Tuesday, March 27, 2018 - Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Very short entry for Tuesday and Wednesday. We were at anchor just outside of No Name Harbor and Bill Baggs State Park. We spend a couple of lazy days aboard waiting for a weather window to sail offshore to Ft Lauderdale. Bob did some route planning and lots of weather monitoring. Friday looks like a good day to sail north.

Thursday, March 29, 2018

Today the crew needs some time off the boat. We lower the dinghy and head into the park. There are several restaurants in the park, walking/biking trails and an old lighthouse. We headed to the Lighthouse first. It was a comfortable walk up the spiral staircase to the top where we were treated to a fantastic view of the coast and Miami skyline. Afterwards we took a short tour of lighthouse grounds given by the park biologist. I mention this because the biologist was sporting 2 bandaged fingers. As it turns out she was bitten by an iguana. It's mating season and the males are more aggressive. I told Lynn, never send a biologist to do a zoologist's job (me being the one with a degree in zoology). We had lunch at the Lighthouse Café and enjoyed a whole fried red snapper. Delicious! After our adventures in the park we headed back to Interlude and prepared for our sail to Ft Lauderdale/Port Everglades.

Friday, March 30, 2018

The wind and seas have calmed down as predicted. We weigh anchor at 8:00 am and head out to the Atlantic. Once we clear the channel we're able to set the sails and sail all the way to the Port Everglades Harbor entrance. As the winds shifted more south we were able sail wing-on-wing with our head sail on the starboard side and the main sail on our port side. After entering Port Everglades we turned north into the ICW and went under the 17th Street Bridge. We pulled over to the Ft Lauderdale Marina to fill our diesel and water tanks. We hold 34 gallons of diesel fuel which is good for about 55 hours motoring. We hold 90 gallons of water (including the 10 gallon hot water heater) which is good for about 10-15 days depending how much we shower. After topping off our tanks we head 30 minutes north to the Las Olas Marina Mooring field where we catch a mooring ball. We will wait here for a weather window to sail overnight to Port Canaveral.

Saturday, March 31, 2018

We drop the dinghy after breakfast and head over to the Las Olas Marina to check in and take a shower. We then walked over to the little French bakery for a chocolate croissant before jumping on the trolley. We decided to head over to the Winn Dixie for some provisions and a little pizza for lunch. We got back to the boat mid-afternoon and decided to enjoy a couple of sundowners in the cockpit before dinner. Tomorrow we head offshore on a 30 hour passage to Port Canaveral.

Sunday, April 1, 2018 (Bob's Birthday, Easter and April Fool's Day)

slipped off the mooring ball at 8:00am, passed under the 17th St Bridge at 8:30am and by 9:00 am we were out of the inlet and heading north with the Gulf Stream giving us quite a push. We set the sails and were going 8- 9 knots on a close reach most of the morning. As the winds shifted a little we were on a beam reach most of the afternoon and into the night. We observed sunset at 7:30 pm and moonrise at 9:00pm - a full moon which made Lynn very happy. We had maintained a loose 4 hour watch rotation during the day and now shift into a 2 hour rotation for the night. In the Navy when the watch rotation was between only 2 people we called it 'Port and Starboard'. When there is only one person, i.e. no one to rotate with, it's called 'Port and Re-Port'. Okay, enough of the Navy trivia...

Monday, April 2, 2018

The wind held up until about 1:00am when we decided to take down the sails and turn on the motor. The ride became a little roll-y without the sails to steady us. Around 2:00am we went through a downpour for 10 minutes - a great fresh water washdown courtesy of Mother Nature. Bob listens to the 6:30 am weather report on the sideband radio to continue assessing the next few days travels. We observed sunrise around 7:00am, the winds have died and the ocean is like glass. We motor into the channel at Port Canaveral about 11am. We have a reservation at Ocean Club Marina and pull up to their fuel dock right at noon. We top off our diesel tank and take our slip. We're both a little tired but not tired enough to take a nap. We're glad to be dockside and give each other a high five for another successful overnight passage. When checking in to the marina, we're told there's a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral at 4:30pm and it will be visible from the marina. It's an International Space Station resupply mission using the Falcon 9 reusable launch vehicle. With that information in hand, we hit the showers then walk down the street to a fish market and buy a nice Tile Fish filet. We return to the marina in time to join about a dozen folks on the upper deck of the Marina clubhouse to watch the launch. It's our first launch party! The launch takes place on time and is quite spectacular. I'm not sure how far we were from the launch pad but the noise was enough to rattle the windows in the club house. We're saving that fresh fish for tomorrow night, so we take advantage of being ashore and order a pizza for delivery.

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

Due to a series of fronts approaching northern FL, sailing offshore from Port Canaveral to the St Mary's inlet (boarder of GA and FL) will be uncomfortable. As a result, we have decided to duck into the Intercoastal Waterway for the rest of our time in FL. We're only traveling 4 hours today so we allow ourselves a leisurely start. We let go the dock lines at 9:30 am and pass under a drawbridge before entering the Canaveral Lock which separates the Port from the Indian River and ICW. We lock through without any problems and start heading through the Canaveral Canal into the ICW. We go through one more bridge before joining the ICW. We are heading north with a nice southerly breeze so we decided to let out our headsail. The headsail gives us another .5 kts of speed. At 2:25 pm we arrive at our anchorage near Titusville, FL. Relax in the boat, write the blog and grill some fish for dinner.