Slowly, surely

Thursday night we went out to Duffy’s in Stuart one last time with the plan to be on our way Friday about mid morning. On our way back to the boat we heard one of my favorite songs, Wishing Well by Terence Trent-Darby and for the rest of the night, and yesterday and today I hear “slowly, surely” and it seems to describe our week.

Sunset Bay Marina was very comfy. Stuart was fun and convenient. We probably could have become permanent residents if we didn’t have other plans and if it weren’t so hot. But life is short and we had done just about as much as we could do to get the boat shipshape, short of halving our possessions once again. We paid our bill, stowed everything that could be stowed, filled the water tank.

Then we took advantage of our last day of wifi for a while and watched NASA-TV on the iPad as the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft maneuvered toward the International Space Station. As eager as we were to leave, we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the slow-motion drama of the rounds of radio checks, the listing of possible capture times and finally the inching of the articulated arm of the ISS toward the capsule. We cheered with the mission control crews when capture was complete, and as always with anything space related, I welled up with the beauty of science and exploration.

As soon as Dragon was safely docked, Escape Velocity was undocked. We’re still working on our methods, but there came a moment when our careful plan to pivot on a bow line went awry and we were suddenly cast off, me on the boat and Jack on the dock. I started to panic and wanted to throw a line back to shore, but Jack coolly jumped aboard, took the helm and eased away like we planned it that way.

Sunset Bay is miles up the St. Lucie River and where the river meets the Inter Coastal Waterway (ICW) it gets very shallow. Our departure was timed so we would be at that point near high tide but we needn’t have worried. First of all, Escape Velocity doesn’t have the deep draft that most monohulls have, and the channel was very well marked.

And then we were in the ICW heading north and we really felt like our trip had begun, even if we’re only heading to St. Augustine for rudder rehab. This area of the ICW is very narrow so we can’t sail and motoring for hours on end is a little dull, but so far we’re enjoying the ride. We looked for inlets where we can head out into the ocean and sail up the coast but the winds are unfavorable for the next few days so we’re stuck chugging along being passed and waked by the gazillion power boats enjoying this holiday weekend.

Slowly, surely.