South on the Intracoastal Waterway
05 November 2017 | Melbourne
Helen
It was great to have an extra of sleep today. Had breakfast and worked on calibrating the auto pilot. No luck so we motored from the Banana River and waited for a bridge opening, into the Barge Canal. It made me think of the Dismal Swamp with palm trees. Got to the Intracoastal and attempted the calibration again, but it started raining, so we headed south to get out of the rain. There were surprisingly few boats on the ICW. We motor/sailed down the water way to Melbourne. Furled the jib and prepared for anchoring. It took us three attempts before we the anchor held and we were happy with the location. Despite higher temperatures today, the breeze on the water is still cold to me. We spotted three rainbows in the bright sunshine so someone was getting rain. Mark turned up the temperature in our fridge and things seem to be colder. I was worried that the freezer wasn't freezing and my prepared frozen dinners would be lost. Did some walking on deck in an attempt to log more steps this evening. We are anchored all by ourselves. It feels very calm. We made a good decision to change routes or we would be out on the ocean barely moving with light winds. Did some reading. Mark found time for a short rest. He fixed our helm station seat which was getting loose. A patch was added to the dinghy to protect it from the lifting block for the davits. Once we get to Ft. Pierce, Mark will get the water maker going. He also needs to climb the mast to fix the wind indicator which is not reading correctly. Depending on our speed tomorrow, we may reach Ft. Pierce.