Sailing Sevilla: Leaving Stuart, FL, and a lovely month off the beaten path

With Sheila from Vancouver, B.C.

When we pulled away from the Loggerhead Marina a few days ago, we realized we had spent a most enjoyable month in a comfortable, very socially active location, just a walk across the Federal Highway Bridge from the pretty town of Stuart. I've written in past posts about some of our activities--bridge, golf, Wahoo's Bar and Restaurant next door, the Splash pool bar at the marina, our sizzling hot tub and warm water swimming pool, and lively dock life. We started to make a list of the people we hung around with--only first names--and realized we had made lots of friends, whether we did a potluck Christmas Day dinner by the pool, or ordered take out two-for-one slabs of Baby Back Ribs from a local barbecue place, shared drinks on one another's boats, or ventured out to dinner in town, not to mention the "happy hours" and cheap eats at Splash or at Jensen Beach. We had a really good time and hope we will meet again in the Keys, the Bahamas, or on the Waterway home this spring.

When we arrived on Dec. 11, we had passed the 987 mile post on the ICW, and traveled another six miles to Loggerhead (formerly Harborage) Marina. We thank Beejay and Mike of Carolina Moon for the tip about the terrific rates there. Our slip was on B dock, very convenient to the main marina building and facilities, as well as to parking. The charge was $14.50 a foot for a month's lease. The electricity was metered. We had excellent wireless access and cable TV. This was a deal. Wait, there's more. With a month's lease, one can stay up to seven days at another Loggerhead facility (there are 13 from Daytona to Miami), for a total of two weeks out of the four away from your home marina. We may renew our lease on the way back and take advantage of staying at Miami, Aventura,, Hollywood, Jupiter, etc., back up to Stuart; stay two weeks there to tune up our golf game, and then head for Vero and Daytona on the way home.

Next stop for us: Lake Worth Harbor Marina, where our Catalinas will reunite. Andiamo and Brunelle took a slip at the Marriott Resort Monday night. We'll be meeting them on the way to Lake Worth.

Time to get moving again. Goodbye, Stuart. Goodbye to this comfort zone.

Maureen and Glen