After surviving 60 mph winds and huge waves while underway on Wednesday, we spent an anxious Wednesday night anchored off the beach near Melbourne, Florida. We had visions of another huge wind hitting us in the pitch dark, but we got lucky: the storm split in two and went north and south of us. Brooke was thrilled.

At dawn on Thursday, I was anxious to get going until Tim pointed out the huge black clouds all along the northern horizon, blocking our path to St. Augustine. We checked the weather and discovered that Wednesday's storm had mutated into a monster stretching 300 miles from west to east and 100 miles from south to north. This area was filled with lightning, dangerous winds up to 80 mph, some hail and lots of rain. As we tracked the storm during the day, it seemed to be on an unending conveyer belt with new areas being born in the Gulf of Mexico as fast as the storm moved across Florida. Brooke was even MORE thrilled.

For most of the day, our luck continued: the storm stayed just north of us. Then our luck ran out as the storm moved down and surrounded us. We were afraid of the worst--gusts up to 80 mph--but the max wind we got was 35 knots (about 40 mph). With the anchor steadying us and both engines used as need to relieve the strain on the anchor, this was a piece of cake! Brooke was ecstatic by this time. I cannot imagine the damage and danger that would have resulted from 80 mph winds! We heard that such winds actually damaged the space shuttle while on its launch pad, scheduled for a launch in April. I would have guessed the shuttle was built to withstand hundreds of mph of wind.

That evening, as we were watching a DVD with a dark and stormy night, we got a kick out of seeing essentially the same visuals on the screen and looking out our windows. It was uncanny how the colors, rain and lighting were so similar. Brooke is thinking about never coming back to the boat.

Friday dawned a clear and perfect day. Not a cloud in the sky all day, good winds for the most part, and pleasant temperatures. The only reminder of the storm was the sloppy seas that made for a bumpy ride, especially around Cape Canaveral--capes are famous for rough seas. But the two whales we saw were really enjoying it! As I'm writing this, the sun has set, the western horizon is orange with its afterglow and we are motor-sailing along at too fast a clip. Let me fix that by pulling back on the throttle. Brooke: OK, maybe one more time.

We need to average 5.5 knots (about 6 mph) for the rest of the night in order to arrive at the entrance to the St. Augustine inlet as the sun rises, so we can see where we are going! Our plan is to be in downtown St. Augustine in time for the 7:30 am bridge opening. That should get us to St. Augustine Marine Center just in time for Options' scheduled haul out at 8 am. We've got a list of 30 items for SAMC to work on over the next few weeks.

We're having Options delivered to its new summer home in Baltimore Inner Harbor towards the end of April. We hope to get out there for a weekend in May and a couple of weekends in June. This is probably our last blog until late June when we hope to head Options' north to NYC, Rhode Island, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket etc.

David and Brooke

P.S. The picture is of the storm that enveloped us on Wednesday while we prayed to avoid the worst weather while hanging at anchor near Melbourne. This one blotted out the sky!