On Monday last, I weighed anchor at sun up to get into Sunset Bay Marina as early as possible since I had a lot of work to do in 24 hours. At almost $250 per day, I wanted to spend as little time as possible in the marina, and so had reserved Monday and Friday as slip days; I would anchor in between.
They had set me up with a huge slip on a floating dock, which was awesome. Definitely the nicest slip I’ve had and the easiest to get into and out of. The finger pier alone was 50 feet long! I was on the big yacht dock, so felt a bit out of place, but it worked! This ended my current record for continuous time at anchor: I had been on the hook at the Stuart West anchorage for over five weeks. My previous record had been eight days in Jacksonville. Living on the hook was starting to feel normal.
After getting my dock lines adjusted and electric power hooked up, I began the lengthy freshwater sanitation process which continued throughout most of the day. In between fillings and flushings, I managed to have a cappuccino at the coffee shop, hose off the boat, so some laundry, fill up six Jerry cans at the fuel dock, and take a shower–my first real one since leaving Titusville six weeks ago.
I also had experienced an anchor chain issue when weighing anchor that morning; it had been very twisted. Five weeks of the boat going back and forth with the current every six hours had not only spun the snubber around the anchor chain, but the chain itself had gotten a twist in it. I learned later that this is because my anchor swivel (designed to prevent this very thing) had gotten mucked up and wasn’t working. It was so bad that it wouldn’t fit into the gypsy on the windlass. I had 100 feet of chain out, so getting it back onboard took a long time. When at the dock, I had to pull my bow up very close to the dock so I could drop the anchor on the pier, pay out all the 100+ feet of chain I had used, free up the swivel, then feed the chain back through the windlass and into the anchor locker without the twist.
So far, this is the best marina I have stayed at (and non-coincidentally, also the most expensive). It is right next to downtown Stuart and the riverwalk, has a restaurant and coffee shop on the premises, an easily accessible fuel dock, a free (and very modern) laundromat, nice showers, and the docks themselves are wonderful, new, aluminum, and floating. And the water pressure was phenomenal; it felt like I was holding a fire hose! The staff is also very helpful.
I barely finished the sanitation process by checkout time at 11:00 am the next morning, then headed out of the marina escorted by a family of four dolphins. This time I decided to head for a different anchorage, Stuart North. And this was mainly because there were some other cruisers there I had met in town, Bill and Elisa Obermeyer (on Phoenix) and Keith Stinchcomb (on Blue Mondo).
Being there would make social events easier, as well as assisting each other with maintenance issues, etc. The second night there, we went ashore for a happy hour with some long-time friends of Keith’s, Andrew and Linda.
Having been at Stuart North now for three days, I’m not sure which anchorage I like better. West is closer to Shepard Park (by about 1/2 mile) and has less fetch for the southeast winds which have been prevailing for a few weeks, and the trains aren’t as loud. But there is a lot more boat traffic, resulting in larger and more frequently getting “waked” by the them as they go by, and the airplanes on final to the airport pass right over the anchorage.
Stuart North, on the other hand, has less boat traffic, but more fetch and takes an additional five minutes of travel time to and fro on the dinghy. It is also very close to the draw bridges train; the freight train’s horn has startled me awake a few times. The biggest advantage at the moment, however, is being anchored right next to friends.
My Starlink has been working well. While I was only getting 3-15 Mbps download speeds at Stuart West (for indeterminate reasons), I was getting 100+ in the marina, and in the 50 range in Stuart North. Until it died. Turns out the $25 Amazon 12v-to-24v converted I had bought and installed to wire the Starlink directly to my boat’s DC system had failed (after just a matter of weeks!). I ordered a replacement which seems to be working fine.
As I write this, I am back in Sunset Bay Marina, finishing up the freshwater sanitation process. I plan to head back out to the Stuart North anchorage when leaving here for an indeterminate period of time. I feel like I’m starting to tire of Stuart, but I’m sort of waiting for my friends, Simon and Lara Manetta (and hopefully Clint and Ashley) to arrive. I’ve known Simon and Lara for awhile from Florida and Oriental, and met Clint and Ashley in Oriental. They are a three-boat flotilla heading south from Oriental, currently in Titusville. They may be arriving here this week. I will probably hang with them for awhile.
