Left Indiantown Marina in Florida this morning about 8:45 for Stuart. It was a short and mostly boring trip, but we had plenty of water under our keel. Along the way we think we found Arrow’s mother. One of our previous boats, Arrow, a 60 foot Consolidated was built in 1924. We passed by a Consolidated that must have been 110 feet long and looked very similar/familiar except, of course, in size. It made us very nostalgic.

We were the only boat to transit in the St. Lucie Lock today. We fendered up, grabbed the lines and went down in elevation 11 feet – amazing. I’d like to give a shout-out to the lockmaster at St. Lucie because his lines were very clean and dry – what a treat! I really didn’t need my cute little gloves today. After exiting the St. Lucie Lock the size of the houses and boats changed significantly as did the number of “go-fast” boats that cruised by us and kicked up quite a wake.

We arrived at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart about noon. We picked up a mooring ball instead of docking in a slip at the marina. Picking up the ball proved to be quite entertaining. Michael brought us right up to the ball and I was to take our boat hook (pole) and “hook” the line on the ball and pull it up so we could put a line through it and tie us off. Well, on the first attempt I discovered my pole wasn’t long enough. On the second try we were successful. It didn’t appear that we had an audience – thank goodness! Interesting – the cost of the mooring ball is $40 compared to slip cost of $130 per day and we have access to all the marina amenities – we just have to dinghy over.

We took Scout About to the dinghy dock and did a walk-about around town. It’s only about a mile away and quite charming. A street fair was in progress today as well. It appears to be a fun town. Not sure how long we will stay here. Will keep you posted.