Passing under the Bay Bridge - - - YAY!! (8:15 am Saturday)

Friday morning James Taylor the service manager and Tim the mechanic gave us the green light and we were off!  We made the 9 am opening of Great Bridge bridge and slipped right into the lock with five other boats.  We were out by 9:25.

The next twelve miles only had a few slow downs as we waited for bridges to open and at the RR bridge they were doing a safety inspection - - - that took about 20 minutes.

We were very excited to see buoy R 36  as that is the closest mark to MM "0".  The beginning of the ICW.  We passed it around 11:30 am and were able to put the main up just as we passed the mark. We rolled the jib out a little later.

Buoy 36, aka Mile Marker "0" of the ICW

The trip through the Norfolk/ Portsmouth area is always interesting... here are just a few of the sights.

We were surprised as we rounded Old Port Comfort and turned up the bay to find the wind was from the NE!  Every weather station we had checked talked of SW winds 10-15 knots.  We rolled in the jib and slogged into it all the way to Wolf Trap.  Right about then the wind did come in from the SW and we were able to sail and motor-sail through the rest of the afternoon and evening.

The next turn in our course rendered the jib useless, so we went under main and engine through the night and on up the bay.  Some traffic, but all easily detected by either AIS (Automatic Identification System) or radar which both overlay nicely on our chart plotter.  

I got a kick out of this tug/tow as he was headed for Quonset Point, RI with what looked like a quonset hut on the barge!

As we approached to Bay Bridge this big guy made us move over a bit. 

You can see the bridge in the background.

Unfortunately the day dawned with so many clouds we couldn't see the sun, so no last great sunrise picture.  We hope to be tied up in our new slip at Haven Harbour Marina in Rock Hall by noon!

GREAT TRIP!!    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_/)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~M&D

Work day

The three and half hours between 8 (when the mechanic was due) and 11:30 when he finally showed was VERY long.  I thought Dan would combust.  Tim, the mechanic, showed up at 11:30 checked out what he was going to do and broke for lunch!

After lunch he returned and just as he was taking the head off, the service manager arrived and delivered our parts!  Dan and Tim worked all afternoon and had the head with it's new gasket back on before 5.  Tim headed home and Dan proceeded to put the rest of the engine back together. We are hoping Tim will check back first thing tomorrow and give it his seal of approval so we can head north.

I'd say a picture is worth a thousand words, plus I really couldn't describe all they did.

Manana! ~~~_/)~~~M&D

This is the year for historical ships!

Dan spent the morning doing more dis-assembly on the engine while I walked up town to visit Hancock Fabrics (without Dan grumbling at me to hurry up!) and then on to the Fresh Market for some fresh food.  I was glad the dockmaster Damian saw me as I was lugging provisions back and gave me a golfcart ride back to Brunelle.

We had just finished lunch in the cockpit when I looked back and saw two ships a-coming.  They passed by slowly as they were waiting for the bridge to open, so I had time to get some pictures and to see their names.  The Pinta  and the Nina.  ...but where is the Santa Maria?!  I love google - I found out they are (sans Santa Maria) floating museums that are based out of Wilmington, DE and are on their way to St. Michael's.  They will be there this weekend.

The Pinta  was in the lead as they came by, Pinta on the left, Nina on the right and off they go toward the bridge.

The rest of the day was taken up with Dan doing some more tinkering, including taking the steering housing down and checking out a "clunk" we kept hearing when we used the port helm, and I did some laundry.  We enjoyed watching the crew activity again tonight during cocktails.  

We are getting a visit from the mechanic tomorrow at 8 am.  He will see if there is more for him to do before he goes to pick up the parts which were delivered to Portsmouth instead of here!  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Atlantic Yacht Basin, Great Bridge, VA

Eddy, our TowBoat US driver, picked us back up at 7 am Monday morning and we headed out against a strong north wind and an accompanying contrary current... we were glad we weren't trying to make with the 9.9.



As we headed through the swing bridge at Pungo Ferry, we passed  a Coast Guard ATN that looked like it was ready to to replace some missing day markers.


By 1 pm  we made it to the face dock at Atlantic Yacht Basin.  The red diamond is right above our mast.  They put us at the end of the dock to make it easy to land.  All well and good, but it's like a quarter mile hike to get to the bathroom!  The trip was easy and in spite of the wind and cool temps, it was sunny and pleasant.

We checked in and made sure they knew we were looking for a mechanic and possibly some engine parts.  The service manager checked us out and said he'd order a gasket set and have someone available to work on the engine Wednesday.  This yard in well known for doing good work, so we're optimistic.  As we headed back down the dock we spied this beauty heading out. Don't know what they had done, but it looked beautiful, but what a lot of varnish work!

We started checking out what we'd need to do to get ready for them and then hunkered down as it started to rain.  We were below when we heard a lot of chatter right near us.  I looked out as a group of shells headed out into the rain!   An 8, several 4's, pairs and singles.  By the time they came back the rain had stopped and there was more chatter as they returned.

My first reaction seeing the two girls was that they were texting!
...but I think they were comparing blisters!

We witnessed the same routine this afternoon, but with the good weather, we were on deck watching.  It's the Great Bridge Crew Club.  It seems to be a really active club. AYB gives them free storage space and a place to launch.

The rain returned during the evening with a vengeance, including thunder and lightning,  and after we went to bed we even had some hail, but by morning all was clear.

The rocker cover and thermostat are removed.

Dan spent today taking the engine apart to be ready for the mechanic tomorrow.  We put the motor back on the dinghy and re-assembled the ladder.  I worked on cleaning the ladder and that lead to lots of other cleaning - - - we did take a break to walk up town and had lunch, but the day flew by.

~~~_/)~~~M&D

We just may make it to Great Bridge...thanks to TowBoat US!...but not until tomorrow

As I mentioned last night, Dan has the Mercury 9.9 outboard rigged to our swim ladder.  He removed the top half of the ladder (that is "top" when it is in the up position creating part of our stern rails), removed the top step ("top" when it is in the down position) and installed the outboard bracket that usually resides on the stern rail and all of a sudden we felt like we were on Anda Calma  again!  She was our Catalina 250 that had a 9.9 on her stern.

Left hand picture was taken with my Lytro camera, I need to work with it more, it had a depth of field that lets you refocus your picture after you take, it shows the engine at half throttle pushing us at 4+ knots.  Of course Dan had to do some more tweaking....he's Dan.

Of course the wind wasn't what was predicted, but it was still OK for us to sail across the Albemarle Sound.  We pulled the anchor a little after 6 am and used the outboard to get us headed in the right direction.  We rolled the jib out part way and had the main all the way up.  We were across the Sound by 9 am and started up the North River.  We couldn't keep the jib full, so rolled it in and used the main and outboard to head up the river.  We realized the wind was not going to cooperate and decided to call TowBoat US to get us to the Atlantic Yacht Basin just this side of the Great Bridge Lock where there is a mechanic.  We hope he'll be able to diagnose and cure our engine ills.

Triple A for the waterways.  We're glad we have unlimited towing.
~~~~~_/)~~~~~M&D

WELL!    I had this written while TowBoat US was towing us along and was ready to push the "publish" button when our driver, Eddy called Dan and asked if we could divide the tow into two days!  So, we're tied up at Coinjock Marina (at mile marker 50) and will make the rest of the trip starting at 7 am tomorrow!  We watched two of our River Dunes buddies pass by and were just joined with another here at Coinjock and will try out the restaurant here with them.   ....later

Top of the Alligator River, bottom of the barrel with the engine!

The "new" system didn't work.  We left the anchorage three different times (returning to re-tweak the gas escape system).  We finally got things back the way they were yesterday with the coolant overflowing into the new tank, after having to replace the raw water impeller.  That had been the first thing Dan checked - - - days ago, but sometime this morning it gave out.  We thought all was well and headed into the 27 mile canal between the Pungo River and the Alligator River.

Everything was hunky dory for the first three hours and we enjoyed the scenery, including a deer coming down to the water's edge

...and then the temp suddenly spiked.  We did the drain routine and started up again (we drifted with the jib rolled out and no wind while the engine was shut down).  We didn't get more than 15 minutes when the engine shut down of it's own accord, no temp issues showing and no overflowing coolant.  I "sailed" again while Dan rigged the dinghy to be a push boat.

It's hard to see, but he rigged a very long tiller extension using the boat hook so we could control it from the stern.

It pushed us along nicely at 4 knots or so and we anxiously waited to get out of the canal and get a chance to sail up the very wide Alligator River.  No such luck.  The forecast had been for 5-10 from the SW,  it was all over the place and mostly non-existent.  We finally got enough breeze to fill the sails when we were about 5 miles from the swing bridge at the top of the river, but rolled it in to "dinghy" through.  When we called the bridge tender to ask for an opening, we explained our situation and he opened early and waited patiently for us to come through.  He hailed us as we passed through "That's ingenuity!"  We decided to anchor just past the bridge on the west side of the river as the wind was forecast to be 5-10 from the west.  Well it ain't!  It's blowing hard from the SE and the fetch all the way up the river is giving us quite a bumpy time!

Dan has rigged the outboard engine right on the transom.  A bit more ingenuity.  It wasn't finished until almost dusk, so I'll try to get a good picture of it tomorrow.  ~~_/)~~M&D 

We left River Dunes behind, but not the engine troubles

Dan was up early and captured River Dunes at sunrise, the Club House  and Brunelle in her slip - ready to go.

Hopes were high as we set out at 6:30 this morning that we (or Dan) had solved the engine problem.  All the work he had done was to keep the engine from overheating- - - new antifreeze, clean heat exchanger, raw water system checked, thermostat removed, expansion tank expanded and moved on deck.  After a frustrating day having to run the engine at low RPMs and cutting the engine every half hour or so to let the coolant flow back into the heat exchanger, Dan has concluded the problem isn't overheating, but gases escaping from the cylinder causing the coolant to bubble out and into the expansion tank, most likely caused by a bad head gasket.

Here is Dan's expansion system sitting on the bridge deck.  The top picture shows the hose system that allows the gases and liquid to bubble up into the tank. The bottom picture shows the tape showing the level when the engine is off and the liquid has drained back into the system.  We added a top piece of tape later to indicate when we should shut down and let the coolant drop back down.
Luckily the wind helped us a good bit of the time and we only anchored once to perform the "reset".  The rest of the time we were sailing.  Sometimes really moving along, but often just drifting as the wind was light to non exixtent and all over the place all day!

All our new friends from River Dunes passed us and offered advice and offers of help.  We ended up anchoring with most of them in the creek at the head of the Pungo River just before the entrance to the Alligator Pungo Canal.  The day was cool with occasional sun and the last hour of our sail it started to rain, but by the time we were anchored and beginning to make supper, the sun came our for a spectacular sunset.

The creek where we anchored made us homesick for the Chesapeake, the setting was very like so many of the wonderful anchorages we enjoy.  

Dan's contact at Westerbeke had a suggestion to streamline his expansion tank system, so he tweaked it after we anchored and we hope it works well tomorrow....

~~_/)~~(not quite as much water moving under the keel as we'd like) M&D

"The Storm" has kept us in River Dunes for DAYS!

I hate to write without a picture or two to share, but alas we haven't taken any!  I spoke too soon about no trouble with the engine.  We had our first incident of overheating as we rushed to make the 7:30 opening of the Onslow Beach Swing Bridge as we left Mile Hammock Bay.  We rolled out the jib and eventually added the main as we made our way through the marshes, past Bogue Inlet and through Bogue Sound to the Beaufort/Moorhead City area.  We doused the jib as we headed up the Newport River and into Adams Creek on our way to the nasty Neuse River as the wind was behind us and fitful.  The trip up the river and creek was very slow as we had 2 knots of current against us and we were loath to use the engine much above idle speed.  By the time we made it to the Neuse River the wind had picked up an shifted and was on the nose at 15-20!  We tacked back and forth a few times and finally made it into the Broad Creek inlet at 6 pm.  We decided to anchor out for the night and head into Grace Harbor at River Dunes Monday morning.   It was a lovely spot to anchor, out of the wind and an easy shot in the AM.

We entered Grace Harbor around 9 am and fueled up, pumped out and took the same slip we had on the way down in October.  Since then we have been glued to the tube watching all the bad weather circle around and never really touch us!  We also worked on scrubbing down the boat (me) and taking the engine apart (Dan).  He had several discussions with Catalina, Westerbeke, brother Jay and CCYC friend Pete.  Everyone talked him out of thinking it was a bad head gasket or cracked head, so he concentrated on changing out the antifreeze in the cooling system and cleaning out the heat exchanger.  Par for the course they were done in reverse order so he had to drain the new antifreeze out so he could remove the heat exchanger and we had an exciting chemistry experiment on the dock with muriatic acid bubbling like a volcano as it "cleaned the tubes". Tomorrow will tell if all his work will pay off.  We do have an extra gallon of antifreeze to keep things going if need be.

We have enjoyed meeting the other stranded cruisers while we wait for a good weather window...including two boats that spent part of this winter at Snook Bight!  We had dinner up at the main house here tonight and sat at the Snook Bight table.  Lots of fun all around.

There is a marina car available and we've used it every day so far.  You are limited to going into Oriental, but we have found everything we needed on our trips in...sometimes with other cruisers, which gives you a chance to find out their life's story in 20 minutes or so!  

I promise to get some pictures for next time.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

The Marines have got us... we're in Mile Hammock Bay

The wind had died, the rain blew on through during the night and the day dawned crisp and clear. The moon was getting ready to set as we headed off just after 6 am.  After checking the current tables, we decided the bast way to face the Cape Fear River was EARLY. We had the tide with us until we reached Snows Cut which takes you away from the river.  Unfortunately the currents were not so favorable the rest of the day.

The early light on these Ibis accentuated their hooked beaks.

The strong north wind didn't help.  We knew we had a long day and had hoped for some help from currents!  We ended up pushing the engine to it's limits to make it to the Wrightsville Bridge by 10 AM.  We hadn't counted on being accosted by hundreds of SUPs!  It seems the Wrightsville Beach Paddle Club was holding it's 2014 Carolina Cup this weekend!.  It was quite a sight.

They even crowded us as we went through the bridge and re-visited our favorite Wrightsville spot - Brunelle rudder hump!  Just to add the the insult we  (I) managed to drop one of our favorite cushions overboard right at that spot and had to do a quick rescue!  No pictures please.  

The next bridge was also going to cause us to put the pedal to the metal and we hadn't gone far when alarms began going off.  The hot water alarm alerted us the fact that the water was registering above 220 degrees!  We quickly dropped the anchor and Dan checked out the engine. He still isn't sure exactly what it was, but he added more coolant to the system and we proceeded without any more overheating.  We didn't push it tho and as the wind had come around to the SW, we rolled out the jib to help move us along. 

 We saw plenty of wildlife - mostly birds, and lots of Saturday runabouts. They were everywhere, buzzing us at every turn.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               We also went by our old friend the giraffe.  I had forgotten he lived along this stretch.  Dan got a good picture of him.  We see that his home is for sale... who wouldn't want a waterfront home with giraffe!                    

We made it Mile Hammock Bay (right in the middle of Camp LeJeune around 5:30 pm without anymore mishaps and anchored with several boats, including one (Spartina) from Clairborne, MD who we met 5 years ago at Emerald Rock in the Exumas.  We'll give them a hail in the AM.  

Another early start tomorrow as we hope to make it to River Dunes (71 miles), just past Oriental.  ~~~~~_/)~~~~~M&D

From one side of Myrtle Beach to the other and then on to Southport

Osprey Marina is great.  $1/foot gets you great service, great facilities, breakfast and a whole lotta goodies.  We fueled up and were on our way by 8:40 AM.  We still had a bit more of the Waccamaw to enjoy before entering the "ditch" that takes you through golf country.  Dan got more pix - - - this time of Ospreys.

They do make big ugly nests, but spring is here and so are some babies!

We only traveled 20 miles on Thursday and stopped at the Barefoot Landing Marina.  It is right across the ICW from Barefoot Marina.  We chose the former because it is located right next to a large shopping mall and also offers free shuttle service to the BiLo food market.  We ended up tied up next to a couple who had been on the same offshore leg from Fernandina and we got together to swap stories and ended up helping them celebrating their 18/33 anniversary (33 yrs. together and 18 yrs. married) with a dinner at Greg Norman's Australian Grille.  We made it early because we had a ride scheduled to the store at 7:30.  We made it a quick stop, but were able to get fresh stuff.

Golfers go gondeliering.

The two Barefoot Marinas - we're tied up at the one on top- with the mall in the background.

The whole time we were if Florida we saw one teeny skulking alligator and here we saw this monster just before crossing
into North Carolina.  He looked to be 6 feet long at least.

Dan had the big camera out again today and here's todays collection of birds.

Now that we are in North Carolina, we get sign posts every five miles showing our progress.  I like this one because it was in front of a classy looking house.  We are close enough to the ocean here that I'm sure the view from the top deck is of the Atlantic.

We had strong breezes blowing in from the ocean the whole way today, and especially when we arrived at South Harbour Village Marina.  We're on the face dock and the sea breeze has us listing toward the dock! The evening news talked about tornado activity in eastern NC, but much further north, luckily for us.  It's also a lot cooler, we can tell we are getting further north!  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Once again we bypass the byways of Georgia!

Our stay in St. Augustine was longer than usual because we wanted to wait for the McClelland family to arrive in FL.  Katherine, Ryan, Zoe and Kinsey came to Jacksonville for Easter and when Pegg heard they were coming she suggested we invite the girls to the Easter Extravaganza put on yearly by her good friend Judith.  I had attended three years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly - - - being the crafty sort and it promised even more crafty events than before.  The girls drove down from Jax on Saturday and we made a day of it.  Sorry I don't have any pictures,  I was too busy crafting!  and eating.  It was great fun.  Turnabout was fair play and we were asked to join Ryan's family for Easter Dinner.  Turns out there were 28 of us! This included all families of the Maida clan, incluing all the in-laws (that's where we came in!)  It turned out to be a lot of fun.

Monday found us ready to shove off even though the day was cold, gray and windy (from the North.)  We headed off around 7 AM and headed up the "ditch" for Fernandina Beach.  We had no trouble making it in spite of tides against us 90% of the time.  We chose to anchor out a few miles shy of Fernandina Municipal Marina and the surrounding paper mills and found a quiet side creek. The current was very strong and the tide range was 6 feet, but the anchor held well.

These dock pilings give you a good idea of the tide range.

Dan threatened an early start and had me up and us on our way before sunrise.  While he was raising the anchor I played with trying to catch the red flashing buoy at the creek entrance in the flash mode.  I also like the look of the paper mill with the lights twinkling and steam curling.  Finall the sun made it's appearance as we approached the Marina dock to take on fuel. The thing on stilts is a mystery to me!

We were done fueling by 7:15 AM and headed out the St. Mary's Inlet for an overnight adventure. Very little of pictoral interest happened on our trip from Florida to South Carolina, but Dan did get a good shot of some porpoises before we left Florida waters.

I did the math and although the GPS showed our trip was 240 nm, we went from Statute Mile Marker 720 to Statute Mile Marker 373 ( 347 miles) on the ICW.  We checked and double checked the tide tables and gauged it so we arrived at Winyah Bay (the Georgetown Inlet) at noon, just as the current was heading in.  It made the trip up the river and on to Osprey Marina much quicker than past trips. 

The ocean portion of the trip was quite pleasant.  The wind cooperated so we could sail or motor sail and the seas weren't bad and really calmed down by the time we arrived at the Inlet.  I did get a picture at sunrise, but the sunset was blocked by clouds.  We had traveled from St. Augustine in the company of several boats from Montreal and found ourselves in their company throughout our entire trip "outside".  We chatted with them during the day and they called as the sun was setting to give us a report of the weather forecast from some aviator friends from Montreal.  It was nice to have company for the whole trip.

As soon as we were in phone range we called Osprey Marina to see if they would have room for us if we arrived after hours.  They said sure and promised to leave our "goodie" bag for us.  As it turned out, we made it at 5:59 PM (they close at 6) and they greeted us, helped us tie up and delivered the goodies in person!

The trip up the Waccamaw River was delightful.  I don't think we have taken the time to enjoy the scenery as much in the past.  Dan had his camera out and captured lots of great shots.  Some of the bird shots are from the trip up to Fernandina.

Sea birds of the southeast.

The Waccamaw River in springtime, including the neat old plane that was definitely flying "under the radar".  He seemed to be enjoying the beautiful weather as much as we were.

We aren't sure if this is a wind mill or sculpture, but it caught our attention as we wandered up the Waccamaw River.

Gotta end with yet another eagle picture from Dan...

Off to bed.  Not much sleep last night....  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Vero to Cocoa to Daytona to St. Augustine

Florida is a lot nicer if you skip lots of bridges.  Coming in at Ft. Pierce cut the number of bridges we had to open by about 10X!  Before I get started on the trip north, I have to post this picture Dan took anchored off Merwin Island near Ft. Myers... it's for the kids.  They always joked about his pictures with a teensy weensy white speck "That's an eagle!"  Well he did good this time.

By Monday morning we were rested, clean and fueled up and the forecast was good so we headed off for Cocoa Beach.  A new stop for us so we were looking forward to seeing a new spot.  We had and easy trip with out any bridges to open and made it the the Cocoa Village Marina just before 3 pm.  We took a slip for two nights due to the forecast ("big front coming through") and decided to take the bus over to Merritt Island to the Publix to get a few fresh things. We waited over 45 minutes for the bus that comes every half hour, but succeeded in getting what we needed and caught he return bus without even a one minute wait!   

Tuesday morning was gray but not rainy so we walked into the historic part of Cocoa Beach and had a lovely breakfast at a yummy French Bakery/Ice Cream parlor, Ossorio's.  Dan headed back, bur I spent the rest of the morning wandering through the artsy boutique-y area of town.

In addition to bakery/breakfast items, they offered brick oven (see flames on the left) pizzas and wine and beer!

The front did come through, but without all that much bluster.  We headed out early Wednesday morning after much discussion about whether to hang in the area to watch the Atlas V launch on Thursday afternoon.  Cocoa is just south of Canaveral.  We decided a daytime launch wasn't going to be as dramatic as a nighttime one.  The trip was a bit cooler as the front had brought strong NW winds, so we put up part of the enclosure to windward.  We opted for another marina, Halifax Harbor in Daytona because Dan wanted to go to the West Marine right on the property.  We learned it had moved right after we were securely tied up!

The trip to Daytona took us past the Ponce de Leon inlet where this colorful lighthouse stands guard.

.

 April is noted everywhere in Florida as the time to really watch out for Manatees and we got our first close encounter with them as we entered the narrow channel into Halifax Harbor Marina.  For such lethargic animals, they really kicked up quite a bit!

Another "first encounter" was seeing flamingoes flying and then landing on an island just as we were about to enter the 

Haulover Canal between  the Mosquito Lagoon and the Indian River.

These were taken with the smaller camera and aren't the best, but you get the idea.

Dan had his good camera out today in preparation for the Atlas launch, so he got more pictures than usual, including two favorites, dolphins and great blue herons.

A Great Blue and his cousin the Great White Heron.

The Atlas V launch went off right as scheduled.  We were making our way north, but reversed direction about ten minutes before the launch to try to get a better view...

The top picture we took yesterday when we were about ten miles away from
the launch pad,you can almost make out the scaffolding around the rocket on
the left.  Next is our view before it launched, then off it went into the blue

We toyed with the idea of stopping at Marineland Marina (only 16 miles south of St. Augustine) but as we started to enter their channel the dockmaster told us we would be aground before we got in.  We turned around and headed on toward Camachee Cove Yacht Harbor and arrived just as Jay arrived to deliver a car for us to use while we're here.  ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Rodriguez Key overnight to Vero Beach

When the weather is right... it's time to go!  We got into Rodriguez early (only one other boat), but by sunset there were 14 others waiting to go north, south or east.  We plotted the time it would take us to get to Ft. Pierce and decided we didn't have to leave early or we might arrive before daybreak, so we were almost the last to leave...

Rodriguez Key's mooring field...evening and the next morning as we head north.

We started out in Hawk's Channel which provides protection from the Atlantic with a series of reefs all along the eastern edge.  After a few hours we realized the  light SE winds were allowing for very calm seas outside the reefs so we threaded our way through and started angling out to pick up the Gulf Stream.  It was a very quiet day.  We sailed some and motorsailed when the wind was too light.  The most excitement we had was the 4 PM Miami departures of cruise ships followed by the 5 PM departure of same from Port Everglades.  We watched 4 behemoths leave each port.  Six of the eight are measured in miles (e.g. .194nm) instead of feet!  FYI the .194nm= 1.178.776 feet.

A Celebrity and Norwegian cruise leave Miami. Later another Celebrity left Port Everglades.

We were so busy watching the ships leaving port that we didn't realize a CG cutter arriving to see that they departed safely.  As soon as the Miami ships cleared the cutter hurried on up to Ft. Lauderdale to watch the next sailings.

Of course we got a sunset (somewhere north of Ft. Lauderdale) and a sunrise (somewhere south of Ft. Pierce inlet) picture to share.  The crescent moon gave us an amazing amount of light before it set a little after midnight... but not enough light for a picture.

We have become the masters of entering an inlet from the ocean against the current.  Ft. Pierce was no exception!  We were facing a 2+knot current against us as we entered the slop at the entrance.  Luckily it didn't remain that strong as we headed north on the ICW the 12 miles to Vero Beach.  We got in to Vero a little before noon, took on fuel and decided to take a berth at the dock instead of picking up a mooring.  We cleaned the boat and us, napped and then took a dinghy tour of the harbor to see if we knew anyone.  No luck there, but we did stop and talk to a couple from Lancaster, PA.  They live about two blocks from Grandma Bliss and a few houses down from Walt and Allison Carlson!!  They keep the boat in Rock Hall, so we may see them again as we are moving to Rock Hall ourselves when we return to the Chesapeake!  Julie and Michael are buying a getaway home within walking distance from Haven Harbour Marina and have convinced us to move Brunelle up there.  

Final business of the day was to re-assemble the BRUNELLE banner to hang off the stern to give power boats a chance to hail us and ask for a slow pass.  Dan sent me across to the neighboring dock to see that we hung it level.  

He got it right!
~~~_/)~~~M&D