Staying put in Stuart

(21 Nov)

Upon leaving the Waccamaw River we had approximately 500 more miles of the ICW to go to reach our destination in Stuart. We began looking for opportunities to jump offshore for a day or two so that we could sabe a day or two of travel time. When we’re offshore we don’t stop overnight, so we’re moving south for a solid 24 or 48 hours. When we stay inside on the ICW we anchor at night and consequently only between a 1/3 to 1/2 the distance in a 24 hr period.

Initially the weather forecasts were not sounding favorable for an offshore so we continued traveling south on the ICW. After a day or two once we were south of Hilton Head and in Georgia a window opened up, so we took it!

We topped off our fuel tank in St Simon’s Sound/Jykell Island Ga and headed out the inlet at around 5 in the evening for a 90 mile run to St. Augustine Florida. We were treated to a beautiful sunset at sea and fairly calm conditions all night.

We took our time throughout the evening and didn’t try to go too fast as we wanted to time our arrival with favorable tides at the entrance to the harbor. The most favorable conditions would occur between 10am and noon so that was our target. Fortunately both the weather and boat cooperated and we arrived at the entrance to the inlet just before 10am and had an easy time making our way through the inlet and back onto the ICW.

Since the passage offshore was uneventful and neither one of us were tired, we continued south for the rest of the day and eventually dropped our anchor in Daytona Beach Florida just after sunset.

We left Daytona Beach at first light the next morning and made our way south of Titusville. The following day we got to see a SpaceX rocket launch as we continued traveling south for another long, but uneventful day, on the ICW.

The following day we again got an early start and arrived at the mooring field in Stuart just after 10am.

We will be spending the next week or so here in Stuart finishing a few projects and making sure Eos is ready to head to the Bahamas when we return to her the first of the year.

Will spend Thanksgiving here in Stuart and then grab a rental car to travel back home for the month of December so that we can spend Christmas with family and friends.

Thanks for your prayers throughout this first part of our trip. We hope you and your family have wonderful Christmas and we look forward to catching you all up again in 2025!

Pete and Diane