Wednesday, 13 May 2015 - Spent the night at the east end of the Stuart Causeway, which I heard is a popular sailing venue for sailboarding. Very nice and cool, right on the water.

Thursday, 14 May 2015 - I sailed today and will spend the night here, but have been told I'll need to leave in the morning because they will be having a big race with several classes of powerboats, including the big boys - unlimited hydrofoils over the weekend. It's the Stuart Sailfish Regatta Powerboat Nationals Race.

Friday, 15 May - I windsurfed at the west end of the causeway in Stuart for a while, but the wind got too light. I'd liked to have stayed there, under the bridge for the night, but assumed that since they would be holding the power boat races the next day, that they would be closing the bridge and run me off, so I left. As I was leaving, I realized that they had, indeed, already closed the bridge, and that they didn't know that I was there, so I could have stayed, seen the races and sailed there on Sunday. I moved back north to the causeway at Jensen Beach for the night. As I pulled onto the causeway at Jensen Beach, I missed the turn to stay on the nearer, western end, so I went on over to the eastern end for the evening. Lo and Behold, there was easy access to a real nice beach that I could sail from. I wonder why I haven't heard of others sailing at this location. It looks perfect, and the wind is a safe, onshore breeze. Tomorrow should be great.

Saturday, 16 May - Light winds all morning, so I could hear the powerboat racers from the other bridge three miles away. I don't know how many horsepower those boats have, but I understand they are capable of running over 200 mph and are running on an oval course just over a mile long. The rooster tails of the "big boys" were the length of three spans of the bridge. I could see them from my vantage point.
                  Winds picked up a bit around 2:00pm, so I rigged and headed out...but not far. I ran aground about 100 yards off shore. I walked my sailboard about 50 - 75 yards and tried again, sailed about a half mile, jibed and returned to the shallow water. Now I know why no one else sails there. Most of that part of the bay is only about 18" deep! I de-rigged, let my equipment dry it the sun and breeze, and got ready to head across the state to look at another CSY.

Sunday, 17 May - Before leaving town, I decided to make an offer on the CSY here, but at several thousand dollars less than he is asking. He said he'd give me an answer tomorrow evening.
                  I drove across to Palmetto, near the south entrance to Tampa Bay on the western, gulf shore of Florida to meet the owners of the CSY "Island Time". I had a 2:00 appointment. A very nice drive, but much of it on VERY narrow two lane road with no shoulder. Kept me on my toes, so to speak.
                  It really wasn't a very good day to see the boat. The floorboards in the cockpit were all taken out and a mechanic was replacing the transmission, so the whole boat was a real mess and the owners were really busy trying to get things off the boat, put away, and cleaned up. I spent about an hour there, but really didn't get to talk to them much. They said to come back Tuesday at 2:00pm. Monday they'd be cleaning and too busy to deal with me.
                  The owner of the CSY in Stuart returned my call and said he just couldn't go that low. I still think his counter-offer was too high.
                  I spent the night in a park area across from the Regatta Point Marina in Palmetto, where the boat is. It's undeveloped and being used as an overflow for the trailers at the boat ramp across the street, but it's beautiful; huge old oak trees with Spanish moss dangling down three to four feet, and some of them encased in, or being taken over by strangler figs. The weather here is beautiful, warm, and VERY humid, with chances of brief thundershowers in the afternoons.

Monday, 18 May - I spent the day emptying my holding tanks, refilling my water tank, and buying groceries, then spent the night in a parking lot that didn't seem to be associated with any business over near the grocery store. More old oak trees for shade.

Tuesday, 19 May - Moved back over to the marina to meet the boat owners again and see the boat all cleaned up. It certainly looks better, and they are very proud of her. She's seen a lot of use and the teak has been sanded down almost too much over the years, but she has a lot of upgrades to the navigation equipment and other niceties that they found useful in their travels. I made the gentleman an offer and he said they'd think it over. They had a plane to catch, so they were off.

Wednesday, 20 May - Still at the marina and I'll probably stay here again tonight, since I have an appointment with the boat broker tomorrow at 10:30am, but I do need to go get some Kerns fruit juice that the store that I went to the other day didn't have, and some bread.
                  The broker just called and said they accepted my offer! Gotta Go!