Day 8 - A day in Stuart and off to Port Canaveral

We had a nice "no travel day" in Stuart. Took a walk to Publix for a few groceries, walked around the river walk again and basically took some time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather. The train passes through a few times a day and is very long. Stuart is worth visiting and the Sunset Bay Marina is great, but it is a long way off the ICW. It's a perfect stop if you are going to head across Lake Okeechobee and  go to the west coast of Florida. The adjacent restaurant had live music playing all day and seemed to be very popular. Marinas are different at night when the boats turn on their lights and things quiet down.

We have marina reservations for the next four nights and today was to be the longest run. We got out of Sunset Bay in time to make the 9:00am bridge opening and headed toward the St. Lucie Inlet. It seemed to be a race for all of the center console boats as they headed out for a day of fishing. It is quite a long trip to get back to the ICW and you have to watch the very confusing markers to make sure you stay in the channel. Our plan was to head up the ICW to Fort Pierce and then go outside to Port Canaveral. The wind was a little stronger than anticipated, but everything worked out. We had a successful passage to the ocean in Fort Pierce and made it up to Port Canaveral a couple of hours later. It was a little bumpy for the first hour or so, but settled down nicely and made for a smooth ride into Port Canaveral. We passed a few boats along the way and a number of fishermen. There were two Disney cruise ships anchored outside the entrance, obviously waiting for the COVID restrictions to lift so that they can get back to normal operation.

Port Canaveral is a mix of industrial shipping, cruise ships, NASA property and marinas. We arrived at the  Port Canaveral Yacht Club around 3:00pm. Mike assisted us with docking and tying up. It was a pretty tight slip and the steel docks were a little different for us. We made it in, rinsed off the boat and took time to enjoy the 75+ degree temperatures. It is a relatively small property, but a lot of club members were on site. Another Disney Cruise Liner was docked across the channel.

Tomorrow we head to Titusville and plan to meet up with some college friends. It will be a pretty quick trip through the Cape Canaveral Barge Canal and the Cape Canaveral Lock. Before we leave, we will be able to see another SpaceX Falcon launch. This is about as close as you can get to the launch and the dockmaster says we will be able to hear it as well.