Air temp 70, water temp 73, winds W @ 20
Didn't move the boat today...
I was up twice in the night. First, around 12:30am when the winds started howling than again around 4:30am when the rain, thunder and lightning came through. It was a bit of a crazy night but not really uncomfortable for us. Our mooring was near (1/2 mile?) the western shore and that's the direction the big winds were coming from. With only 1/2 mile of fetch, the waves didn't even move the boat very much. Here is what the weather RADAR looked like around us just before 5am. We are the blue dot.
After being up during the night, I slept in until after 9am. By then the heavy rain had stopped but it was very humid and cloudy. We worked on a few boat projects during the morning and it seemed we both were itching for a walk ashore. Shortly after lunch, I dropped the dinghy and we motored into the Titusville Municipal Marina under very cloudy skies. We didn't know if we would be able to walk into town because of the rain, but we did bring a bag of garbage that was a little smelly.
After dropping off the bag of garbage, we started toward town. We only made it about 1/2 mile before the rain started. We jogged over to a bus-stop enclosure and sat it out for 10 minutes. When the rain let up, we could see lots of clouds heading our way so we decided to hoof it back to the dinghy. Our goal was to get some fresh fruit and maybe a head of lettuce from the 7-11 that we could see about 2 blocks from the bus-stop. But, it was not to be.
We did make it back to the boat before the rain came pouring down. It rained hard for about an hour then, like magic, the Sun came out and we saw blue skies. By this time I had already started a glass of tequila so we just sat up in the cockpit, played some music and enjoyed the Sun. I did get this cool picture of the giant Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral through the bridge from our mooring.
By evening you could tell the winds had changed to the NW. It was feeling much drier (lower humidity) and cooler. When we retired around 10pm, the temp outside was below 70 and around 75 inside the boat. We had a blanket ready because it was supposed to go down into the 50s by morning.
Friday, May 1st
Air temp 64, water temp 71, winds NW @ 15
42nm today, 352 total from Marathon
I had the alarm set for 6:45am and Dean texted me shortly after that he was picking up his anchor. We had our plans a little confused this morning as I thought he was leaving later (so I slept in a little) and he thought I was leaving sooner so he got up earlier. Oh well...
We were underway by 7:15am so only a couple miles behind Autumn Borne. The winds were a little higher than predicted which slowed us down about 1/2 knot. There was also some current against us until we crossed to the Mosquito Lagoon where we picked up a little speed. Just before lunch, I took this picture of a local fisherman with his 3 big fishing dogs. How does he move around on the boat?
The ICW was a little busier today with several sailboats in sight plus we were passed by several powerboats. That was until we got to New Smyrna Beach where everybody that knew someone with a boat was out on the water. It was wall-to-wall boats all the way to Daytona. I wish I could have gotten a picture a few times when all the crazy boaters were around us zooming and passing each other. But, I was too busy trying to miss them all.
We anchored at our favorite Daytona anchorage just before the new Tom Staed Memorial Bridge. This is a nice anchorage because this area is a "Minimum Speed - No Wake - Manatee Zone". Most boaters slow down and we don't get a lot of wakes. Here's a picture of the bridge from our anchorage. It has lots of arches that I like better than the flat bridges across the ICW (you can see a flat one behind in the distance).
Dean and I have already synced our plans for tomorrow morning. Our alarm is set for 6am. We have a little farther to go (45 versus 42 miles) and want to get in early enough to go in and walk to the grocery store. I called the St. Augustine City Marina and made a mooring reservation for tomorrow and Sunday. While I had them on the phone, I asked if I could make a reservation for Autumn Borne too. They told me "No. There are not too many moorings left" so I texted Dean and recommended he call them immediately.
Dean texted me back about 10 minutes later and said he could only get a reservation for tomorrow and was on a waiting list for Sunday. Geez. It shouldn't be this complicated for 2 boats to travel together....
Anyway, that's why we want to be in St. Augustine early and do our shopping tomorrow. If Autumn Borne can't get a mooring for Sunday, we'll leave Sunday morning with them and keep working north. The next several days are predicted to be nice winds and seas for doing a little off-shore sailing. We're looking forward to that!
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