Last night the forecast winds for 15 kts actually picked up to 25 and I am getting really good at lying in the bunk and reading the wind speed by the wind generator's power production and remembering that the power of the wind to produce electricity or anything else varies as the cube of the wind speed, so: 10 kts=1A, 20 kts=4A, 25 kts=nearly 10A, etc.... I am always torn between appreciating the higher winds for the positive results to the battery bank, and worrying about the anchor set. I am getting a little more frustrated with the weather forecast which seems to consistently under estimate the wind strengths.

As it is, I think that Nelleke will sit out this blow on the hook at Lake Worth and then start off towards Vero Beach. Vero is very sheltered and even if the winds do blow up we will be able to dingy ashore unlike here where it is so rough today that we feel rather imprisoned aboard. We will probably make it a two day trip to account for the number of bridges and so that we won't be busting a hump to get there. Friday is still calling for winds so Friday night we'll have to find someplace where we can anchor to the north of in the lee of the southerly winds. There are several causeways crossing the various lakes and sounds that would answer that need. But then on Saturday and Sunday things will settle down. We will likely stay at Vero for a couple of days to a week before continuing north. I am hoping that there will be some space for us when we get there, preferably on a mooring. We are going to try to get to the anchorage where we stayed after clearing the Canaveral Canal on the way down by April 5th so we can watch the Space Shuttle Discovery launch. That is assuming that they don't have to delay it for some reason. If they do unfortunately we can't wait and will have to continue north in order to make some timings in NYC and back in Halifax.

We have spent a very boring day aboard Nelleke. The wind has made it problematic to go ashore in our dingy so poor old Peri has been waiting. Jay aboard Screech has kindly agreed to take us with him when he walks the K-dog and I'm sure that if Peri understood is offer he would be far more relaxed. I know that I am at least about that. I am still nervous about the anchoring here although it has stood up to everything up to 30 kts+ winds but still...... It has been exciting and interesting watching the adventures of other boaters in the anchorage and thanking our lucky stars that it wasn't us. There was one fellow, single handing it, who arrived 30 minutes ago and set his anchor and set off in his dingy to shore. His dingy was one of those one person inflatable soft bottom jobs that he was paddling with a canoe paddle. Do I need to mention that the next thing that happened was that he realized as the wind was rocketing him towards shore that maybe it wasn't a good idea and then he spent the next 30 minutes paddling back against what had taken him 3 minutes to cover downwind. Just as I was starting to think that the good guy thing to do would be to take the dingy across and give him a hand he managed to make it mostly through the efforts of him paddling with his hand. Then the other adventure was watching an unfortunate couple trying to get their anchor up by hand that had been buried into the sand and mud at the bottom of the anchorage. He had no form of windlass at all so he was doing all the hauling by muscle power. Not fun!

It looks like Screech and Nelleke will be heading north together again and as I mentioned earlier this is great news. It would appear that we will be leaving here and trying to reach Lake Peck as the first stop which is a mere 20 miles north of here but a spot that we have always wanted to visit.