done we went back to the boat where Mike had the refrigerator torn apart, as it has been acting up. I decided to go next door, and we ended up having a tea party on Night Hawk-green tea and scones provided by Susan. I went back to take care of the laundry and the fridge, and then we read for a bit. Once again, we all ended up on Fine Lion for cocktails and laughs. We made a delicious stir-fry for supper. Yum.

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