We arrived as expected, at dawn at Port Canaveral, and with the dying winds, motored the last five miles. There is an anchorage just off a marina that holds about 3 boats, so we pulled in behind Kocimo, the 34' PDQ catamaran we sailed across with. We had seen them a couple of times in the Bahamas, but never really spoken other than to wave and say hello, so it was odd to meet up with them after we had been chatting all night as we crossed. We anchored and then dinghied in to the town dock for the 20 minute walk up to check in. It was quite an odd feeling to be plunged back into the US culture in a major city after a winter in remote cays and small towns where everyone spoke as they passed. Jeannie waved at passing cars until I reminded her that people don't wave here. At customs and immigration, we handed in our passports and applied for a cruising permit (our first, although we have been cruising in the US for 4 years). First they needed our documentation (Canadian boat registration) then I had to fill out a form that was designed for a commercial freighter, talking about cargo, load lines, etc. So it was 90% blank, but they needed it filled out. In it, I wrote my name and address on the same page four times. But after one hour, and three people working on it, we have a cruising permit. A few years ago, cruisers lauded Mexico for relaxing their foolish regulations that required cruisers to check in and out at every port they entered. A great step forward for all the American cruisers who found the Mexican red tape silly and useless. Now that's the procedure we follow. If we land (anchoring is OK if we stay aboard) we have to phone Homeland Security to check in. One Canadian got caught last fall not doing it and was fined $5,000! That's progress! Today we are a bit tired, as we napped in shifts, but it was so rough in the Gulf Stream that we didn't really get much sleep. So this afternoon is a quiet one. And tomorrow we will be off again, this time to Fernandina Beach on the Florida/Georgia border. It will be a 160 mile run of about 28 hours again. This is to avoud the long and boring ICW here. The problem is not only that it is boring, but also the exits to the open ocean are so few that once comitted to it, you are forced to stay with it for about 100 miles. And the forecast sounds a bit light, but good, so we'll be off again in the morning.