Week 20 / Week 14 in Ft. Pierce

Sunday, 1/22/23 ~ Saturday, 1/28/23

     I was able to do a thorough cleaning of the interior of the boat, while Pete was at the match. Sunday, he offered to take us to dinner, my choice. I chose Chinese, but found out that they are closed on Sundays, so I then asked for pizza. The great Italian place here in town is closed on Sunday. Pete then suggested Chick-Fil-A, but suddenly realized they too are closed on Sunday! Thank heavens for Jersey Mikes. Their subs are always a delicious.

     It was unusual to hear the engines and feel the aggitated waters as the captain was manouvering this party boat into the dock.  When we checked it out, we were surprised to see that the LANDING PRINCESS is from Branson, Missouri. They stayed 2 days before departing north.  We saw on Facebook that they have passed through Myrtle Beach by the end of the week.  Wonder what their story is.

     In the evenings we are catching up with Star Trek Discovery (Season 4) and Picard (Season 2).  We get the seasons on Blue-ray and watch them in the evenings when things are quiet.  It is quite a let down when we are done watching the season.  We now have to wait another year for the next season to be released. It's definately worth the wait as the story lines and characters are so good! 
 

   I had a good pacemaker checkup in Miami on Tuesday at 10:30. Pete had a 12:30 phone conference. We needed a place where we could park, he could take the call and I could walk Tillie. One of our favorite anchorages is only 12 miles away from the medical office. We were able to park where we anchor off of Rickenbacker Causway. Pete had a great view of the water and the anchored boats south of the causeway. Tillie and I were able to walk along the beach path. She did pick up a couple of burs, which took some searching in her coat. 

 

Views from the Rickenbacker Causway Park towards the Anchorage

     Once the conference call was done, we explored the rest of Virginia Key. It was surprising to find much of the island is parkland. Not only beaches, but a large tennis venue and a county golf course. There is the village of Virginia Key, that has some world class hotels, shops, eateries and of course homes. On our way off the island, we stopped to check out the Marine Stadium. It was once used for speed boat racing, but it has long been deserted. However, the U-shaped, ¾-mile-long waterway is protected on 3 sides, with the opening to the Miami Skyline. 

Views from the Marine Stadium. It was hard to capture all the boats 

(both permanent and transient) that are anchored here. 

     We tried to head up A-1A from Miami to Ann's, but traffic was too heavy and slow.  We bailed out after passing though Miami's art district.  The architecture was rather diverse, but hard to capture from a car window on a crowded throughfair. 

 
Oh yea! The cars and the traffic!

     Afterwards, we met up with Ann, planning to have dinner at Hunan (One of my favorite Chinese restaurants), but it is now closed on Tuesdays. Our not-so-bad fall back was Jacks; definitely delicious, but not Chinese!

 
     Of course, there was the usual laundry, food shopping to be done, a variety of onboard chores and, of course, the puppy. Yup, time still passes quickly. I am on week 3 of a good book. There has been no real time to read . . . or complete the blog.

     Everyone on the docks is talking about the 2 new additions to this side of the marina. We now have 2 cats that were neutered and dropped off by the local rescue. They are part of the marina’s plan to deal with local varmints. The only problem is that everyone is feeding them. I just hope the cats succeed with their mission. They are brothers, beautiful and very friendly. They sleep in the supply closet, which they access through the 6-in square opening 5 feet off the ground. Apparently, they have adjusted very well. There are 3 cats on the other side of the marina by the office, just not garnishing as much attention.

     Since we had an appointment in Jensen Beach, about 40 minutes from our marina. Thursday’s appointment was for 4:14, but both of us had to be seen and needed to pick out new glasses. On our way home, we called the Peking Chineese Restaurant near the marina, for pick-up. I finally had my Chineese food!

     We bought a new Manta anchor as our original one is 20 years old and heavy rust is making it questionable. Jon and Marilyn had new anchor rode from when they sold ESCAPADE. Our line is OK, but this is newer. It took about 2 and a half hours of work, a good amount of teamwork, some intense reciprocal sawing, some very heavy lifting, 3 Advil and 2 Tylenol. It’s done!!! The old anchor and rode will go to the donation table, where I am sure they will find a new homes quickly. Ahaa…Pete just returned from dropping off the old anchor and rode. Pete barely put it onto the table when a friend from another dock happened to be with a young man who just acquired one of the sailboats along the canal. Our friend asked the new boat owner if he had any anchor or rode. When the answer was “no,” he was instructed to quickly grab our donation. We’re glad it went to a good home.

    I was able tp spend a couple of hours over 3 days and finally catch up with the blog.  As of this posting, I am caught up.  YEA!  I will try to be a lot better at posting in a more timely fashion. A special thanks to all of you who have hung in there for the installments!

~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~   K & P