Manatee pockets

Manatees don’t have pockets but we’re anchored in the “Manatee pocket”. It’s a little bay just off from the ICW on the east/south side of Stuart Fl. The City put out a regulation earlier this year that would have prevented any cruisers from anchoring in the pocket but Anna heard about it and joined many cruisers in writing letters to the city complaining about the closing of the pocket for anchoring. The city relented and re-opened the small bay. It’s a great place to stop for we have friends who live just a few miles away from here and hope to visit them soon. The city is also friendly to bikes and it’s only ½ of a mile to stores. Plus it’s warm!

Other cruisers anchored on their way south.
The pipe in the water by the yellow bouy is a dredging pipe. They are dredging the aft bay where we normally anchor so, we are in the middle bay.

Crane city

Going down the Indian River (which isn't really a river at all) we passed this large construction site. Lots of cranes at work. It looks to me to be a new power plant being built. What do you think it is?

Wrecks

Here in Titusville there are a few boat wrecks up on the shore or sunk in the shallows around the bay. Whenever I see these wrecks as we travel the intercoastal, (some of them aren’t that bad,) I wonder what the back story is. Were these boats owned by a ‘boat bum’ who finally had his anchor rope break in a storm? Or, is it somebody’s pride and joy that dragged anchor in a storm and is now resting in the mangroves or high on the rocks waiting for a crane and that last trip to the dump. It’s always a mystery to me and a never-ending source of exploration as we travel south.

This one is partly sunk by an island in the middle of the bay.


This one doesn't have any holes in it, the owner just walked away from it when he woke up and found himself on the rocks... I guess.
It appears that this one almost made it full on shore.
OK, The Snow Goose just looked to good sitting there so I included a picture of her in her new paint job.

Work underway

Last night the anchor light failed to work. The US Coast Guard tends to frown on boats that don’t show their anchor light. So today, while motoring towards Titusville, I went up the mizzen mast and found a broken wire. I also found a great view! A broken wire became an adventure during a long day of motoring.

More work

When I stopped in at the office to ask if there were any projects that needed to be wrapped up before we leave, I should have known better and kept my mouth shut. John sat up and said "it a good thing that you asked, I need a temporary platform built on the far side of the main building… over the swamp". Well, all I had to do was build legs with pads on the ends (to keep the supports from sinking into the mud), then wade through the reeds and work in ankle deep water to build legs and then nail plywood on for a deck.


Actually, the project was rather easy and only took a day to complete. The walkway is needed for the steel workers (who are due at the marina) to replace the sides of the building that were damaged in the hurricane.
We should be leaving for Fl. by the weekend. I’m looking forward to some warm weather and sunshine.

Back in Oriental

It’s cold in Michigan and the lakes are beginning to ice over, it’s time to leave. We should be back in Oriental NC by the weekend and put the goose back in the water Monday. Then it’s south for the winter!

Two days later...

This is what we found the morning after we arrived in Oriental, a soft fog covering the marina. I love walking on mornings like this, the world just seems more magical.