Stuart to Melbourne

sailing class

many fellow cruisers talking to us here

 

3/1/2021 Monday

Boat ran fine - yesterday was hopefully a wake up call to not get too comfortable and take anything for granted.  Beautiful, hot, weather today.  

One instance today of a negligent boater.  An approximately 50' motorboat was passing a trawler.  he was part of a group of 4 oncoming boats.  I was at the edge of a narrow channel and had nowhere to maneuver.  This was also a seasonal Manatee zone where all boats should be at slow speed, minimum wake.  He continued to pass the boat and was throwing a very large wake and headed directly at me.  This part of the ICW has a lot of water spread thin.  Maybe he thought I had room to maneuver, but I only had 2' under the boat where we were.  I sounded the danger signal with the horn three times and he finally altered course, closer to the trawler he was passing but not slowing down.   Others called him out on the radio and I added my displeasure.  That is Sandy being really nice, the guy was a moron! We had maybe 6 ' between us.

We pulled into Melborne Harbor Marina and tied up.  There was a lot of life in the marina, we kept seeing big fish chasing smaller fish and causing a commotion.  A Dolphin and a manatee with her calf.  Nice to see.  We met quite a few of our neighbors as this was a smaller marina, some of them we had been passing previously.  It is nice to be able to chat with new people since we are all outside and socially distanced!.  It really is interesting how many people have purchased boats and are living on them, working remotely with no definite end time to the adventure.

Delirium Tremens Belgian Ale

for both

and a couple of burgers

We ate at "the Mansion",  just a short walk from the marina.  Great burgers on a rooftop deck but no one was wearing masks.  Even the door to the marina said "masks are not worn inside the office or by employees".  It is crazy how each town is different from the next.  On the way home from dinner, it started to rain, by the time we were back on the boat we were drenched!  Always an adventure!