From Hobe Sound to Stuart was a short hop; maybe 12 miles.

There were beautiful homes along the way.

And Boat Houses!

The cruising was calm and we all enjoyed the ride.

Stuart is popular with Loopers that cross Florida through the Lake Okeechobee. We were not able to do that because the lake is low (and we wanted to see the Keys).

We pulled up a mooring and wandered the town for a few hours. We had had a huge breakfast and we were able to skip lunch. We ate at a small local restaurant called Angels. It should be noted that being Monday night, Angels had a 2 for 1; that is, 2 bottles of wine for the price of 1! Cheers!

We left Fort Lauderdale, “Land of the Mansions,”

and the weather was perfect so we went out to the Atlantic and ran up the coast to Lake Worth Inlet. The Atlantic was truly pacific!

It was as calm as the ICW has been and was great for the first ride in the boat for Dorothy and Alex.

 

Kelley even threw out a line to fish – only fish – not catch!

When you come in the Inlet there is Peanut Island right in front of you and it was surrounded by anchored boats, all enjoying the great weather.

 

We had been warned that the ICW was busy on weekends and today it seemed to be especially so. We so enjoyed watching the people with their dogs play on the shoals, in the water! It is an amazing sight for us Californians.

 

Right off the Shoal the water is deep enough for a sailboat to anchor.

We continued to wind our way around as one does and I really was enjoying the ride. We like being inside and seeing all of the homes and the activity. We floated past North Palm Beach, Lake Worth and Jupiter Inlet (not navigable without local knowledge).

 

There is great anchoring in Hobe Sound; the ICW doesn’t have much traffic in the evening, and as was written in the guide book, by 5 it was quiet and calm. We sprayed the screens and outside with Listerine (thank you Nancy Levy for the email) and we did not have bugs. We had a great dinner and a peaceful sleep. We had traveled about 65 miles; going outside let us travel much farther because we could go faster.