Tuesday November 24, 2015

Tuesday.....leaving Smyrna and heading south to Melbourne

We had a lofty goal today to cruise about 70 miles and get to Melbourne so that we can stay on track to get to  Ft. Myers in 5 days.   We left New Smyrna beach bright and early.  Sun was out and the winds were tolerable.  It was an interesting sunrise with the sun rays shining through the darker clouds.

Sunrise leaving Smyrna Beach

The day passed by with no big events .  We passed through Mosquito Lagoon so we were glad it was a  little chilly and the mosquitoes were no where to be found.  There are lots of manatee zones in this area and we spotted a manatee along the way.  Of course,  the dolphins continue to be jumping and rolling around in many areas.   Today the  winds picked up out of the east and  the boat was rolling back and forth for much of the ride.  It was rougher than we have typically had along the ICW. Winds out of the east are not good as the rollers come directly from the left (port) side which makes us roll back and forth. You can imagine what 7-8 hours of this would make you feel.  Along the way we passed by the mangroves,  Titusville, Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach. We talked about what it would have been  like to see one of the launches of the space shuttles from here.

Florida Mangroves

Cocoa Florida

Cocoa Beach

The sun was bright as we pulled into Melbourne.  We were relieved to find that the Melbourne Marina was pretty well protected so docking was no problem...except for the dock master who was a grumpy old man.  This is the first grumpy person we have met since we left. Melbourne  is a  nice harbor,  with a local restaurant and bar called Ichabods , only 100 steps from the boat! After doing our chores ie. some laundry we went to Ichabods and had  a bite to eat.  They had the best "Grouper Reuben" sandwiches.  Carol didn't know they existed and enjoyed every  bite.  Then back to the boat and check the weather for the next day.

We are hoping to leave early on Wednesday, but weather rules and we will see what happens in the morning.   Nice Day!