Landlubber's Edition

We arrived in Stuart, Florida on April 26th from the Bahamas and decided to try a new mooring location at the Sunset Bay Marina. Our original plan had to been to continue on after a day or two to a dock in Titusville, but we found the mooring field to be super-protected, the facilities really nice, and its location in downtown Stuart ideal.  There are many restaurants and parks nearby, along with plenty of shopping options within walking distance. After a couple of days, we decided that we would feel comfortable to leave Starry Night at the mooring field while we traveled to Mississippi and North Carolina and would stay there for the remainder of the month of May, after our return. 

View of Sunset Bay Marina Mooring Field from Dinghy Dock

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During our first week in Stuart, we enjoyed the beautiful riverwalk there, had dinner with some friends who live nearby, Steve did some fishing, and we visited my parents for a couple of days. They graciously loaned us their car once again, allowing us to pick up our truck in Satellite Beach.

A week after our arrival, my parents and I flew to Mississippi to visit my brother and his family. Steve and Jake would drive up to join us later in the week and we would all attend my nieces' graduation and dance events.

Celebrating Alyssa's Honors College Commissioning

 

Ole Miss Graduate!

Post-Dance Recital

After a wonderful visit with Bill, Marie, Alyssa, Andrea and my parents, Steve and I continued on to the mountains of North Carolina. One of our close family friends, Samantha (daughter of Jonathan - Steve's college roommate) was getting married there the following weekend. Jessie and Bridgette were also able to come so we rented a gorgeous Airbnb nearby which would accommodate six humans and three dogs.

Steve and I came early so that we could visit with Jon and his wife, Heather, and help as needed with wedding preparation.

View from Airbnb Deck in Mill Spring, NC

Gorgeous Views Everywhere

Jessie and Will arrived on Wednesday night and on Thursday the three of us took a hike in Buffalo Creek Park near Lake Lure, while Steve spent the day with Jonathan.

Hiking in Buffalo Creek Park

Butterfly Cluster

Fungi

Jonathan and Heather had things well in hand in terms of the wedding, so they threw an impromptu oyster roast on Thursday evening, where we met the groom's parents and some of their close family friends.

Bridgette and Griffin arrived on Friday afternoon, so our party was complete! On Saturday morning, the six of us drove to Hendersonville, which has a cute downtown with lots of shops and restaurants. We spent a few hours there looking at local art and had lunch. 

 

Checking Out Hendersonville with My Favorite People

Back at the Airbnb, the six of us got ready for the wedding and took the rare opportunity for a family photo in dress clothes!

Ready for the Wedding

Sam and Ben's ceremony was quite moving and in particular, I was really impressed with the maturity and thoughtfulness that they displayed. They focused on the four values that they share as they enter marriage: humility, generosity, enchantment, stillness. Each of their parents spoke about one of these values and then Sam and Ben made vows to one another in which they recognized their own shortcomings and promised to work together to overcome them.

The reception afterward was lively, with good food and great music!

           Put Your Hands Up

Slowin' It Down

Tito and Mae at Our NC Airbnb

Jess, Bridgette and company left the next day, but Steve and I stayed one more night at the Airbnb so that we didn't have to jump out of the bed the day after the wedding and make the drive back to Florida.

The remainder of the month of May, Steve spent most of his time on Starry Night doing routine maintenance tasks such as scrubbing the water line, waxing, and cleaning/polishing bright work. During one of the hot spells during this time, Jake and I spent four or five days at Satellite Beach, visiting Steve's parents and doing small projects there. It was really nice to spend some time with Pat, Norm and my nephew, Jacob, getting a few things done, and enjoying the pool!

Jacob and Pat Cooling Off in Satellite Beach

In early June, we decided it was time to start heading north. Since Steve had not had a chance to spend much time at Satellite Beach visiting his parents up until now, we planned to find an anchorage somewhere in the vicinity of the house where we could spend a week or so.

We needed to return the truck to the house before beginning our onward journey and decided to rent a car rather than have someone make the long round-trip from Satellite to Stuart to drive us back to the boat. I, of course, selected the cheapest rental car option possible at the Budget Rental that was within walking distance of the marina. This particular rental location is fairly small and as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Steve and I both spotted a shiny red convertible. "Who knows...maybe you'll get lucky", Steve mused.

For those of you who've known me for a long time, you know that red convertibles are my "thing". I've owned three of them in the last thirty years and was very sad when we bought Starry Night and I had to sell my last one, a beautiful red Camaro with black racing stripes.

Needless to say, I was thrilled and crossed my fingers when the man behind the rental counter asked me if a two-door car was ok. Even though I only had the car for twenty-four hours and drove it for only four hours or so, it made my day! It's the little things....

My Lucky Day!

A couple of days after returning the car, a brief sailing window opened and on June 3rd we had a beautiful sail from Stuart to Fort Pierce. Unfortunately, there would be no more good sailing weather for the next week, so we opted to motor up the ICW the next day to just south of the US Route 192 bridge in Melbourne, Florida. From there, it was a short jaunt to the Banana River where we knew there was an anchorage between the Mathers Bridge and Pineda Causeway Bridge. What we didn't know is that this area had become a crab-pot hot spot! There were literally hundreds of crab pots, and they were so closely spaced that it was very difficult to find a place to anchor since we need a swing radius of about 150 feet. After about an hour, we were able to find a suitable spot and remained there for the next week and a half.

Although the anchorage was only a couple of miles from the house, a good portion of the way was a no-wake zone and, since the weather was quite hot, we decided to take turns spending the night at the house so that one of us could stay with Jake there in the air conditioning. At 15 years old, long dinghy rides are tough on his back legs and the heat is difficult for him. It was nice, though, and in addition to spending time with Steve's parents, we replaced hinges one of the kitchen cabinets, installed a new ceiling fan, repaired fascia on and painted the roof above the back porch, ordered and installed new blinds in a couple of the bedrooms, fixed a broken shower drain stopper, fixed the sprinklers, and prepared the ground and put down grass seed. Sounds just like "normal" life, doesn't it?!?

Many of the evenings were predicted to have thunderstorms and relatively high winds but, for some reason, the storms seem to bypass Satellite Beach. I got lucky and had nice photo ops without the drama!

Bypassed This Time!

Anchorage in the Banana River at Satellite Beach 

After about a week, it was time to start looking for a nice weather window since it was approaching mid-June. This would allow us to spend a week or so in Saint Augustine and still allow us to be north of the Florida line by July 1st, as required by our insurance company,

Our opportunity presented itself on Father's Day, so we celebrated with Steve's dad a day early and headed back to Starry Night to prepare for our departure on Sunday morning. Next stop: Saint Augustine!