Wednesday afternoon we said our goodbyes to North Carolina and the cold winter weather. We’ve had our fill of cold nights for 2011. We made our way out of the Southport inlet and began what would be a 3-day, 3-night passage down the coast. The passage was pretty uneventful: great sailing and little motoring, ending on Saturday in Daytona Beach. The Ponce De Leon inlet was the most exciting, some would say stressful, bit of the whole trip. It is not a major ship channel so it lacks the deep water and well placed buoys we prefer an inlet to have. Also, the wind was out of the east, to our backs as we entered steering west into the start of an outgoing tide. Wind against tide is not a cocktail we enjoy! But all went well; the anticipation was the worst part, as usual.

Entering Florida is an experience indeed. The warm air, the sea smell, the birds, the dolphins, the bikinis and bare chests, the jet skis. What a contrast from where we were a few days ago. Don’t these people know it is winter everywhere else! It takes a day or so to get used to it but it is really, really nice to wear t-shirts and shorts again. No more sweat shirts and wool sweaters! We are in the land of warmer temperatures!

From Daytona we traveled to Cocoa Beach where we met up with Chip & Tammy on Cara Mia. From there we pushed onto Vero Beach. We plan to stay here for a night or so, doing laundry and some more provisioning. The municipal marina is a fun place where you raft-up with other boats, sharing a mooring ball. It’s a great way to meet other cruisers. We might even pull out our folding beach chairs and sit on the bow listening to Christmas music toasting our change of latitude.

P.S. There is no accompanying photo because our camera has decided to leave us. Hopefully soon we will find a new one!