Leaving Indiantown

Thanks all for your lovely words of faith and encouragement after my last post. I didn't think i would be posting again quite so soon.

After a false start, we have made it out of the Indiantown Marina and are now at Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart. Our first attempt to leave Indiantown last Tuesday was thwarted by the boat engine. While it had been running fine after Ivan and Jack first fixed it up, it decided to give us grief the day we wanted to leave. We said our farewells to all of the wonderful people we had made friends with in the boatyard and to the fantastic staff at the marina and went to cast off from the floating jetty. With the engine still running at this point, we were only slightly delayed by having to forward and back to free the boat from the sticky muddy bottom that it had been resting on due to the unseasonably low level of water in the marina. Then the engine conked out! After checking for air in hoses, tightening everything and getting various bits of advice from a number of people, we made it out of the marina into the canal, thinking all was fine when the engine conked out again. To cut a very long story short, we spent the next 4 hours in the canal trying to get the engine to run for more than 10 minutes before conking out.  Finally we conceded defeat and turned back to Indiantown Marina ( we had only travelled about 500m up the canal). Even getting back was a challenge as the outboard motor decided to play up. Fortunately the hastily rigged staysail didn't let us down and the boat engine actually continued running for the whole journey back. It was an exercise in perserverance and frustration for Ivan and I think I developed a few more grey hairs. The only slightly tricky bit in getting back was making sure we could time our arrival at the railway bridge so that it was up to let us pass under.

Going through the open Indiantown Railway bridge

The next morning Graeme from the marina and Ivan set to work to try to find out what the problem with the engine was. The outboard problem turned out to be easily fixed. The boat engine problem was more of a mystery. Again, to cut a long story short, it took all day, changing over hoses, tightening and re-tightening things, bleeding lines, looking for air bubbles and then finally they worked out that a tap that was in the 'on' position should have been in the 'off' position. So some buckets of sweat, curses and hundreds of dollars later, once again we were able to leave the marina. We left at about 5pm and motored successfully down to the St Lucie Lock where we had to stay the night as the lock was not due to open again until 9am the next day. It was a 2hr trip down the canal.

Richard and Ivan are happy chappies now we are underway.

Thursday morning we were up early waiting for the

Lock to open. A catamaran had also stayed the night near us and a couple of motor cruisers came up the canal that morning to go through the Lock too. We were travelling east and the west travelling boats came through the Lock first so it took some time before we were through. By about 10.30am we were once again on our way motoring up the canal towards Stuart. There wasn't much to see in the canal other than the back gardens of some swish, but sterile houses which reminded us at times of the canals in Paynesville. We arrived at Stuart and picked up our mooring at about midday.

Today we are having our 'Mack Pack' fitted and rigging checked. We will do some final provisioning here before leaving for the Bahamas. Still not entirely sure when we will depart as it depends on what needs to be done in regard to the rigging. The clock is ticking and, much as we like the very good meals at the restaurant near the Marina we are very keen to get away.