After leaving Cocoa Beach, I stopped in Vero Beach and then North Palm Beach. This morning I was up and waiting at the fuel dock when the marina openend. the weather was supposed to finally dry out and settle down and I was headed off shore.

I got out onto the open Altlantic at about 9:15 and found a beautiful day with moderate north winds. I had calm seas and quartering winds... a pretty good combination. I tried to stay close enough to shore to avoid the Gulf Stream but I still had an opposing current in my face for most of the day.

I was considering continuing off-shore and doing an overnight sail to Boot Key Harbor, however the reduction in speed caused me to abandon this plan as it was going to take more than 30 hours.

Not long after I left the inlet and headed south, I was joined by a large group of very playful dolphins who swam alongside my bow for about a half-hour. One of them even tried to splash me with his tail. They returned (or another group did) about an hour later and stayed even longer.

As I noted previously, I decided to shorten my trip and stopped in Ft Lauderdale to refresh, refuel and start again in the morning. Here is a picture of some of the aformentioned visitors.