November 6,2007

Kelly and I awake at 5AM for an early departure. A pot of coffee is perking on the stove a few minutes later. We listen to the NOAA weather report on the VHF radio and plan our route on the chart. After a simple breakfast we are underway by 7AM.

The morning air is relatively chilly and I put socks on for the first time since June. This seems crazy, isn't Florida supposed to be warm? Around 10AM Kelly decides to fix the main sail's cover straps. They have long tails hanging from the buckles that flail around in the wind and look sloppy. It reminds him of the kids that wear a belt around their waist that is about a foot too long. Each strap gets cut, heat sealed with a lighter then hand stitched at the end so the buckle can't slide off. This job takes a couple of hours to complete. Kelly reminds me that he would have liked to bring the sewing machine to do this job. Believe me there is no room for one. Kristen is up on deck watching the birds all around us, while Danielle is lying on her bunk organizing her stuffed animals.

We have approximately 5 more hours until we reach the waypoint near the entrance to Ponce De Leon Inlet! Today is just a day sail. All the sails are up and pulling, but there is not enough wind to maintain enough speed to reach our planned destination before sunset so we are motor sailing. We arrive at our waypoint for the Ponce De Leon inlet around 3:30PM. The waypoint is about a mile offshore where we make a turn to starboard and proceed to follow the channel markers towards shore. We make our way past a long breakwater and then turn to port following the barrier beach channel southbound past beautiful homes. There were signs posted warning boaters to keep a lookout for manatees. Unfortunately none were insight. We made another sharp turn to starboard into a channel that connects with the ICW. Once we reach the ICW we turn to starboard again and head north for a � mile to Rockhouse creek. We anchored here for the night, with a catamaran, a trawler and another sailboat.

There were a lot of insects here so we lit a mosquito coil. Along with the bugs there were a lot of interesting birds flying around and fishing. Nearby there is a small airport with several small planes taking off and landing. The planes capture Kelly's attention, I'm sure he misses flying. He tries his hand at fishing, and he catches a foot long fish that looks similar to a bluefish. He lets Kristen real it in. She enjoyed doing that. The girls play on the computer for a bit while I talk with Cindy on the cell phone. We have dinner then Danielle studies for her History test. History is not her favorite subject, but she knows she has to complete it. We watch some TV and then head for bed.