Today was big day for us. After traveling 1,147 miles south down Intracoastal Waterway from Maryland, we officially turn off the ICW at the St. Lucie Inlet and started heading west! We still have another 230 miles to go before reaching Longboat Key, but today was one of those milestone moments as long distance cruisers.
The run from Cocoa to Stuart was relatively easy and with a casual mid-morning departure, we pretty much had the waterway to ourselves. We did see (and pass) a number of other transit boaters, both power and sail, but for the most part our passage was unencumbered. The sky was clear, the sun was bright and the seas we favorable. It doesn't get much better than that.
Tonight we are at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart on the east coast of Florida. This has become our go-to "staging" point for the 128 mile run on the Okeechobee Waterway tomorrow. Since we will have five locks to pass through (each takes about 30 minutes) and navigate the 40 mile run across Lake Okeechobee, we will be leaving bright and early tomorrow morning in order to make Fort Myers by early evening. We expect it to take us 9 hours provided everything goes accordingly to plan and there are no major hold-ups at any of the locks.
From that point, we will turn north (yes, north!) toward our home port of Longboat Key, FL on the Gulf of Mexico. The weather forecast for this Friday is not looking very promising, so we are hoping to make good time for the next two days to avoid the predicted severe thunderstorms.
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