Near St. Lucie, FL

 As helped Kris & Dean shove off our shared mooring, Jeff & Jeana waved on Meriwether passed by on their way south.  We'll probably see them again later in the season in the Bahamas.

 

And it's time to part ways with Charm.  Disconnecting the lines holding us together.  Note the long sleeves and jackets.  Hopefully our last chilly morning.  (It was about 60 degrees.  BRRR).

 

And just like that, they were away!  They are going to meet up with their son in Nassau for a Christmas visit.  We will probably see them again later in the season as well.  (Notice a theme here - cruisers are happy to wave fare-well because we know there's always the (likely) chance we'll meet again!)

We then hopped in our dinghy to go ashore - caught the city bus over to an urgent care office to get our Covid test.

Pretty but blustery sunrise over the ocean view from the city bus.

 

Strange process - we sat on the sidewalk outside until they called us to come inside for the test.  (Others were waiting in their cars....)

 

We were expecting someone to come out, swab our noses and we'd be on our way. No, apparently not.  They called us on our phones to tell us to come inside (masked, of course).  Then they took our blood pressure, asked a million questions just like a regular doctor's appointment.   Entire medical history.  Then we got taken to an exam room where the nurse swabbed our noses.  We were told to stay put for the 15 minutes while the test results were gathered.  A physician's assistant came in with our results about a half hour later (negative).  He listened to our chests and sent us on our way.  I'm telling you all this because I'm pretty sure our insurance will be billed for the $225 office visit (each) we saw posted on the wall.    We only scheduled at this office because there were no appointments available for the "free" tests at CVS/Walgreens in the next week.  Oh well, despite taking about 2 hours, we now have our required negative Covid tests in hand that are good for departure to the Bahamas in the next 5 days.  Now we've just got to get positioned to cross the gulf stream and get there!

Back to the boat and we let go of the mooring much later than we'd hoped.  

Near Ft. Pierce, we did find this really strange water-phenomenon.  I could see a vivid difference in water color ahead.  But sometimes this is just a dark cloud shadowing.  As we got closer it was clear that it was not a cloud - it was actually the junction of two bodies of water - one dark/tannic and the other much clearer.  Kinda weird!

We only made it about 30 miles south before the sun was setting.  Anchored along the intercoastal, whipped up a quick dinner and watched an episode of The Crown. 

 

And we want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!  We will likely be traveling all day and won't have a chance to join anyone for a meal.  But we've got all the fixin's on board and may cook a belated meal to celebrate when we get settled.