Stuart Florida

Arline said:
We left Skaneateles, New York on the 10th of January around 18:00 and drove to Binghamton to pick Jim and Erin up. After filling the SUV with all our crap and having no extra room we drove to Osprey Marina in South Carolina where Kasidah had been docked and waiting our arrival. Chris had come in by bus on Friday and was already on the boat. It was only in the high 20s low 30s so it was definitely time to move her south. We spent Monday shopping and getting Kasidah ready for the trip on the outside. That night Jim and Erin joined us on Kasidah for a couple good-bye drinks.
Tuesday morning we all woke up and started getting things together and deciding the best way out of the Marina…..The marina had more than a ½ inch thick ice in it’s basin and we were going to have to be the ice breaker. Man, this was impressive to see Kasidah just plow right through it.






Larry the Dockmaster said he had never seen ice that thick in the basin and our comment was “of course not, it’s because we are here:)”. Everyone at the Marina was wonderful and we would recommend Osprey Marina to anyone traveling in the area. Thank you guy’s for all your help.





Jon said:
So we broke through ice to get near the fuel dock and turned into the channel and found even thicker ice, but we plowed right through. It was 4 hours to the Winyah Inlet at George Town and we were in the ocean again. We set a straight line to the St. Johns River and started right into our watches. Chris had 12 to 4 am and pm, I had 4 to 8 am and pm, Schyler had 8 to 12 am and pm. Both Chris and I had lots of time on the Raymarine equipment on board and it was easy enough for Schyler to settle right in too. Now we know Chris has a Captains license and has done a few deliveries as crew and as captain, soooo,.. he MADE us do a man overboard drill right out in the ocean. What he did was accidently back his butt into the MOB button on the chart plotter. We didn’t know what the beeping was and then we didn’t know how to turn it off. We thought it might be easier to just turn around and hit the MOB spot. BUT we figured out how to turn it off. So two nights and we went into the St. Johns river in Florida refueled, and found out that the heat exchanger was in trouble We couldn’t find one so we decided to continue on and get one latter. On my watches I saw each sunset.. One sunset I saw dolphins coming at us. The auto pilot was on and had been working great steering about 75% of the time, so I was able to go up front. It was amazing to watch them play in front of Kasidah. They were 4 or 5 deep and dozens of them all playing for the front spot. The water was so clear you could again see them all around the boat. Well the wind final did pick up and turn to the south; it was blowing 20 to 30 on the nose with swells 8 to 10 ft. We were really getting wet, taking a beating, and not going fast at all. Saturday morning we where at the Fort Pierce inlet and decided to tuck into it. From there it was the ICW to Stuart. We only went aground 3 times, while Schyler was steering and it drove him crazy. “I’m in the middle of the frigging channel and aground!?” yeah. So we did get here and parts are on order but right now it’s upper 70’s lots of sun and on $10 per day for the mooring ball, great showers, internet and town is with in a block.


Arline said:
While Jon, Schyler and Chris took the outside trip down to Stuart, I drove Schyler’s SUV down with Sara and Blue. We made a few stops on the way. One of the stops was in Savannah Ga. Just to check out the city. It was beautiful with all the Spanish moss on the trees and historical sites. One of my other stops was Green Cove Springs Marina up the St. Johns River in Northern Fl. I wanted to see the spot we have picked out to leave Kasidah on the hard so we can go back to Fair Point marina to work for the summer to replenish our cruising kitty.
After five days of tracking on the computer where Kasidah was through “Spot” I figured they were going to have enough time to make Stuart before a front was going to move in, so I headed there for the last night. I went to the Sunset Marina and checked things out for the guy’s. Shortly after Jon was close enough that he had phone reception and he gave me a call to let me know they were about two hours away. I went in and filled all our paperwork out and we were good to go.




We need this at the Fair Point Marina.....












We all had a great night talking about the trip down and knowing all was well,(Thank you Schyler and Chris for getting Kasidah and me to warmer weather……). It took all day Sunday to put everything back where it belonged on Kasidah and dry her out. Yeah things really got wet everywhere. But she did come through in great shape.
We have been on a mooring ball here for a couple days trying to order the heat exchanger and a couple other items. It looks like we will be here for at least a week or two waiting for things to arrive.
We do know people here in Stuart so we will be doing some visiting with them and we also will meet up with Adrean and Sara which are in the area, they are the couple we traveled with down the Erie Canal and Hudson back in September.