Serendipitous Shipyard

We are underway northbound in the ICW, headed for the mouth of the Banana River. We are now firmly on the long slog north, with a relaxed deadline to be well into Georgia in a month and a half. We are on a comfortable pace.

Vector looking diminutive in the enormous lift well at Derecktor Shipyard. Superyacht Formosa at left and megayacht Synthesis at right.

Last Sunday we weighed anchor in Port Mayaca after coffee, a bit surprised to find we had remained in exactly the same spot in our anchor circle all night. We found surprisingly little traffic on the canal for a Sunday, which was a good thing as the canal level was noticeably lower than on our westbound transit and we had to dodge around a few shoals.

We saw these funny dishtowels in the window of a tchotchke shop in downtown Stuart.

We had a brief delay at the railroad bridge and then were disappointed to find the system's grumpiest lockmaster again on duty at the St. Lucie lock, after having such a pleasant experience in the other direction. Fortunately, we did not have to interact with him in person, only by radio. We were in Stuart by 2:30, dropping the hook in our usual spot off Arbeau Point (map). We tendered ashore for a much-needed Publix run and had dinner at the adjacent Michele's Cucina, new to us with casual Italian fare that we found decent.

Same shop, different window.

After the mad scramble to get through the lake before it got too low, we needed at least a day of downtime, and so we took Monday off, so to speak. I took the time to re-inspect the sea strainers, which were clear, and clean up some water in the ER that came in through the sea chest vent when the diver was working down there. We need to remember to close that vent next time we have sea chest work done, as the pressure of the air bubbles forces water all the way up the vent and out.

We both kept kicking this fan in the dark. In some downtime I added an always-on LED so we'll see it.

The other thing I started on, now that we could be on a more relaxed pace with some flexibility in stops, was contacting painters and boatyards along our route to repair the swim platform damage from our incident in Palm Beach, along with whatever other touch-up they could get done in the same two days that would take. Given yard backlogs here, I was pretty sure Georgia was going to be our first opportunity.

A representative rust spot. It can be argued this weld seam was improperly prepped and this should be warranty, but two years on it's hard to make a case.

That having been said, I nevertheless started my search right in Stuart, working my way north along the route. The yard in Stuart had no room, and the first place I called in Fort Pierce had an eight-week backlog before they could get us in. And even though it was a long shot, I called the Derecktor yard in Fort Pierce, which is almost exclusively a megayacht yard. I was quick to point out that the Derecktor yard in New York had done our paint job.

I missed snapping the 10,000 hour rollover by exactly 100 hours.

Much to my surprise, the Florida sales manager for Derecktor said he thought there might be room for us in Fort Pierce but that he would have to get back to me after a morning scheduling meeting on Tuesday. We figured that to mean another night in Stuart while they sorted things out. We tendered ashore at dinner time and walked downtown for dinner at Luna, a more upscale Italian place that is a long-time favorite of ours.

The popular bar at The Gafford.

Tuesday they got back to me with a definitive answer that they had room for us starting Wednesday and a jaw-dropping rate sheet, subject to a signed proposal. From the rate sheet we could tell it would cost us $325 per day just to be in the yard, which meant we did not want to be there even a minute sooner than when they were ready to start the work. We settled in for another night in Stuart, eating downtown again at another old favorite, The Gafford.

Lots of draft handles, and TVs, at the 2nd Street Bistro.

Even though we had yet to receive the yard proposal, we weighed anchor Wednesday morning for the run to Fort Pierce, then immediately had to wait for a Brightline train at the railroad bridge. We bashed into stiff two footers driven by 30-40mph northerlies most of the day, finally dropping the hook in the protection of the south causeway, a familiar stop (map). We had a sporty tender ride to the city dock and walked to the 2nd Street Bistro, with its decent selection of drafts, for dinner. I was hoping to catch the Altas-5 launch for Project Kuiper in the evening, but it was scrubbed due to weather.

We're dwarfed by our neighbor, the 242' motor yacht Synthesis. If you want a ride, she's for charter for $940,000 per week. Plus expenses. That does include all 18 crew, though.

Thursday morning the sales manager put me in touch with Kyle, the Fort Pierce project manager, and we arranged to come in that afternoon for the paint contractor to look things over and give an estimate on schedule and pricing. We weighed anchor and arrived at the appointed time of 2pm, where he had us pull into the lift well for the world's largest marine strap lift (map) for the meeting. That turned out to be perfect, because the relatively new lift well had reasonably sized and spaced cleats, as opposed to most of the rest of the yard, formerly the commercial port of Fort Pierce, which had only widely-spaced ship bollards.

Louise in front of one of the 32 tires on the enormous 1,500-ton lift, the largest in the world.

Kyle met us on the pier, and shortly Jorge, the supervisor for Milandy Yacht Service, already on site to paint a superyacht, joined us for a quick meeting. Jorge went off to work some numbers and Kyle told us we could spend the night right there, no charge, whatever was decided. We had to be out of the lift well before Monday morning, as they were hauling a superyacht, so we would be coming in to a different spot if the work would start on, or run past, Monday.

This view of Vector in the well beyond the lift reminding me just a little of our haulout in a 600-ton lift in Alabama.

Just as it had been in Mamaroneck, paint contractors tend to work right through weekends -- regular readers may recall I got no weekends off when we were in the yard there. So it was not long before Jorge came back to say they could start first thing Friday morning and be done by Sunday morning, and we all agreed Vector would just stay in the lift well. We had come in bow-first, and we did agree to turn the boat around so the swim step would be less exposed to wakes and the swell from the inlet.

We walked past this pair of defunct cement silos daily. They are 200' tall and marked on our marine charts as landmarks visible from sea. This little elevator cage would take maintenance workers to the top.

The shipyard is a mile walk from downtown, so at dinner time we walked instead to the 12A Buoy restaurant just a couple of blocks away. The place was very busy and surprisingly good. Thursday turned out to be prime rib night, and we split the enormous portion along with a salad. It's right next to a public boat ramp, so we've added it to our list of good tender-accessible restaurants in the area. We spun the boat around and moved to the other side of the well after we got home from dinner.

This enormous facility was once the port of Fort Pierce. The lift well did not exist and this was the large main pier, with ship berths to either side. Here we are after turning around and you can see the painter's little cart alongside.

Friday morning a crew of three painters arrived and immediately got to work. In a stroke of good timing, as I was walking around the boat showing them the various trouble spots, a big chip that was heretofore unknown popped off adjacent to the transom gate, all the way down to bare steel, immediately becoming the largest of all the repairs on the list. By the end of the day they had chipped, ground, masked, sanded, and primed all of the damaged areas. They had to supply the primer, as I had no hardener for the half gallon of primer I had aboard.

A chip the size of a quarter ended up this large, as layers of paint came off in sheets. The metal is smooth underneath, so it was not properly "profiled" when it was first painted, back in 2002.

Mid-afternoon Kyle came by to collect the vig for the yard. They only charged us for two days' dockage and nothing else, not even the usual surcharge on the paint contractors, and told us to settle with the painters separately. There was no power suitable for us in the lift well anyway, so we just ran the generator as needed, thus we did not even pay for utilities.

Underscoring her enormous size, we could see Vector's reflection in Synthesis's windows and gleaming paint.

Somewhere between Thursday night and Friday morning, Louise tweaked her lower back, and at dinner time we walked to the closest joint, the Funky Cuda. We were able to walk right in, as the live music had not yet started, but the seating was all backless and we walked right back out. Same story next door at the Tipsy Tiki, so we walked just a bit further back to 12A Buoy. They had over a half hour wait, and Louise gave up, opting to return home where she had a big plate of leftovers waiting. I continued all the way to town and ate at the bar at Crabby's, the dockside joint at the marina. It was decent and surprisingly uncrowded for a Friday.

This is the best my phone could do to capture the rocket launch. It looks more impressive in person.,

Saturday the painters again jumped right in, getting topcoat onto most of the repairs, and fairing the largest of them. The fairing compound was not fully cured by the end of the day, pushing final topcoat in those areas into Sunday morning. At dinner time Louise was feeling up to walking into town, and I snagged a reservation at Casa Pasta, mindful of how busy things were on Friday. I'm glad I did; the couple that arrived ahead of us was turned away. Neither the food nor the service was as good as we remembered, but we were happy to be comfortably seated right away. After we returned home we caught the Starlink launch from our deck.

Oyster Festival. There was no good vantage point for a better shot.

Sunday just two painters arrived to finish the job, but they remained until well past lunch time. The top coat was still wet when they finished and so we opted to stay at the dock until after dinner to give things a chance to cure. After they left I used some of the leftover topcoat to dab a few more dents and dings that were too minor to put on the list. I walked halfway to town to the Oyster Festival, happening at the waterfront park. I don't eat oysters but I enjoy walking through festivals; this one was small and uncrowded and I was done in less than ten minutes.

Umber sunset over Fort Pierce from our anchorage. You can see those cement silos at far left.

At dinner time we walked downtown to the Thirsty Turtle, where happy hour drafts were less than four bucks. We were back in time to cast off before sunset, drive a mile out to the anchorage in front of the Coast Guard station, and drop the hook (map). We were still close enough that in the morning we could see the superyacht Entourage maneuvering into the lift.

Delay at the bridge. All that traffic on the lift span is stopped, and if you zoom in you can see a crew under the crane boom.

Yesterday morning we got an early start to make it through the North Fort Pierce drawbridge before any of the ongoing bridge construction shut it down; right now they are having delays up to two hours. We had only a brief delay as they shut down traffic to crane something over the bridge deck. We had a fair tide all the way to Vero Beach just two hours away, and managed to score a rare spot in the only close anchorage that fits us (map). We wanted to arrive early in case we had to hunt around for a spot in one of our more distant backup options.

While we were anchored in Vero, friends Wendye and James passed by on Chasing Sunsets.

We tendered ashore at the park, where long-time friends Chris and Alyse whisked us off to their nearby home for a wonderful evening of cocktails, conversation, and dinner. They are the consummate hosts and we always come away stuffed to the gills. Even across four hours we never quite finished catching up. We got to meet their new rescue dog, Fergus, who is a bit skittish but warmed up to us over the evening and supplied some welcome pet love.

Fergus. Photo: Alyse Caldwell

Update: We are docked at the Eau Gallie Yacht Club in Indian Harbour Beach (map), a familiar stop. After tying up we got a needed pump-out, and with power and water we're knocking out the laundry. We also had some packages sent, and now I have parts in hand to resuscitate our dormant water maker. I gave the boat a much-needed rinse, and after dinner at the club we walked to Publix to restock. In the morning we will continue north to Titusville.