March 10 & 11

Friday afternoon we got our first taste of southern thunder storms, the rains were torrential. We got two inches of rain in the dinghy in less than an hour. We have heard a few nightmare stories about lightning, so the sound of thunder everywhere was a little unsettling. Luckily there was no need to buy new electronics. Stuck inside we watched a show and called it an early night. It was humid and hot, which Jennie loves, but I will need to get better acclimatized to. Then in the middle of the night the winds picked up from the north and the temp dropped, the weather can never make up its mind, no matter where you are.

We woke up in a slightly crowded anchorage to 20 knots of a northerly blowing. Cruising down the ICW eventually the sun came out and it got hotter. Lots of dolphin and manatee sightings which was cool. Manatees have these big fat tail flipper, and they are really hard to see.  Even with the tension sailing the ICW with a 6 ft draft boat brings, we eventually pulled out the genoa and then more dolphins came, I think they prefer sailboats.

I was feeling a little greasy, so after spraying Dexters "left overs" off the boat with the washdown I decided to have a shower. Out on the deck in the sunshine I lathered and rinsed.. my hair.

We pulled into an anchorage just south of Titusville, hoping to hide a bit from the north easterly blowing. There was a little island that I took Dex over too. Dexter got to see his first geckos. He was chasing the all over the place, but they were too fast and too small. A fruitless endeavour. As we were pulling up to the boat upon returning, Dexter got a little eager about the dinghy dismount and didn't get enough of Cypraea. He clung on, but ended up making a perfect pencil dive in between the two boats. Just then the gap closed, and it was darker and I was wearing my prescription sunglasses... Eventually I pushed the two boats apart and saw Dexter's little black head pop up. I grabbed his collar and yanked him in. Jennie was laughing so hard I think she might have wet her pants. My life...

So we sat down and relaxed inside as the weather was getting worse. Before going to bed we poked our heads up and saw that another boat anchored only a couple boat lengths from us in an anchorage maybe a mile long with two other boats in it. So very rude. Anyways When we woke up we were 600ft away in the middle of the ICW. I'm pretty sure they popped our anchor when they showed up, because we were fine, and have a habit of setting our 45 lbs anchor with at least 5 to 1 scope in full reverse until we feel the stern pop. Anyways They were wasted, and accidentally got on the wrong boat, Jennie heard the commotion in the middle of the night. I am going to have to be more assertive when people needlessly anchor that close again.

The weather was rough when we left, and it got rougher. It was 20 to 25 gusting 30. We motored into  (ish) the wind and surge of water into the river, making 4 to 5 knots. Occasionally we entered major down pours and the ICW markers were getting harder to spot. It was going to be a slow trip to Melborne.

All of a sudden channel 16 lit up with distress calls and Coast Guard talk. We were about an hr away, when we saw a boat heading for an anchorage. We looked on the map and there was a perfect anchorage for an easterly blow. We headed in, and set the hook in 15 ft of water with a sand bottom and no waves. It was a bit better sheltered from the wind, but the top of the mast was getting swung around.

Right after we anchored a local live aboard swung by and let us know that there was an abandoned beach where we could dinghy to, and there was a grocery store across the street. Awesome. Probably 200 yrds to the beach and 100 yrds to the store. At it didn't cost us a dime.

There were a bunch of dolphins that would swim around the boat and splash their tails, it gets Dexter so wound up. He needs to learn to relax a little. Over the night it blew hard, and the boat barely moved, perfect.