We were both up before light, that happens when you are anticipating a voyage, even a short one. We got the boat straightened, had coffee and made preparations to leave. A little bit before 8:00 Scott unhooked the shore power and I got out the gear for traveling. The St Lucie lock requires you to wear a life jacket while locking through which was our first order of the day after leaving the dock. I dug out our harness style gear along with gloves to handle the lock lines. The weather was perfect almost no wind and dead calm. After saying good byes to our fellow boaters we slipped the lines, Tom guided us back from the dock as Scott put us in reverse. Easy peasy and that is not always the case! Thank you Tom!
I hailed the lock keeper to request an east bound locking. He needed to bring the lock level up so we waited the 10 to 15 minutes it took to fill the lock and open the gates. We slooooowly entered the lock, We must have seemed a little timid coming in because the lock keeper asked Scott if he was afraid. To which her replied Yes. It is a bit intimidating, Light Reach is slippery on any given day and getting her stopped can be a challenge. We had no real issues and soon had the lock lines around the cleats on the Starboard side. I was forward Scott aft and w tended the lines as we slowly lowered the 12 ft to the St Lucie river. Once lowered the east side gates were opened, we returned the lines to the lock keeper and made our way out. Total locking time was approximately 18 minutes from entry to exit.
It was a beautiful day to travel the river was calm and the sun was shining. The trip from the lock was unusually quiet. We passed only one sailboat headed west and one fishing boat, nice! As we approached the mooring field with binoculars out we could see it was very full. After a bit of searching we did locate an open mooring. Scott motored us right up on it and between the two of us we got a line through. We were both excited that we were able to get one as neither one of us really wanted to hassle with anchoring. This section of the river can be pretty rough no matter what direction the wind and having to watch an anchor did not appeal to either of us.
Once we got the mooring set up properly with lines Scott started preppeing the dingy. We needed to get her pumped up and off the front deck and into the water. We use a winch on the mast and one of the halyards to accomplish this task. Scott hauled had her up while I maneuvered her over the life lines, just then the winch slipped and she went crashing into the water. No injuries except to pride and the only concern was had we damaged the dingy to the point she was taking on water.
Scott hopped down in and bailed her out and we waited. Dodged that one she was fine had only scooped some in as she landed which was thankfully right side to.
Getting the motor on went much smoother and we loaded the necessary gas, documentation and safety gear to make her legal. We climbed in and were off to the marina office to make the mother ship a registered guest of the facility. We did sign up for a month. It's more economical to do that and with the lack of available mooring spots the bird in the hand falls into play. The weather hasn't been all that cooperative for Bahama's crossings and with Dorian wiping out the Abacos a number of folks are deciding to stay in the states this year.
I stayed behind at the marina while Scott Ubered back to the lock to pick up our car. That worked out perfectly and to cap our great day he found a parking spot. With the car taken care of we dinghyed back to the boat and settled the rest of the boat.
The picture shows just how calm our start to the day was. This was taken just after we left the lock.