We were nearly eaten alive last night, the mosquitos at Indiantown are relentless and plentiful. We were chased down below as soon as the sun went down. Thank goodness we have screens for the hatches, ports and companionway. As it was a couple of the suckers got in before we could get things shut totally.
I forgot to mention that we have a new dingy. Our old one was just simply beyond repair and we had to pump it up twice a day to keep it afloat. The captain had enough of that last season. We bequeathed the old one to a friend in Indiantown who as of yet has failed to be able to resurrect it. RIP little night light.
It was a bit of a hunt to find a replacement in these times of supply chain shortages. Yet another blight caused by the miserable virus… It took us awhile to find one in Florida. We needed to have one that could fit on our bow which limited the length we could accommodate. We had wanted a Highfield but the wait on one of those was 2 years???!?!? That’s a long time to swim to shore since we were now dingyless. The dealer in Stuart had none at all but kindly he put us in touch with a dealer in Tampa that had one dingy left of the size we needed, an AB which is the same make as our last dingy. We bought it sight unseen, over the phone and arranged for delivery to Indiantown on Oct 27. It was a big todo for all the boaters in the yard as they brought if up to where we were in the yard on the fork lift. We had lots of company that day as the guys all had to look her over. It doesn’t take much these days to excite us cruisers.
We were up relatively early today to have coffee and get things ready for the trip down the river. High tide is at 11:00 AM and we wanted to be through the skinny water spot with plenty of water to spare. After topping off the water tanks and securing the new dingy to the bow we cast off the lines and headed out of the marina basin at 09:20. I radioed the railroad bridge to insure it was safe to transit and with his go ahead we were on our way. The day was sunny and not super hot which made for a much more pleasant trip. We didn’t encounter much traffic but we did catch up with a tug that we needed to pass. Hard to believe his speed was less than ours. We didn’t have much success hailing them and they seemed to be dancing all over the channel. We did get one response saying they were way left looking for deeper water. That made us scratch our heads because we figured he couldn’t draw much more than we did and we had plenty. He finally moved to the right side of the channel and we successfully passed him.
We were hoping not to have to lock thru with him and they did hold back as we got to the lock. It was just us in the lock and all went smoothly. The captain didn’t even get squawked at by the lock master. That was a first.
We came into sight of the mooring field and after rounding the last green mark the Captain made a bee line for the nearest mooing we could find to the wi-fi routers. LOL We scored one in the first row. How that happened is a miracle. It took us a few tries to pick it up the current was fighting us but between the two of us we managed to get the line through the pennant. We put the boat in order and got the mooring lines set and it was time to splash the dingy for her first time ever. I felt like we should have champagne or something. This dingy is quite a bit lighter than the last and a foot shorter. She went into the water with no issues. We lowered the motor onto her transom and wonders be, the motor started. We are on a roll here. I should have bought a lotto ticket!
We’ll be here until after the holidays as we have some appointments we need to keep.