Delilah's Meanderings

Hi Everyone,

A lot has happened since our last post just a week ago. On the 9th we rented a car and drove to Fort Myers to visit our close boating friends from Kokomo in the hospital. He had 4 holes drilled into his skull, but was recovering nicely and as of this writing has already been released from the hospital. We had a nice visit and took her with us to Bahama Breeze for supper for a quick break from the hospital grind. The trip to Fort Myers took us around Lake Okeechobee and roughly along the same path we came over in the boat. We even had to wait at the Ft. Denaud swing bridge and watched a sailboat motor through. It was an interesting drive through central Florida with lots to see. We wish he gets well soon and has a full recovery. We took a different route back to Stuart via Naples, Alligator Alley and Ft. Lauderdale. It was definitely longer, but interstate all the way. We took advantage of the rental car and went to the grocery store and Stuart beach before returning it the next day.

Back on Delilah tied to mooring ball #10 in the Sunset Bay Marina mooring field in Stuart on the St. Lucie river. We continued to enjoy our time in Stuart. Eating out more than necessary of course and trying without much success to avoid the dessert menu! In the evenings we usually play scrabble, rummy, or 6 card golf. Lately Kim is winning at scrabble and I am winning at cards. We don't have TV on our boat and don't seem to miss it. We rarely get to bed later than 9pm. The Sunset Bay Marina is by far the nicest and best run marina we have encountered. We stayed about 8 days waiting for the winds to die down a little before continuing our trip.

On Tuesday morning February 11th we took our last nice "Marina" shower for a while, waited for the boat's holding tank to be pumped out, and motored away from ball #10. It was a short trip only about 2 1/2 hours down the St. Lucie River and then south on ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) to Peck Lake where we anchored for the next 4 days. There were several boats already there, but it is a large anchorage, and we anchored on the north end where it gets down below 4 feet at low tide. Peck Lake is in the Hobe Sound Nature Preserve next to Jupiter Island. I quickly got the dinghy down and we dinghied over, beached the dinghy, and walked a short path across Jupiter Island to the beach on the Atlantic coast. It was a beautiful sunny day and the ocean was blue and the waves were crashing in on the windy day. We walked down the beach and thought how this was possible by taking Delilah across Florida on the Okachoobee waterway (OWW). It seems like no matter how stressed you are a walk on the beach cures it.

The next three days we watched boats come and go from the anchorage and we just relaxed and enjoyed. We had some strong wind, but our trusty delta anchor held (knock on wood). We got on the beach early to get sunrise pictures. There were clouds on the horizon which delayed things a bit, but made for pretty pictures of sun rays through the clouds. Check out the photo gallery on the blog for the results. I started collecting shells with a hole in them. My idea is that our multitude of grandkids (12) will be able to make shell mobiles hung by string from drift wood I also collected. I made one for our boat and gets lots of compliments! The nights at anchor were great we could hear the roar of the surf. Kim made great meals and we used the grill for the first time this season.

All good things must come to an end, Yesterday morning before sunrise we raised anchor and motored back in a light fog to ball #10 at Sunset Bay Marina. Yes it was still open ... do mooring balls miss you ... probably not. We saw several dolphins on the trip, but they won't hold still long enough to be photographed. The first thing we did on return was to hit the showers! Back to civilization and restaurants. Yesterday and today we are preparing for our return trip to Fort Myers across the OWW. If things go as planned we will be tied to a FMB mooring ball Wednesday the 19th. We are notorious for changing our plans. For example we planned on staying longer over here on the East coast but just felt it is time to head back. In the next post you will read what really happened!

Fair winds and following seas,
Mark & Kim aboard SV Delilah