January 6, 2016
Only 88 more miles to go!
We have been fortunate not to have to slow down much for no wake zones
since the AICW so far has been wide enough that we don’t have to cruise close
to shore. Since we would be coming into
a more populated area and the AICW would be narrower in places, we had a couple
of alternative places to stop just in case we couldn’t make it to our marina
before sunset.
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| Captain Rob, the grizzled old salt |
It was yet another cloudy, blustery day though not as windy
starting out as the previous day. There
was scattered rain around us, but since it usually cleared up before we got to
it, we saw quite a few rainbows.
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| Rainbows remind us that good things can be at the end of storms |
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| Seagulls following in our wake to see what we would churn up |
We saw quite a few dolphins again, and since there wasn’t as
much spray as yesterday, we took turns going out to watch them play in our bow
wave.
The NASA building on Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral was
visible for several hours as we passed by it on the Indian River portion of the
AICW. Hopefully we will have a chance
to drive down by car and take some tours of the facilities. Rob has been to the Kennedy Space Center
before and says it is great.
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| Just think how huge this building would be close up! |
As we got closer to Daytona, the waterway began to narrow
and the banks seemed more populated since we were closer to them. We had to slow down a bit for some No Wake
zones, but since we were able to cruise at 8.5-9 mph for the most part, we
reached the first of our alternative stopping points with plenty of daylight
left to continue on.
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| Looks like a nice place to live, but you'd have to be tough to weather the bigger storms |
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| Lots of people out fishing in this fairly narrow spot and some were anchored in the channel itself |
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| More boats headed south |
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| We saw lots of dolphins in the narrow channel as well |
The boat traffic got a little heavier as we neared Daytona,
but most of it was small work boats with the helm pedestals all the way at the
bows. Some were checking crab pots, some
using cast nets, and others seemed to be headed to shore to end their workdays.
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| Ponce De Leon lighthouse at the Ponce Inlet |
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| Work boat headed in |
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| Work boats either crabbing or fishing, we thought |
We had enjoyed a couple of hours of sunshine and light wind
while we went through the more narrow portions earlier, but too soon the skies
became cloudy and the wind kicked up again.
When we pulled into the marina, we went to the fuel dock to check in and
top off our tanks. Even though there was
some protection, it was still a bit tricky getting docked, so we decided to
stay on the T at the end of our dock for the night. Hopefully it would be less windy in the
morning, and we would be able to off-load our scooter before going into our
slip. Still, it was a good feeling to
have our traveling done and to be at our new “home” for the next few months.
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