Thursday, November 25, 2010

Sunset Bay Marina, Stuart

We are on a mooring ball in Stuart!  Great marina with wonderful facilities.  Good wi-fi, a marina lounge, a restaurant and a shuttle service with quick access to businesses in Stuart.  We've been able to move to their great Courtesy Dock each morning to deal with the sails and canvas.  There are loads of group activities like meet-and-greets, potluck dinners and pub-crawls.  We haven't taken part in many of the activities - too much to do on the boat.  We will join the Thanksgiving celebration, considering what a big deal Thanksgiving is in the US.

There seems to be a crowd of regulars - people who use their boats as Florida condominiums for much or all of their time.  It is very comfortable and if you just wanted a Florida winter there are places like this in Vero Beach, Miami and up the west coast in Sarasota and Bradenton.

We had our first visitor - cousin Duane was in Florida on vacation and was in the neighbourhood so he came for the evening and left the next morning.

Cousin Duane's Florida vacation

We are expecting Al and Maria Cohen - great friends from Abbotsford - later in the week.  We are hoping that we can cross to the Bahamas with them.

The new sails were installed on Monday - and they look great!!  We haven't had a chance to try them out yet.  We'll do that with Maria and Al.

New sails and sail cover going on.

Last year we picked up school books gathered by the South Seas Cruisers Association for the Georgetown elementary school.  They have been delivering books to Out Island schools for years.  This year our books are destined for Farmers Cay.  We had a good time at their school fair last year.

Books for Farmers Cay All Ages School

We had the new canvas installed - looks just like the old but newer!

No canvas
Santa working on the dodger
We've got shade!
Solar panels back on - Yay!

Sid from Quest gave us a lift to Total Wines - good thing he had a pickup!  We've managed to hide away lots of beer and wine in the various lockers.  Blue Pearl is floating a little lower today.

We are finally in retirement mode - the chores are mostly done and we are enjoying idle time reading, planning, chatting and visiting.  We listened to Cruiseheimers (nyuck, nyuck) this morning and heard from many familiar voices in Florida and favorite places in the Bahamas.  The weather has been great - sunny, hot days and we seek out shade and cool breezes.  Quite a contrast to Vancouver.  We've been hearing from friends and family that it has been unusually cold.

So, we will enjoy Thanksgiving with the crowd - the marina supplies the turkey and ham, we bring the side dishes.  Al and Maria will be here Friday and we will do our final provisioning and chores.  Then we move to the Lake Worth inlet so we can race out into the Stream when the weather allows.

6 comments:

  1. So good to hear you're ready to sail, good luck until we hear from you again.
    mum

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  2. Boat looks great. Glad to hear about the sun and warmth. I am looking outside at three inches of snow and a yard full of tree limbs from the unbelievable north east wind storm from 48 hours ago. Looking forward to hearing about the crossing. Enjoy!

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  3. Neat that the books are for Farmer's Cay. I wonder if they'll recognize you :)

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  4. Jill, Wayne and Chris ArdellNovember 26, 2010 at 12:15 PM

    Hello Glen and Pam!
    We have never met but we have heard all about you two and your great friendship with Al and Maria over the years. Best wishes for safe sailing...may the seas ahead be smooth for the Blue Pearl. You have precious cargo aboard...my brother and sister, Al and Maria. We are looking forward with great anticipation to reading about your sailing adventures with OUR family. Bon Voyage!

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  5. I wish I was there now instead of having to wait till Spring!!! Miss you guys!

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  6. Maybe we'll meet up in Nassau or the Exumas, we're cruising down the coast of Eleuthera now. Good luck on the crossing!

    P.S. If you have room for a few more cases of beer...

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