Pendarvis Cove

Nathan and I slept late and just as we were about to cast off the lines and leave, I see a Facebook comment from boating friends stating if I come to Suntex Vero Beach Marina to stop in and say “Hi”. I think… “how serendipitous and timely”. I say this because MV Simple Life is always ahead of my blog posts in time. I post in arrears so to speak. They just happened to be in the same marina that Simple Life was just about to leave. So Nathan & I set out to find our fellow cruising friends in the marina and we end up walking ALL the docks before finding them on the last dock. The Simple Life philosophy states that life is about people and experiences, not things. The cruising lifestyle often has you meeting people for the first time and then running into them months or years later in different ports. It’s a great feeling to catch up with people you met along your journey and theirs. We missed Miles as he was out biking to the store for something or other. We enjoyed chatting with Barb and asking about their Bahamas adventure last winter.

Barb & Miles, Blue Horizon, Island Packet, 48′ I believe

As we depart the marina we point Simple Life south with the intention of entering the Okeechobee Waterway so we can transit to Cape Coral by traveling straight across Florida’s interior.

Okeechobee Waterway from Stuart to Fort Myers / Cape Coral

Just a short way south down the ICW and we are being passed MV Windward. This good looking yacht has direct access to the engine room from the swim platform. Something I always thought was a nice feature on a yacht. I also found it interesting that they attempted to make the boat name more readable when the engine room door was locked in the open position. I just don’t see how that can work though with the yacht’s name spanning the door opening? No worries as the name is also displayed on her sides. I love the stairs to the cockpit and flybridge as opposed to ladders. I do not know what make this yacht is? Leave a comment if you know.

It’s windy today but Nathan & I are enjoying ourselves inside the pilothouse as we make our way south.

MV Patty Wagon passes us. She is a cockpit motor yacht with a sundeck style of yacht. I’m not sure that is the proper name for this style but you can see the sundeck on the aft of this yacht is kind of a mezzanine level (floor between floors). The enclosed sundeck sits above the cockpit yet beneath the flybridge and allows for stowage of their dinghy on the roof of the sundeck. Without the addition of the open cockpit on the stern, if you boarded from the swim platform you’d have to climb a ladder to get to the sundeck area. the addition of the cockpit not only gives you a great place for fishing or sitting out but allows you a safe place to climb that ladder up into the sundeck. If you fall on the ladder you fall in the cockpit and not onto a swim platform or off the yacht and into the water.

Soon we come upon a dredge in Fort Pierce, FL. The pic from afar shows the piping on the surface that carries the dredged material away. You must use caution when attempting to pass a dredge at night. Passing on the wrong side can have you running into the metal piping on the surface.

I have included this close up of the dredge where you can clearly see the black day shapes that are required by law. Every captain must learn these day shapes to understand what the dredge is trying to communicate.

In this case you can see the two vertical black balls are hung to the side with the piping. You can see the two vertical black diamonds are hung to the side you can safely pass. At night the dredge uses two vertical red lights on the pipe side and two vertical green lights on the passing side. The photo of dredge shapes and lights below also includes a RAM (Restricted in Ability to Maneuver) day shapes and lights.

Dredge day shapes and lights. I believe the RAM lights above should be red/white/red not red/black/red. It’s kind of hard to see a black light at night hahaha

You can see the shoaling that the dredges must keep keep dredging in the below satellite photo. I marked our path as well as the St. Lucie Inlet, a cool looking development right at the inlet as well as where we anchored for the night in Stuart (blue dot).

The trip into the St. Lucie River has you going back North before south again

The homes as you enter Hoggs Cove are palatial.

We raced to make it to the Old Roosevelt Bascule Bridge for its publicized 4:30 opening but are told it will not open till 4:45 when we arrive. We circle in the wind and current while we await the opening.

Just on the other side is our anchorage in Pendarvis Cove. The sun sets while we are on anchor as we prepare to watch the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. LA Rams game in NFL Week 11.

TB12 and Gronk. It feels like I’m watching the Patriots game to me.

The final score was not what I wanted but I enjoyed watching.

The days journey looks something like this…

Beaufort South

We started the day with a Mexican breakfast on the griddle.

Then it was onto the Dawhoo River which has some depth issues.

We would occasionally have to move over and let a tug pushing a barge past.

This home sadly lost it’s live oak to a bit of wind it would seem.

Such good looking trees if there is such a thing?

Soon we passed under the ladies Island Swing bridge, hailed Beaufort Downtown Marina on the VHF radio. They responded back “Safe Harbor Beaufort”. Safe Harbor is the same marina corporation that purchased my marina in RI. Heck, Safe Harbor seems to be buying dozens of east coast marinas.

Safe Harbor taking over the world of marinas

The Safe Harbor Beaufort marina has a strong tide that is not quite parallel to the face dock. This means as you pull up to the dock, the current is either pushing you onto or away from the dock. I took an approach that kept the current aligned to my keel and soon we were tied up and plugged in.

MV Simple Life on the back side of the face dock

We snapped a few quick photos of a sun low in the sky.

The large 100+ foot yacht next to us lit up as night arrived.

Not to be outdone, MV Simple Life lit our lights 😉

When you walk off the docks there is a beautiful waterfront park.

Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park in Beaufort, SC

Walking along Bay street in front of the marina you’ll find many restaurants and shops.

We decided to stay two nights in Beaufort so we could hit some of the local restaurants and pubs.

We wanted live music and that can always be dangerous. I’ve had the mic turned off while singing karaoke and lets just say it does not get any better with IPAs.

Gangsta in Charleston SC

When we left Osprey Marina we were back in the Waccamaw River which was full of flora. We stopped to pull a water hyacinth out of the river to view it’s structure.

I was at the helm as we approached an infamous shallow location known as McClellanville.

There was a dredge on site that was trying to make the passageway deeper. We hailed them on VHF CH#13 and asked the proper path to get by them. Dredge replied “go between the red buoy and the dredge”.

Luckily for us we were passing through McClellanville at mid-tide.

A few of the sights we saw along the way.

When you make it to Charleston Harbor you can see the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge

Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge from Charleston Harbor

We were looking to anchor in Charleston Harbor but the winds were blowing over the long fetch that crosses the harbor. We would have rocked & rolled all night. Instead we kept moving down the ICW cutting through a dingy regatta on the way.

Next we passed the Charleston Crab House in Wappoo Creek. I’ll have to stop at one day.

We made it to our chosen anchorage just as the sun had set.

Garmin inReach display of our track to the anchorage

It was time for a beer and I had the perfect one.

A short time later we took out two cigars that were given to us by Eric from MV Tapestry before we left. It seemed like a perfect time to celebrate the trip. What goes with cigars? Cognac of course.

It was a great night that ended perfectly.