Saturday, March 27, 2010

Kasidah is on land

On the second day at the Ft Pierce marina it was raining all day and around 2pm I stuck my head out to see how hard it was really coming down and noticed a man admiring the boat and went on deck to say hi, he said hi and then told me he had the same boat as us. Jon came up and invited him on board to look at some of our work. John had been watching our blog for some time and wanted to see some of the stuff first hand. The next day he came back and picked us up to see his boat which was about a mile or so away. It was exciting to see another 36c and we were just amazed at all the things that were the same and all the things that were different. After that he brought us to the famous Archie’s bar (yes Richard we made it to Archie’s). This was a great place to just hang out.
The following day we left Ft Pierce and headed south instead of north, we thought about the distance it was to travel to the St Johns River and then up 50 miles to Green Cove Springs to haul Kasidah out, and the distances to head south to Stuart then west on the Okeechobee waterway to Indian town and quickly made up our minds. To get to the Indian Town Marina you have to go through one lock which made us feel a little better about leaving Kasidah during Hurricane season. The marina was a little more money to leave Kasidah but the people that run the marina are great and you can tell they really like their jobs.
Our only stop over on the way to Indian Town was at Sunset Marina in Stuart where we picked up a 10 dollar a day mooring ball and spent four days there so we could do some laundry, give Kasidah a wash down and quick wax and start doing a few things to get her ready for storage and the last thing was to go buy a car for our trip back to New York for the summer months.
We ended up finding three different cars that we liked and in the end picked a Jeep Grand Cherokee which we thought had the most room for all our crap. We bought it from the Saturn dealership in Stuart and our experience was one of the best we have ever had at a car dealer before. Rose the lady we bought the car from was very easy going and not pushy at all, Barbra the lady who does all the paper work and keeps the place running was the most efficient person behind a desk we have seen in a long long time. Two thumbs up for these lady’s…..
Sara was favoring one of her back legs for a couple days so we also made a trip to the Vet that we had seen before going to the Bahamas, and of course the day we went to see him she started putting weight on it. He gave us some antibiotics to put on it and said there was a small infection in one of her pads which we think may have been these little sand prickers they kept getting on their paws.
We headed out on Saturday for Indian Town and found the waterway was very much like the Erie Canal, one long ditch. Some of the bridges are 54 ft high and we are 51ft to top of mast so I am always a little neurotic when going under them. When we arrived at the lock there was a powerboat filled with young people having a good time….maybe to good of a time, they were all drinking and the guys were peeing of the back of the boat, when we finally locked through they asked Jon if he wanted a beer, at that point we notice they had a keg in the back of the boat and a full bar on the center console. All I could think was I really hope they are smart about the boating and drinking.
We arrived at Indian Town Marina in about 4 ½ hours and in plenty of time to take our sails down and pull off a few items from the boat. On the second day we cleaned all our sunbrella, cushions and went through the engine and water systems. The weather has started to warm up and the temp was up to 80 by noon, we had been told about not letting the dogs near the waters edge because of gators. Around an hour later I happen to be cleaning the side of the boat and looked off the side to see a 8 to 9 ft gator looking up at the boat (he was looking at Blue as if she was a light snack). I tried to tell him to go away but he really liked it there. The next day we heard some shots coming from the far end of the marina and was told later they had shot a huge water moccasin and the gator was right there waiting for them to give it to him.
Kasidah was hauled on Tuesday morning and John the guy who owns a sistership to Kasidah came in from Ft Pierce to do our updated survey for Boat US. The survey went well and we had time to put a Sunshade material on Kasidah to keep some of the Florida’s hot summer sun off her topside. We finished cleaning and packing on Wednesday and even managed to have time to go out to dinner with Jon’s old friend Dave and his girlfriend Cindy that night in Downtown Stuart. Stuart is a great little town that we love to walk around and sit outside of some of the cafes and have a drink or just do some people watching. If you are in that area it is worth the time to stop and walk around.
On Thursday we finished packing and said our goodbyes to Kasidah for the summer and we were on the road by noon. We made one stop in Vero Beach to visit an old friend and a person Jon had worked with in his early years






(This is Cliff and Bobby).


Now we are off to New York to make some money for our cruising kitty and to start planning our next adventures in paradise on our Trustworthy boat “Kasidah
















Guess who's boat this was at one time (Hint...look at the name) ?

2 comments:

S/V Veranda said...

Think how much easier next years trip will be when you're starting way down in Stuart........

Jon and Arline Libby said...

Our plans are lots of work this summer and lots of rest this winter so the easier the better. We did not get to see all the places in the Abacos that we wanted,so we may go back there. Then again most of our plans have been in the sand at low tide so we will see......