Stats for April 28, 2019.

Origin: Fort Pierce City Marina

Destination: Melbourne Beach

Distance: 46.9 miles

Speed: 8mph

Time on the Move: 5 hours and 50 minutes

We really didn’t feel like we were in Fort Pierce very long because we actually weren’t. Between having friends to keep us busy and traveling all over the state and the country, we were only on the boat in Fort Pierce 3 nights, 2 of which were whirlwinds, packing and unpacking. I was hoping for a leisurely departure in the morning, however with the tide situation, we either needed to leave at 7am or 1pm. 1 was a little late, so the captain said 7 am it is.

We were out of the marina and headed down the ICW, enjoying the soft colors of the morning sky, even though we were exhausted from all the running around the day before. It felt good to be traveling. Except for those low bridges. I am not a fan of the bridges that are **close** to our height, where we actually have to read the chart off to the side showing the actual depth to know whether we need to have them open or not. We usually know ahead of time, but sometimes it is close.

We just passed the bridge shown above when Mike suddenly noticed his port engine was overheating, so he put the boat in neutral and turned off the port side. We found an anchorage just about a quarter mile ahead of our current location, pulled off the ICW, and dropped anchor. Hmmm….so we left at 7 am and were anchored again around 7:30 am.

Mike got to work in the engine room right away. Mike changed the impeller on that port side while we were in Fort Pierce as “preventative maintenance.” Well it was a pain in the rear end actually. The impeller is extremely difficult to get to and so after hours of sweating it out and battling the impeller, Mike decided to take the water pump out of place so he would have easier access to the impeller. It still was not an easy task, but finally it was completed. Mike questioned the replacement impeller he had, but put it in anyway, figuring it had to be the right one.

After the overheating incident, Mike pulled the impeller AGAIN and put an old one back in AGAIN. He wasn’t sure that this was the answer, but it was his best guess, so we went with it. 3 hours later, we were back on our way up the ICW. Not exactly how we wanted to start our travels, but overall, we certainly can’t complain.

A little later on during our travels for the day, Tobin kept us entertained drawing who knows what in a very snazzy outfit–heartbreaker undies, life jacket, and triceratops bike helmet. Things are rarely boring around here!!

The travel day was quite busy. Being it was a Sunday, the ICW was full of boats, and we realized why loopers rarely travel on the weekends in south Florida. It was a great boat parade and helped pass the time until we go to our destination.

We anchored off of a fishing pier in Melbourne Beach that also has a dinghy dock. There was a playground and a park right there as well. As soon as we dropped anchor, we headed for the playground and to check out town. There were tons of kids at the playground since it was a Sunday and our kids loved all the playmates. After they played for a while, we continued on through town.

We made it to the beach for some frisbee and sand castle building.

The next day we went back to town with the intention of letting the kids burn off some energy at the playground before we moved for the day. We got in some scooter riding, fishing, and used book buying at the library, too!!

We had a great time in Melbourne beach. What a convenient stop for our family with the playground and community center right there by the dinghy dock. Thank you Florida towns that cater to cruisers!! We’re off on our next adventure…

Thanks for reading and following along!!