Riviera Beach to Ft. Pierce, FL

Today:    54 miles, 9.8 hours, ICW St. M 1604.6

Total:     1642.4 miles, 270.5 hours

Traffic this morning

     Thursday, 3/15 – Our dock here at Riviera Beach is once slip away from the southern dock  access bridge.  That leaves very little room for currents adjustments when entering or leaving the dock. We caught slack tide around 7:50 am, after Pete dropped off the rental car.  It was an uneventful ride up the ICW.  We did see a large pod of dolphins at the junction of the St. Lucie River. 

     We were in our dock at Harbortown Marin, Ft. Pierce, by 4:45. We had originally set up for a bow-in, port side tie.  However, the narrow finger pier wasn’t long enough for Bailey to get off.  So, we turned around and went stern in.  I felt good that I started to lasso the pilings, impressing the dock hands. We had planned to stay in Fort Pierce City marina, but they were maxed out.  We did stop there first for fuel then continued the on to Harbortown.  It is a very nice marina; lots of liveaboards, a pool, exercise room, and a laundry room with 9 washers and drier!  And they have a great bar/restaurant. 

     Debbie and Hugh, SV SIMPLICITY, are also here at the marina.  We went to visit, but they were out running errands. We will get together tomorrow for dinner.

     Friday, 3/16 – Pete had work to do this morning, so I cleaned.  While cleaning, we heard a boat dock on the other side of our long pier.  A beautiful 1980’s, 70’ Burger was just relaunched after an 11-month over haul.  She looks beautiful.

     Once Pete had finished work for the day. He bathed Bailey.

     We met Deb and Hugh for dinner around 5:30.  The guys had burgers while we ladies had scallops. YUM!  It was great catching up. It is a shame that they had planned to stay a month while repairs were made to the cabinetry close to the refrigerator, where condensation is causing a problem.  The yard informed them that they could not do the repairs. So, they will head out in the morning, hoping to have the work done in St. Augustine.

A turtle that was sitting
on a retaining wall

Manatees that spotted from the
Taylor Creek overpass

Water pipe covers in
downtown Ft. Pierce

     

     Saturday, 3/17 - The plan today is to install the hot water heater. Pete did a final check and review of what, how and when.  That is when he realized that he needed a special tool.  Ace Hardware is the closest hardware store, so we walked the 2.5 miles there and back.  Since we were so close to the City Marina, I stopped to pick up Bailey’s meds that were mailed earlier this week when we thought we would be stopping at the city marina.  Once back, we had lunch then back to work.  Things were progressing very well until Pete went to reattach a hose and found that this particular hose has a smaller internal diameter and required a brass fitting that reduced from on hose to the other.  So the bike came out, tire re-inflated and the frame reassembled. Then Pete was off to ACE hardware.  He arrived there at 4:10 only to find out that the store closed at 4 today and would reopen on Monday.  Pete checked for another hardware store and found Home Depot was a bit further and close to 95.  So off he went.  I was concerned as he was gone almost 2 hours.  He called from Home Depot once he got the part.  I just never checked exactly where he was.  When he returned, we did check.  It was over 7 miles each way!  By now it was after 5 so we decided to finish tomorrow.

     Sunday, 3/18 - Hopefully, today is the end of the hot water heater saga.  Thankfully, today when like clockwork.  Everything worked out as planned.  By lunch, we were connected and making water warmer.  By 3, everything had been put away and laundry started.  This place has 9 washers and driers!  There were quite a few of us doing laundry so I had to make three loads into two, and slightly over stuffed the driers.  Unfortunately, I tried a little too late to add additional time.  I had a lot of items that air dried once I got back.

Old one ready to come out

Tools ready

Only Kathy could get in to
undo the final fittings

Lowering the new unit
 without casing so it would fit

  

     Monday, 3/19 Due to severe storms north of here, we decided to stay put one more day.  Pete worked while I updated the blog.

     As we were eating dinner, Pete saw a notification on the phone that SV ESCAPADE arrived in the Ft. Pierce inlet.  We left a message for them that we were here.

~ ~ ~ /) ~~ K & P