Hobe Sound - at anchor

One of the many spans over the  ICW - just call ahead for an opening

We had some trepidation about leaving the slip we're been in for 1.5 months. When we arrived, I put the dinghy in front of the boat, using the unoccupied side slip for entrance. Now there was a boat in that position so I had to tie the dinghy to the bow of the boat and hope that it followed the bow out and didn't get hung up on the nearby pilings. I had eight lines I had to release (!), better safe than sorry for the 1.5 months the boat had to fend for itself. Ann backed the boat and I tracked the progress of the dinghy and everything turned out okay, not a done deal but it worked out. Having been through the backing out procedure many times, we knew it was important to check and double check that all the lines were released and  brought aboard and that the fenders were pulled up and put on deck before the boat started to move out. More than once we've had a fender get caught between a piling and the boat - stopping the boat dead in its tracks - with the wind and waves taking over the boat, not good! Now we put all fenders on board before moving out.

Successfully passing that test, we headed out and noted the shallows right at the entrance to St Lucie River, down to 5.8 ft at low tide. We scooted through with our 4' 9" draft and turned south. Hobe Sound anchorage is not a particularly popular anchorage which is one reason we like it, we're usually the only boat here. However, tonight there are two other boats far away so we still have lots of room and privacy. It's dead calm now and we expect a peaceful night. Ann is definitely getting better from her cold but we surely do not want to catch the flu, it would hit Ann very hard.

We're starting to see some good color in the sunsets as we move south

On Saturday we'll head for a marina near Joe Mastri's condo for visiting and provisioning for the rest of the trip to Marathon. We heard from John Kwak, a fellow Poughkeepsie Yacht Club member. He's in Brunswick, GA for the next month as he continues working on his boat. I don't know if he'll get any further south or not, we'll look out for him.