Arrived alive.

Finally...  Friday we made it back to Stuart.
So nice to be back. It's way more crowded than when we were last here but Istaboa is comfortably in her old slip.
We had drinks with our old dock mates and watched the sunset. It was nice to catch up and hear of their travels as well as tell our own stories.
But weary from the last weeks run down the AICW, we eased back down to the boat and made a quick dinner of sauteed Andouille sausage in a basil and caper red sauce over fresh home made basil angel-hair pasta. Sounds complicated? No, the red sauce came out of a jar. The sausage was leftover from old provisions, but the pasta was from the farmers market on Amelia Island. Amola Pasta. Excellent!

Luckily the trip down was uneventful. Good weather, polite boaters we passed and who passed us, and dolphin as well as other critters along the way. We had to keep a watchful eye out for Manatees and did pass a few. They're heading south like the rest of us, in search of warmer waters, and they can be difficult to spot. Usually just a nose protruding above the surface is all you see.

Great shot, but not mine. Don't know who to give credit to.

And the Dolphin...  on page 2

These guys are always fun to play with. For whatever reason, they love to ride in our wake and will usually put on a show if someone aboard will make a fuss over them.
Mel loves to go out to wave and applaud their antics. Maybe it's just wishful thinking but they do seem to reciprocate and communicate by swimming just under the water with an eye looking up at us and a flipper waving just above the surface.

Wish we had more pics, but the ICW is shallow and narrow, so I drive the boat instead of taking pictures.

 Pelican Bar

It was a fun run down the east coast; we really enjoyed the Chesapeake and all the new friends we made along the way, but it's nice having it done and behind us. No planning for a while. No more hunting for the deepest water in a channel where there is none. Done for a while living our days between the Reds and Greens.

For a while...

Adios,

Istaboa