Plot Twist Yacht

  Leaving Stuart for Fort Pierce felt like the calm after the storm—or maybe the calm before the next one. Either way, Plot Twist was headed for haul-out, and we were determined to arrive on time…  We eased out onto the ICW and almost immediately found ourselves questioning our choices. Or rather, questioning the missing buoys . For a brief moment, we were pretty sure we were about to make a wrong turn and end up in the inlet instead of the waterway. A little chart-checking, a little staring at the horizon, and a whole lot of please let us be right later, we figured it out and stayed on course. Crisis one: avoided. Once we were pointed north, we did what every trawler captain dreams of doing—we went full speed . Yes, that’s laughable by most standards, but for us it meant something magical: we were finally moving over six knots . Turns out not fighting the tide makes a difference. Who knew? After our dramatic bridge exit from Stuart (see previous post), we were a little ...

  Last time we left off, the big question was how and where we’d meet our kids for Christmas. Answer: beautifully. ❤️ Christmas was everything I hoped for—getting to spend it with all three of my boys was a gift I’ll never take for granted. Then it was time to shift gears. Back to the boat. Back to reality. And off to Fort Pierce for haul-out . I wasn’t nervous about leaving Stuart—we had a plan. (You already know where this is going.) We gave ourselves 5 hours and 30 minutes to make it to the marina, even though the trip should’ve taken about 4½ hours . Plenty of cushion, right? We glided off the mooring feeling confident… until we reached the double trouble combo : the drawbridge and the railroad bridge that sit so close together they both have to open to get through. I hailed the bridge. Nothing. I waited. Hailed again. Still nothing. Finally, a very kind woman monitoring the channel politely informed us, “The bridges are on Channel 9.” Yes. I knew that. Also...