We departed from the Stuart City Docks at about 0650… as I was heading out to ICW I saw the RR bridge that is adjacent to the Roosevelt Bridge start to close… We would have to wait for the train to clear before we would be able to get an opening on the Roosevelt Bridge. We ended up waiting for two trains to cross before the RR opened… not terribly long time… 23 minutes to be exact.

After making both bridges we proceed west on the St Lucie River heading for our first lock… we had three locks to deal with…

1) St. Lucie, arrived at 0830, departed at 0900, we were raised 14.5 feet.
a. Between these locks we happen to hit the Indiantown RR Bridge closed for a train… waited 10 minutes here
2) Port Mayaca Lock, arrived at1217, departed at 1224, we were raised 0.5 feet.
3) Moore Haven Lock, arrive at 1720, departed at 1735, we were lowered 3.5 feet

We saw one boat all day long and it was in the rim canal of Lake Okeechobee between Clewiston and Moore Haven… other than it we were the only boat. Even the VHF was quiet today.

We arrived to the Riverhouse Marina in Moore Haven, FL and were securely docked at about 1750 at N26°49.853’, W081°05.446’. There was one other boat moored to the docks when we arrived and another boat was moored to the Moore Haven City Docks.

We traveled today for 11 hours covering 62.32 nautical miles averaging 5.66 knots. Our moving average removing the wait time for bridges and locks was 6.74 knots.

We departed from Cocoa Village Marina at about 0650… winds were down a little from when we arrived so backing out of the slip and maneuvering out of the marina was not an issue and soon we were back in the ICW and heading south. We had a long day of travel today… evening destination to be Stuart, FL.

Winds were forecast to be 15-20 knots with gusts to 25 knots but we found the forecast to be incorrect and saw winds less than 15 knots all day. It was nice for a change to have the incorrect forecast to be favorable.

The days cruise was uneventful… few boats passed us in both directions… we had the typical currents both with and against us… believe we may have had a bit more in our favor today.

The exit from the ICW into St. Lucie River was a little hairy… near low tide and by the time we reached there it had been dark for a while… and it was shallow nothing under 6 feet but I prefer to see double digits when it comes to depth.

We arrived to the Stuart City Docks and were securely docked at about 1950 at N27°12.133’, W080°15.216’. The docks must have been damaged during the recent hurricane as the dock lighting was not on and the dock had a sign temporarily closed with barricades blocking the dock.

We traveled today for 13 hours covering 84.56 nautical miles averaging 6.53 knots.

We departed from New Smyrna Beach at about 0650… very windy morning… 20 knots plus with gusts to 30 knots. Not a lot of exposed areas today to travel… well, actually there was… Mosquito Lagoon the NNW winds were blowing straight down it and it got a little choppy with 2-4 foot waves but as a following sea it was not an uncomfortable ride. Then we passed through the Haulover Canal into the top of the Indian River where we had the wind almost on our beam for the first leg before Titusville. At Titusville our path turned to more southerly path and again we had the 2-4 foot following seas for the rest of the trip to Cocoa, FL.

We had been given a certificate for a free night at Cocoa Village Marina and were going to use it for tonight’s stop. Made for a shorter day but with the wind it was nice to stop at a marina. Plus we always stop at Cocoa going north or south to get pizza… Ryan’s Village Pizza… we love it.

We arrived to Cocoa Village Marina with winds still blasting out of the north 20-25 knots. It was an interesting approach to the marina with the winds on our beam and to make the entrance you have to make a 180 degree turn downwind and then back with wind on your beam again… the slip they had us going in was one that we were able to turn into the wind bow first so that helped docking tremendously. We were securely docked in slip #7 at about 1350 at N28°21.489’, W080°43.538’.

We traveled today for 7 hours covering 44.85 nautical miles averaging 6.41 knots.