After two months of being apart, I took the last of my vacation time from work and flew down to meet Wayne in Titusville, Florida on Saturday, December 18th. He met me at the Orlando airport and was such a welcome sight to see. When you are as close as we are, and do pretty much everything together, two months apart was a very long time. It was great to get back on the boat again and even better to look out and see palm trees and pelicans! Even though the weather is cool, it is still not as cold as at home and I'm enjoying the sunshine.

We had the rental car for a couple of days so took advantage of it to get provisions and do some shopping. Our friends Bill and Joan from Rambler were heading home to Montreal for Christmas and needed to buy a suitcase, so we shuttled them to the WalMart and a couple of other stores that we wanted to go to. It was great for me to see them again and brought back fond memories of my earlier journey on the boat. We stayed in Titusville for a couple of days and then cast the lines and headed further south in search of warmer weather and new adventures.

Wayne had felt many times on the journey south that he was on a route march to get the boat to Florida and in many cases, he needed to be in order to get here before I returned. Now he can slow down a bit, so we purposely decided to do just short hops each day in order to be able to explore the towns along the way. It was a pleasant motor down the ICW and I had my first dolphin spotting - the first of many as it turns out. The only problem is that every time I get the camera out to take pictures, they disappear - must be camera shy like me.

Our first stop was in Cocoa, just 19 miles south of Titusville. We anchored in the designated anchorage and then hopped in the dinghy to go ashore to explore. Cocoa is a lovely little town. The downtown district has been revitalized with lots of little shops and services, restaurants and pedestrian zones. We stopped for a slice of pizza and a beer and then wandered up and down the streets looking in the store windows. Cocoa is very close to Cape Canaveral and was made famous by the show I Dream of Jeannie. In its heyday, it was a booming centre of commerce and then suffered economically with the cutbacks in the space program, but they've managed to make the downtown area a destination for boutique shopping and fine dining and seem to be doing well. Back to the boat before dark and enjoyed the sunset. It was a quiet night at anchor and was just what I was looking forward to.

The next morning we hoisted anchor (I love our electric windlass!) and continued on our journey south with a destination of Melbourne, a short 21 mile jaunt. The winds were out of the northwest, so we had a lovely sail under headsail alone most of the way. We watched dolphins play alongside the boat (but again, couldn't get a picture), pelicans diving for their next catch and enjoyed the scenery. We were able to get a free dock at the Melbourne Yacht Club (lead picture is Leeway in Melbourne harbour) and after tying up, went ashore to explore the town. Like Cocoa, the downtown core has seen a good bit of revitalization and has a lot of boutiques and restaurants. We wandered the streets for a while then stopped for a late afternoon snack of fresh oysters and wine at a local eatery. That was another thing I was looking forward to - fresh seafood - particularly since Wayne's find in Georgetown, SC at the dock.

Thursday morning a couple of the club members came down to say hello and pointed out a manatee that was going past the boat. That was our first manatee sighting, although they stay just below the water and you really can't see much of them other than their shadows. Still, we were excited because we have heard so much about them. When the water gets below 65 degrees, they head further south to warmer water. Apparently if the water is too cold, they forget to search for food and can die. The water is definitely cold and so likely explains why we have only seen the one so far. When we get to Ft. Pierce (they head there to enjoy the warm waters from the power plant discharge), we'll probably see many more, at least I hope so.

Our destination today is Vero Beach. We have heard so much about Vero over the years that we didn't want to miss it. Christmas in Vero sounds exotic, doesn't it? We had made a reservation for the 24th, but were going to arrive on the 23rd instead. It's not really a problem getting a spot in Vero - reservation or not - they have a lot of moorings and if there isn't one available, you just raft up to someone else. Very civilized indeed! The journey on this part of the ICW was beautiful. The waterway winds in and around islands and the scenery was fantastic. We arrived in Vero in the early afternoon and rafted alongside an Endeavour 42 called Harmony II and settled in for a nice afternoon and evening. Christmas in Vero - palm trees and sunshine - ah, life is good.