Adventures in Stuart

Stuart – we spent more time and money in Stuart than we had planned – We hadn’t actually planned to stop in Stuart at all.  This little gem is off the ICW main course about 7-8 miles. It is on the route leading to the west coast via Lake Okeechobee. As I mentioned in the last post, this is where we picked up the boat in March of 2012. We have now completed the loop around the southern coast of Florida called the “Florida Loop”. Our stay in Stuart was precipitated by a few mechanical issues and then a few more. This is a wonderful crossroads with numerous marine resources and during the winter the home of Scott – the ace Krogen fix-it man. We had originally booked a few hours with Scott for Steve to review some electrical issues – do you really want to know? We discovered that the current set up did not charge the batteries running the ‘house’ (which includes the frig) while we were running the engine unless we were also running the generator. We now have the option to charge everything while underway with the engine alone. Scott also helped with the exhaust hose blow out and helped Steve trouble shoot the cause and order some parts for the next explosion. In addition, the generator developed an issue – as it stopped due to overheating. Now remember what I said about the frig needing the batteries run by that generator – not to mention all our other electronic toys. Scott, the wonder tech, ran down the problem and squeezed in most of the work before he was off to the Bahamas to work on some poor Krogen owners stuck down there. Steve installed the new genny water pump and we seem to be back in business.

Notice we only have “issues” never problems!  We endeavor to keep a positive attitude when issues arise. Therefore, our time in Stuart was an adventure and our investment there is “Boat Jewelry” – see the photo for details – it is pretty, isn’t it?

 

We did find some time for fun in Stuart as well visiting the Riverwalk Café and Oyster Bar where we still rave about the Ahi Tuna Nachos appetizer. A brisk 3 mile bike ride to the Home Depot on the marina loaner bikes topped off our afternoon – we had to include a pit stop at the local West Marine, of course; I ran into a Steinmart! And, Steve loaded us down at the ABC. It is our plan to be heading north with the next sunrise.