Indiantown Marina - Middle of FL

Miles today - 22  Total miles phase 3 - 69  Today travel days 2,  total days 6

Sunday was a no travel day for us.  We slept in and had a slow morning.  I decided to do some waxing on the back of the boat.  Never ending battle of diesel soot stain.  I got about a 1/4 of the back done before I had to throw in the towel.  Think I sweated out about 2 gallons.  What I did get done looks good though.  We got showers and then had lunch on the boat.  We decided to take a walk to Publix as it was only about a mile away.  Picked up a few things and then headed back to the boat.  We relaxed and then walked up to have dinner at the Marina.  It was a nice setting and the food was good.  We also liked the happy hour drink prices.

View from our table

 If you look hard, you can just barely see the top of our boat in the far back left

 Enjoy the last of happy hour

 Mine - Swordfish, Marica - shrimp scampi  (yes I did eat my veggies also)

We no sooner got back to the boat and a thunderstorm came through.  I did manage to get all of the isenglass up, but it was a wet job.

We took our time on Monday morning heading out because we only had about 22 miles to go today.  It took a while to get everything dried off anyway.  We headed West on the St. Lucie river and then into the St. Lucie Canal.  Not a lot to see today but we did go through one lock.  It was a new one for us and there were just lines hanging down from the top of the lock that we had to hold onto as the lock went up.  Also, they managed the water by partially opening the lock doors to let the water flow in.  Marcia went to dig our inflatable life jackets out from under the bridge seats.  We were surprised to find that at some point they had deployed and inflated.  Not sure if it was moisture, heat or rough water, but something set them off.  Sounds like a trip to West Marine for new CO2 cartridges.  Even though we only had 22 miles, it still took us about 3 hours.  Lot of no wake zones and even in spots that we thought we could get up and run, there would be a boat dock or something else a few hundred yards away so it did not make sense.

Going through a railway swing bridge

 I assume a barge loading up with break-wall rocks

 Typical scene cruising the canal

We arrived at Indiantown Marina around lunch time.  I had to double check my GPS to make sure we were not in Africa.  IT IS HOT.  After getting tied up, I was unable to get the power to work.  This is a must have to run the AC in this heat.  After going up to the office, they informed me that the 3 power boxes by us did not work.  Back to the boat, untie, spin the boat, back up and re-tie.  Another 3 gallons of sweat gone.  We had lunch and just hung out on the boat in the AC.  Good news is that the new AC that Tony and I put in is working great.  Not sure how we would have fared with the old one.  As we were eating dinner on the boat, I noticed some ripples in the water and went out to investigate.  Seems that we are in gator country.  Took these pictures standing on the back of the boat.  I wanted to play Swamp People and jump in a grab it, but Marcia strongly advised against it.  We did close the back door just in case it wanted to come on and sun itself.

With the sun gone we thought we would walk the "Marina".  Basically this is a hurricane hole and not much to see.  We did see a sign that I guess we should have seen earlier :).

Boats lined up for storage.  A lot of sailboats.

 Our boat slip for the night.

  For the Cincinnati boaters, the marina kind of felt like the old Shawnee State Park Marina.  We are cruising again tomorrow, about 55 miles and crossing Lake Okeechobee.  Think we may have to resort to just wearing swimsuits as I went through 3 tee shirts today.  Did I mention it is hot.

PS - for those wondering Cluck Norris is still safe in the boat.  Maybe that is what the gator was looking for.  Marcia did not want to take Lucy out for a walk either.