Stuart – Wednesday, February 2, 2011

We arrived in Stuart and anchored in the St. Lucie River.   We came down the ICW on this journey, and only had a short cruise of about 3 hours to get here.  We are really in Southern Florida now, and dolphins, manatees and a whole host of new birds are around us.  Thursday we took the dinghy and went into the old town in Stuart.  It is a lovely place, with a lively downtown scene.    There are a lot of boutiques and little shops, but the restaurant scene is one of the best we’ve seen on our trip so far.  After a long walk and a slice of pizza for lunch, we were ready for a beer!!

Friday we took the dinghy on another little expedition to Manatee Pocket.  This is a little cove south of where we are anchored, with many marinas and a few restaurants.  Fortuitously, we were there right around lunchtime, so we had a delicious “Cuban” sandwich and, of course, more beer!!

Last night we met up with our friends from Millipore days, Kevin and Frances Looney.  We had a great dinner catching up on old times and friends.  We may see them again at their home in Palm Beach in a day or so.

Our plan is to head out tomorrow, and perhaps fuel up at one of the fuel docks at Manatee Pocket.  Our research into diesel prices seem to indicate that we can get a better deal there than in Ft. Lauderdale.  We will then cruise down the ICW and anchor in Lake Worth, which is alongside Palm Beach.  We will likely stay there a day or two at the most, then head out of Palm Beach Inlet and cruise the outside to Ft. Lauderdale. 

The photos we have posted we took all in Stuart.  The “Law Offices of Jeff T. Gorman” is for our friend and neighbor Jeff Gorman, who we were surprised to see seems to be leading a double life…!!!

Weather is fine here, but we are thinking about all our friends “up North” in the coldest, snowiest and worst January in New England in a very long time!  Stay warm!!

PS  to save the guessing by those so inclined, this edition was written by Irina without any direction from her better half!!!!



Pretty Egret



Very lovely purple bird



Jeff, didn't know you moved to Florida!!