Fiu and Tempest traveled 67 miles together today. We are at ICW mile marker 898! Today's weather was windy and cold. Even though we are in Florida the morning temps can be in the 40's. That's okay, but being in the wind on the water, it can be very uncomfortable!
We quickly met up with Ken and Marie a short time later as they turned from their R44 anchorage and we followed Tempest the rest of the day. We were part of a 7 sailboat "congo line" of sailboats, sails up, keeping pace and passing through the Coronado Bridge (bascule) in New Smyrna Beach!
We are getting close to Vero Beach which is our first major milestone. Ken called ahead for reservations for tomorrow. The plan is to share a mooring ball by rafting together. What happens here is that Fiu puts a port and a starboard line through the ring at the top of the buoy and fastens them to the deck cleats. Tempest then ties up to Fiu with docking fenders between the boats. Then Tempest puts a port and a starboard line through the ring as well. This way either boat can leave without disturbing the other boat's lines. These buoys are constructed for as many as three boats to raft together!
Back to the day trip. We had our sails up again today through Mosquito Lagoon. The entire day we saw dolphins. And as usual, there are no pics of the 'breathe-holding" creatures. They are beautiful to watch and next to impossible to snap a pic of them (I have tons of pics of water with no dolphins to be seen)! We made our cut through the Haulover Canal which takes us to the Indian River and away from Cape Canaveral. The building used to house the space shuttle can be seen from miles and miles away!
Immediately after turning to port to stay in the channel we came up to the Jay Jay railroad bridge which has always been open every time we have passed by. Today a railroad worker was sitting in his open-air rail car and waited for all of the sailboats to pass through then closed the bridge. We watched him cross the bridge then reopen it once he moved to the other side.
We anchored just south of the Cocoa bridge in 10 feet of water!
Captain Sid
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