Friday December’s 1st, twenty seventeen
Yesterday we left the anchorage at the North Causeway bridge in Fort Pierce. Our destination was somewhere south of there. There was light traffic on the ICW. Most of the powerboats were courteous and minimized their wakes as they passed but not all. Our goal was to get into Stuart, go up the river some and snag a mooring at Sunset Bay marina. Everything went well right up to the snag a mooring part. As we passed the marina we could see that the docks were full…. FULL.
ML spied a mooring ball at the extreme end of the field. We grabbed it with no problem but their was a garbage bag wrapped around the mooring tether end. Something was wrong I surmised. I called the marina on the phone and Sam kindly told us that the mooring we had snagged was not secure and not to be used. OH OH.
He said there were several boats waiting on the other side of the river. Well, guess where we are? The other side of the river. We are anchored among transient boats, liveaboards and vacant boats. There could be at least 4 boats that are waiting to snag a mooring if the chance presents. Sunset Bay operates the moorings as a free for all. Those on moorings stay there, if they move at all they leave their dinghy to secure their spot. A vacant ball is up for grabs. Part of the issue here is that only about 1/3 of the balls are spaced properly for boats over 40 feet. There are lots of vacancies in the smaller boat field.
After we secured the boat I prepared the dinghy and went over to the marina to get some gas for the dinghy and the generator. Matt was out at the service dock and he told me what was up. The damage to the facilities to the south, in the keys has lead to the boats from the north not having a destination. Primarily the Keys. Many marinas along the ICW and south sustained damage and are out of operation or only have limited spaces. We are caught up in this supply and demand issue.
We will spend the day trying to find a place to keep FRACAS for Christmas all the while watching for a mooring to open up over at Sunset. I think we need some old time luck… more later