What a great day! For the first time on this trip we felt that we were where we had paid to come - the parka and sweatshirts came off, short pants were donned, and we began to work on our tans. Not only that, but there was a series of great instances that made the day even more special.

We had manatee spotting three separate times, one time a group of four making manatee whoopee, the others were isolated animals that hadn't been invited to the party I guess. We had numerous visits by dolphins playing in our wake. We sailed under a flock of turkey vultures so large that it would have been impossible to count (darn ugly things when you see them up close but in the air they are grace avian-i-fied), and best of all, for the first 90% of the trip there were relatively few other boats out. In fact for the first couple of hours there was only ourselves and Silverheels on the waterway. All that changed, of course once we drew closer to the St Lucie River. Suddenly everyone came out in droves, everything from 100' power cruisers to small fishing skiffs and kayakers out with their fishing gear. With them, I had the thought that if the fish was large enough it would be questionable who was going to catch whom.

Halfway through the morning we decided that after a little research and finding out that there were very few places between us and Indiantown Marina and none of them had approach depths that we could manage, that we should stop somewhere and get some fuel. Fortunately Lynn on Silverheels pointed out a place called Point Petroleum or something like that, a commercial refuelling dock, where ther would have the depth and a good price for the fuel. A word to the wise: when you go into one of these refuelling sites, it would be a good idea to have cash. We didn't and it was $0.16/gal more expensive because of that. It was still only $2.80/gal, but it could have been $2.64. We're not saying that is the case for all commercial fuel docks, but it was for this one. Coises!

That is where we regretfully parted company with Ken and Lynn on Silverheels III. Hopefully we will link up with them again at some early future date; in fact Barb will be picking up some equipment for them from the Binnacle and bringing it back to the US with her when she returns along with some goodies for us.

This whole business of manatee zones does not seem to be honoured by the locals too much and the Fish and Wildlife folks aka the Potty Police, seem to be more concerned with flushing dye down Canadian boats heads, than stopping the speeders. Pity.

Our friend Koz had warned us about the shoaling problem at St Lucie inlet so we were very careful and darn if he wasn't right. Exactly in the middle of the channel after we had turned inland we ran over a small sandbar. Fortunately the weight and inertia of the boat combined with the largish diesel and the torque from the three bladed prop just pushed us through and it was only a momentary hesitation.

Aw blast! We just found out that the preferred spot for us to stay in Stuart, the Southpoint Anchorage is closed for renovations and we got politely booted out. No wonder they were empty. They were thinking about letting us stay since it was a family emergency, but with us there, other people were starting to try to arrive and pick up moorings so to save everyone a whole lot of trouble, we went to one of the marinas locally and paid for a place to stay so we can get Barb sorted for her trip back to Halifax. Barb has decreed that she will pay for me to stay here for three nights or until we get the rental car, drive her to the airport and return, and get myself sorted out for the next leg of the trip on Tuesday to Indiantown, where I will probably spend another couple of days before heading across the wilds of Okeechobee.