We drove back to Stuart with the assurance our boat would be ready on Friday. We checked back into the quaint Colorado Inn, stayed Wednesday and Thursday nights. Friday morning, we had breakfast and lunch, checked out of the hotel and caught an Uber to the boat yard. We had already taken advantage of the rental car and had restocked the boat with groceries the day before. The boat yard manager, Steve, had told us he would get the Honey Queen in the water at 1:00 pm, right after lunch. I coordinated with the stabilizer crew, who needed to calibrate the stabilizers after the boat was in the water. They showed about 1:30, spent an hour doing their thing, and we were underway by 3 pm.
New coating on the thruster props 
New coating on the main prop 
New zinc on the rudder, after bottom paint. 
I’m not bragging, but the bow thruster on our boat is awesome. 
Rudder/prop before coatings 
New boot stripe paint, too.
We made it to Palm Beach to an anchorage at Lake Worth, just before dark. We had stayed here last summer as we were in the home stretch of the Loop, so it was good to be on familiar ground (technically: water).
The rest of the travel days were:
February 27—Anchored at Sunset anchorage, just north of Ft. Lauderdale
February 28—Anchored at Biscayne Cay, just south of Miami. Our memory from here was the charter boat that played Reggae-Rap for 7 straight hours nonstop. Thankfully, they left around 8 pm, bringing quiet to the otherwise lovely anchorage.
March 1—Rodriguez Cay. We made it here with no serious challenge. It is the leg of the journey that requires going into the Atlantic, because the ICW actually ends in Miami. We had checked the weather and forecasted wave height. It looked like it might be a little dicey for awhile. As predicted, we pulled out of the Biscayne Channel the waves went to 4 footers. Thankful those very expensive stabilizers were functioning at their best, we made it Rodriguez Cay (near Key Largo) well before dark.
March 2–Tuesday morning, Amanda’s birthday; arrived Marlin Bay
No sleeping late on her birthday, mama had to rise early because we had a pretty long day ahead of us to get to Marlin Bay. We arrived at the marina just after 2 pm. Sort of like coming home, we were glad to see boater friends, old and new. The new dockmaster dictated to me the rules of staying in the marina. It was easy to tell that he and I probably won’t be besties, and after talking to just a few people, I learned that many others shared the same opinion.
The pool is one of the nice amenities at Marlin Bay Marina.
We look forward to the days of relaxing here in the warmth of the Keys.