January 5, 2016
We awoke to another windy morning, but it wasn’t supposed to
be stormy, so we hoped to go almost 80 miles today. We had been averaging almost 8 mph the last
two days, so if we could maintain this speed, we could make it to Daytona in 4
days instead of 5.
Having the dinghy on the back really makes it easy to deploy
for trips to shore, especially on windy days.
The cove offered some protection from the NE wind, so the water was only
lightly choppy for our morning trip to shore for Sasha. Once we got back, Rob got the dinghy secured
on the lift again while I started the engines and got the electronics
going. After we weighed anchor and got
underway, Rob had to spend some time cleaning the mud off of the anchor and
about 5 ft of rode. It’s a small price
to pay though for good holding and a good night’s sleep.
Right past Sunset Bay Marina is the Old Roosevelt Bascule
Bridge, which, at 14 ft, of clearance, was the last bridge for which we would
have to request an opening. After that,
it was just a short while and then we were on the Atlantic ICW (AICW), headed
north for Daytona Beach!
 |
| Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway north of the St Lucie inlet |
I hadn’t realized how wide the AICW is for quite a ways past
the St Lucie inlet. The wind didn’t have
as long a fetch as it did on Lake Okeechobee, but with gusts up to 25-30 mph,
the water was pretty choppy. It was a NE
to ENE wind, so we had to steer more toward starboard to keep Lorelei IV in the
channel. We saw rain ahead from time to
time, but it was moving away from us and we never caught up to any of it.
We saw lots of dolphins which came to play in our bow wake,
but since there was a lot of spray coming over the bow, we didn’t go out to
watch them much.
Rob had 3 marinas picked out, depending on how fast we were
able to cruise and which one would have a spot for us to dock for the
night. When we were getting close to the
2nd choice, we called the 3rd one, Melbourne Harbor
Marina, to make sure it had room for us since we had time to reach it before
sunset. It did have room for us and was
actually our top choice because it offered the best wind protection from almost
any direction.
 |
| Cool ship anchored near some small islands off of the channel |
The wind had improved somewhat by the time we reached the
approach to the marina, and since we had to turn west, it was also on our
stern. There was a dredge between the marina
approach markers, but it left us enough room to squeeze by. Once we got into the marina’s basin, the wind
dropped off dramatically as we had hoped, and we got docked without any
trouble.
 |
| The protected entry to the marina is in the background (and the dredge) |
 |
| Lorelei IV on a T dock |
We got a $5 coupon for the dockside restaurant, so it was
all the encouragement we needed to decide to go there for supper instead of
cooking.
 |
| Cute placement and a glass of Merlot |
After supper, we took Sasha for another walk up to a nearby
gas station to buy a Powerball ticket.
Like most other people in America, we can think of plenty of ways to use
the money if we win!
No comments:
Post a Comment