Day 194: Sunday, March 17, 2013

Port to Port: Stuart, Florida to Fort Pierce, Florida

Underway: 8:50 am      Motor Off: 2:20 pm      Miles Traveled: 31      Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: First time seeing the Atlantic Ocean (at 9:58 am) – a little glimpse through the channel inlet at the crossroads where the Okeechobee Waterway meets the north/south Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. We are a long way from home.

Mile 8 to Mile 0 On Okeechobee Waterway, Mile 988 to Mile 966 Intracoastal: We enjoyed our stay in Stuart but are ready to be moving on. It’s going to be weird now heading north for a really long time. We are heading home now – at least that is what we can start telling ourselves (and the Grandma’s) that.

What a perfect day to travel. Warm but not hot. A gentle breeze. A little boost from the tidal current. Light traffic. And lots of dolphin cruising by making the day go faster. For a little while, we were doing over 6 mph. And beautiful sea green waters – the definition of sea green. Not only is it an amazing color but its clean – none of the grunge and flotsam we have been used to in Fort Myers Beach and Fort Myers. And it’s, appropriately enough, St. Patricks Day. What luck.

We had planned to stop in Fort Pierce but decided anchoring out was more interesting so we found a nice cove just east of Fort Pierce and anchored all by ourselves (except for the houses surrounding us all around). We were glad to be so well protected because the wind was gusting even in this little cove. We stopped around 2 pm, anchored, ate lunch and relaxed. We even had time to read for pleasure – something I haven’t done in a long time. After a DVD – First Blood II – it was time to turn out the lights on another wonderful day exploring the Great Loop.