The best part of today was when our daughter, Jamie, called to say she'd gotten her score and passed her Step II Medical Licensing Exam. Yeah!! All her work and my help and all the help of our friends paid off.

As for the rest of the day, at least it was sunny. We left the dock at 6:45 AM in a north wind with a wind chill of about 26. We left that early because we wanted to get past the NASA Causeway lift bridge, and it's closed from 3:30 until 5. It was 55 miles from the marina to that bridge. Leaving early worked out, we made the bridge, but it was deadly cold until after 11 AM. Bud had on a pair of cloth gloves under his winter gloves and wore his work boots because his feet were cold in his boat shoes. He also wore a balaclava, another regular knit hat over it and pulled the hood of his foul weather jacket over it all. It really felt like the coldest day we've had on the boat. We're not even in North Florida any more; this is Central Florida!

Still, it was sunny and the pelicans and dolphins continue to entertain us. The boat is running fine. Best of all I found a cheap marina so we have power one more night. (It's actually supposed to be colder tonight than last night.) We ended up making 60 nautical miles today. We are better than half way to Stuart, so we have two easier days left. We've been towing the dinghy for two days and have yet to use it. Maybe tomorrow.