Dropping The Hook For Awhile!!!!

SHIP'S LOG:

I finally got out of Vero Beach City Marina on Sunday. It is a really very nice place in a very nice town and I can understand why people go there and really hate to leave. But leave I did and my finances are grateful.

The run to Fort Pierce was but a short 14 miles. I had a conversation with the Ft. Pierce Bridge Tender. Most of the "opening bridges" along the ICW require you to give the name and home port of your vessel, why I am not sure. But when I said "New London, Connecticut" he told me about his daughter who had just finished her medical residency at Yale- New Haven Hospital and was now "going out to work of a living." He said that he didn't envy the debt shoe had to pay off but figured she would and then "she can support her mother and me in our old age."
I called Jerry as I was approaching the South Bridge and and he was just crossing it. He pulled into a part near the former sewage treatment plant and waved and directed me into a channel that lead to Faber Cove which is where he keeps his boat. After things were all squared away, Jerry and I had a long talk that went pretty much the whole afternoon. I got the "quick and dirty" tour of Ft. Pierce. Evidently, it had suffered some rather serious damage during the 2004 hurricane season but a lot of rebuilding has taken place since. It was sort of "urban renewal by hurricane tidal surge." Still there are a lot of places that need work. For while the tidal surge was "only" six feet, the agreeably low and flat Florida landscape doesn't present much in the way of deterrence to incoming water surges. There is a lot of rebuilding going on but there are also a number of places, condos and the like, that were built but haven't sold. I gather from Jerry that some great deals can be had from people who bought on speculation and are now stuck with a property they don't want.

Jerry and I watch football and talked, had a couple of drinks and talked and had dinner( he made steaks) and talked. It was really great to finally get to see him again. It sort of hit me when I got back on the boat that my major goal has been reached. Since the start of the trip, when anyone asked, I always explained that the one thing I wanted to do was to get down to Ft. Pierce and see Jerry. When his wife died a couple of years ago, I was unable to make it down for the funeral and really was able to get down before this moment. Jerry and I hit it off well and I found Rite, his wife, a joy. And I was deeply touched when she died. And now I have made the "pilgrimage" to Fort Pierce and I have seen Jerry and there is a sense of completeness in it all. I will spend a few days here and will stay in the area at least until the 21st. Jerry has remarried and his wife, Lucille, is a teacher in California and will keep her job there until she retires. So they have a bi-coastal marriage and every few weeks, one or the other makes the cross country trek to visit the the other for a few days or weeks or month. Lucille will be flying in on the 15th and we have made a date to meet so that, as she says, she "can meet the guy who makes Jerry laugh on the telephone."

Today was a rather slow day. It was in the 70's so it is hard, after all the cold weather, to get up the energy to do all that much. I got my log book current along with the Engine Log, did maintenance on the batteries, blew up the dinghy, took a nap, talked with the crew of "SACAJAWEA" a Bennetau 38 from South Africa and read. I looked at the charts for the rest of Florida and couldn't work up much enthusiasm. Roland and Ron will be coming down to Port St. Lucie at the end of the month and that's about 20 miles as the dolphin swims and I am sure that we will get together if for no other reason than they will by me dinner . . . . even if they don't realize it yet.

It is a strange feeling that now that I have seen and talked with Jerry, and we will get together several times over the next couple of weeks, I am not sure about wanting to cruise all the way down to the Keys and/or Key West. I have been at this since October 3rd, some 93 days and Key West is still a couple hundred miles away. Perhaps it is just fatigue speaking, after all except for recently, it has been travel every day. Perhaps after several days of quiet and rest, the nice weather will draw me on. Perhaps the condo association and the local civic ordinances will get me gone( Strangely, Florida seems to be doing everything it can to hamper the recreational boating industry). Perhaps the "itchy foot" & "traveling jones" will crop up again and I will see if I can find another place to go aground. Who knows? Maybe I should have another goal . . . .like meeting Jimmy Buffett?