Days 21 -22: Winter safehaven
11 November 2011 | Stuart, FL
Good breeze with sunshine :)
First priority in the few days remaining was finding a home for Soul Purpose. We swiftly started plotting course to marinas and boatyards wtihin 30 minutes of my parent's place; after making some visits and calls, we choose the Hinkley Boatyard in Stuart, FL. Tony Schalletti is the Service Manager and instantly hit it off with Derek - come to find out Tony is a NE native as well and of all places, is from Newburyport! Not only that, but Hinkley can haul our boat in the spring (similar to NE, there aren't a lot of yards/marinas with large lifts to pull our 23' beam out of the water). After negotiating a monthly per foot rate to keep Soul in the water at Hinkley's gated boatyard, we made plans to sail her over a few days later.
We stopped by the boat and started pulling some dirty laundry and open food off and prepping her for a winter at Hinkley. The next day we returned to a bird poop covered deck and the largest crows in existence atop the mast - what a way to thank Soul!
It was time for our final trek back 3 miles toward the St. Lucie Inland and into the Manatee Pocket... The pocket is this awesome little inlet that seems to be a hurricane hole or something similar; shallow waters (so shallow that they were re-dredging the channel) and plenty of marinas. We had a little time to kill before Hinkley was ready to bring us in, so before entering the pocket, we did a few loops in Hooker Cove on one engine while Derek changed the oil on the other. Back on two engines, Tony guided us in via radio and before we knew it we were tied up for the last time on our journey.
Over the next few days, we cleaned the boat, spread out evaporation buckets and bags to manage the moisture inside the boat while away and placed a boatload of dryer sheets throughout the cabins and saloon to keep Soul fresh in the FL heat (thanks for the tip Tony!). Tony agreed to air the boat out every week or so and my parents would swing by once a month to check her out and report on the ever increasing bird poop problem. With mixed emotions, we said goodbye to our baby and starting dreaming of the next visit to FL where we would clean her up once again, stretch her sails and float around the ICW and open ocean!
BTW - we are now officially homeless!