Moving North - Harbortown to Melbourne

I’m really going to miss Harbortown. It wasn’t a place we had planned to stay longterm. We had always thought of it as a place to get the boat ready and figure out our plans before we set sail. It was centrally located, clean and not too expensive. Over the past year I have really started to think of it as home though, mostly because of the people! Everyone is so kind (well except for the grumpiest man in the world) and funny, and they all loved the girls and made them feel so special! It is like leaving family! We had a nice goodbye dinner with our wonderful friends before weighing anchor and heading north.

tea party with Ms. Linda

farewell potluck with friends

our friends waving us out

Lark leaving E-dock, photo by Glen

leaving Harbortown

The plan is to spend a month in Melbourne while we decide how exactly to approach our trip to the Bahamas. Jacob’s parents live here, and the girls are loving all of the grandparent time! Up next, cousin time! Which they already can’t wait for!

We pulled out of Harbortown at about 8a.m., headed through the Ft.Pierce North Bridge and were on our way. Vero comes in a hurry then Wabasso and Sebastian and next thing Melbourne Causeway shows up and there’s deep water outside the channel and there you are. We continued up through the Eau Gallie Causeway, cut over to Dragon Point, into the Banana River and pulled in to Telemar Bay. The girls each took a turn steering and though the forecast 17 knot west breeze never materialized, we did fly the main, jib and staysail each for a little bit and a good time was had by all.

Lorelei fishing on the trip

Audrey at the wheel

dolphins joined us on the journey

Unfortunately, the sweet, quiet, very scenic marina we had stayed at over Christmas is no longer taking liveaboards. We had sort of hoped to sneak under the radar with the whole thing as Jacob’s parents live right across the street and we could technically sleep there if we had to (wink, wink). They didn’t even want us to have a bathroom key though, and we decided it just wouldn’t work. Before we left, the marina gave us a little going away present though, bioluminescence!

Lark tied up at Telemar Bay

Audrey stirring up the bioluminescence

bioluminescence!

We spent Tuesday morning moving to a Melbourne Harbor Marina. It is definitely more bustling, and noisy….and WAY more expensive. It will do though. Hopefully this will make it even more motivating to make our Bahamas plans happen sooner, rather then later.

Papa’s birthday dinner

kayaking with GranMiri and Papa in Crane Creek