Journey to Florida 2014: Indiantown, Florida

Well we left Marathon with a 3 day weather window. It was great to get back on the boat and moving. We made 50 miles the first day and tucked into an anchorage in Key Largo. The next morning we awoke to rain showers and the wind was to start picking up later that afternoon. We got into our raingear and departed at 7:30. The weather did break a bit in the afternoon, enough to get out of the raingear. We managed to slip into Miami about 4pm just as the Atlantic started to kick up a bit, so much for that 3 day weather window. We were secure for the night and the wind didn't pick up to the 20 knots we expected.
Next morning we headed off to Hollywood, where we would take a slip for the night as a cold front was expected to come in. We fought head winds of 15 knots for the day. Hollywood was full, but we did manage to pick up a mooring ball in Fort Lauderdale. As it was again the wind didn't pick up to the anticipated 20 mph.
Next morning we headed out, needing fuel and a pump out. When coming into the fuel dock , I heard clunk in the gear box. The boat seemed to be working fine so we continued on.
Later that afternoon, the boat started to labour a bit and lose some power. When we were going through the bascule bridge in Boca Raton, the boat engine quit. The current and winds were in our favor and they pushed the boat out from under the bridge, without hitting anything. We quickly through up the head sail and sailed out of the channel and threw out the anchor. Upon quick inspection, I noticed the prop shaft was not turning. I suspected that we may have picked up a line or crab pot, seizing the shaft. I dove on the shaft and managed to turn it by hand and saw nothing fouling the shaft or prop.
Upon further investigation I found that a ground wire had vibrated lose on the starter. We secured the wire and the boat started .
Next morning we set out with limited power . We were going to head to Vero Beach, but decided to go to Indiantown to have them look at the transmission. We were now doing about 2-4 knots, dependent on the tide, current and winds. We supplemented with sails whenever we could. We limped into Stuart, Florida and St Lucie River. We managed to make the St Lucie Lock , the entrance to the Okochobee waterway. The winds in the lock would not allow the boat to pull off the lock wall. We decided to shut the engine off , in hopes that the transmission would cool off. We went down and back up the lock as the boat traffic was heavy. We again tried to pull the boat off the lock wall, but this didn't happen. We walked the boat out of the lock and tied the boat to the wall for the night.
We were 15 miles from Indiantown, so we decidd to have BOAT US, tow us the next morning. This would have cost us around $400-$500, but fortunately our membership covered this cost.
We arrived in Indiantown the next morning.
This turned out to be okay as the cold front was coming in. Temperatures were dropping to the low 30's. Because we had shore power we were able to plug in our little space hater, making the boat reasonably comfortable for the past 3 days.
The transmission was pulled earlier in the week and sent to Stuart for service. We should have the estimate early next week.
As we are here until the boat is hauled March 3 and we fly home on March 4, we decided to rent the car earlier, so we could get around to see some things, including our frinds in Vero Beach.