April 16, 2023, Sunday - Stuart, Florida

I woke up to the boat shifting from the left to the right - right to the left, because Kip was moving around taking fabulous sunrise pictures.

There is a saying "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in morning, sailor's warning".  The weather prediction is a severe storm, but the sky is blue with only a few clouds.  It is outside movie and pizza night tonight, but if it rains it will be cancelled.

We left the boat around 7:45 to meet Doug, Gwen, Mary and Nick for breakfast at the City Diner in Stuart.  We had a nice breakfast and then had to say goodbye to Mary and Nick (they are leaving for Minnesota today).  

After breakfast, Kip and I went to the Stuart Farmer's Market.  Kip bought homemade guacamole and chips.  We went back to the boat and read (I slept) until about 1:00.  

Someone tied their old sailboat to the Stuart Public Dock on a day when the water was high and left it there.  Now it is sitting on the bottom of the water, stuck.  We aren't sure if they did that on purpose or if they made a mistake and now aren't sure what to do about it.

Around 2:00 we then went back into town to catch the free concert in the park, which was the Vintage Radio Band.  They were playing old, vintage rock and roll.  We brought our chairs with us and sat enjoying the music.  

They were done playing around 4:00 p.m. and we started walking back to the marina.  On the way, drops of rain started to fall.  We got slightly wet on our dingy ride, but no big deal.  We made supper (sandwiches, apple, chips) and the clouds started to roll in.  Then the lightning and thunder started. 

Then the heavy rain and wind started.  We even had hail!  I looked out the front window and the sailboat in front of us was at a 45-degree angle!  Everything turned green and the big waves were throwing all of the boats around, as well as the people inside of the boats.  Our dinghy was almost tipping over and everything in the dinghy was floating in tons of water.  Kip went out during all of this to put another line on the dingy (which caused me much concern)!

The storm let up and Kip baled most of the water out of the dinghy.  The only issue we had was that a strap on the dingy broke and one of our license placards came off.  This is the worst storm we have ever been in while boating.  I told Kip that I thought the storm was very scary, and he said he thought it was "sporty".  

All I know is that we will remember the "Red Sky" saying in the future, and we also know that tonight's movie night has been cancelled.