We left Vero Beach yesterday and spent the night just north of Jensen Beach Bridge looking for some protection from the south wind blowing 25 - 30 Kts. The wind had died down this morning so we checked the weather and decided that it would be a good day to travel although there were showers predicted. We prepared to depart the anchorage, going through our checklist of things to do. Then it was time to start the engine and - no joy! This was not a good time for the engine to fail as we were not in an anchorage with a landing or stores or anything! Kirby went to work troubleshooting and finally got the beast to start. He suspected the starter and later, after more checking has confirmed and ordered a new one. He cleaned all the connections and it is working OK for now but it will be good to have a spare.

We had a lovely day traveling to West Palm Beach - Lake Worth Anchorage. We saw many new-to-us birds and that was really exciting to this old birdwatcher! I will have to find a source and see if I can identify some of them. We seemed to have finished the "big lake" traveling and re-entered canals which are so much prettier than the "big lakes". We passed Jupiter Island and marveled at the opulence of the homes there. That is where Celine Dion used to live.

Note: Kirby and I lived in this area back in 2000. It was fun seeing things from the water instead of from the streets. We sure never dreamed as we enjoyed watching boats in the ICW then that one day we would be one of them!


We then had bridge after bridge to pass under. We waited at one for another boat and that made us late for the next so we had to wait 25 minutes for the opening. Florida is the land of bridges, big fast powerboats and mansions on the water. The power boats here don't give at all. They rush past making as big a wake as possible and rolling us all over the place. Goes with the territory I guess.