Palm Beach to Daytona Beach

On Monday morning, the 21st, we took the cut through to the ocean. The winds were pretty light so we motor-sailed. The northerly winds were supposed to turn more to the west but that never happened (that’s because we were heading north I suppose). It was a pretty uneventful 9 hours on the water (no running aground; no sails tearing; no Sunday drivers and not a lot to see). We took the cut to the ICW at Ft. Pierce and anchored near a tiny island with one other sailboat and spent a very peaceful night. Since ABC was about the only network we could receive, Em was able to watch “Dancing with the Stars” so that was a good thing!

On Tuesday we fueled up at Ft. Pierce and headed north on the ICW. There were only three bridges today; the first one we needed to open and the other two were 65 ft. so no problem. We decided to only go the 2 hours to Vero Beach. We’d heard it was a nice place to stop and Paul somehow picked up a cold so we didn’t need another long day. There are mooring balls off the Vero Beach City Marina for $11. They were full but they had us raft off another boat, with a nice couple on s/v Mariah. They were heading below for a nap as they’d done an overnight sail all the way from Key Biscayne. There were two familiar Loopers boats here, “Another Compromise” and “Distant Shores”. We haven’t seen them since we parted ways back in Mobile, AL in November so it was fun to catch up. They had both spent time in the Bahamas where fuel was $5.30 a gallon!

This was how we spent two days in the Vero Beach mooring field. The Mariah was attached to the mooring ball and we were attached to them.

This is somebody showing off sailing around the mooring balls - it's not us!

We spent two nights at Vero Beach hoping Paul’s cold would improve. The winds really picked up Wed. afternoon. I was nearly stranded on shore doing laundry but got a ride back with our “neighbors” on Mariah. Paul was still not in great shape Thursday morning but we headed out anyway. The ICW here is the fairly wide Indian River. After 5 ½ hours on the water, we anchored in the Melbourne, FL area on the eastern shore with eight other boats. We got wet twice on the way, but most of the time it was a beautiful sunny day. It’s been in the low 80s with low humidity and really breezy out of the north. Em immediately checked the tv reception and was pleased that we get ABC pretty well. It wouldn’t be pretty if she couldn’t watch the new episode of “LOST”. Last night “American Idol” was very snowy and kept cutting out – kind of annoying! I just like to keep a connection with my “previous life”!

On Friday we left the anchorage just off the Indian River at the mouth of the Banana River about 9am. We were actually able to sail almost the whole way to Titusville – the first time that’s happened on the ICW. It’s still the Indian River here and it’s very wide with the channel well marked. We were headed north and the winds were easterly so that worked; we even sailed under the three fixed bridges. There were two that had to open for us; one the typical bascule type and the other a swing bridge. This is the Titusville swing bridge, we don't see many of these.

The Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island was off to our right. You can see the huge Vehicle Assembly Building for miles. We’d toured the Center some years back so didn’t make the effort to take the tour again.

We anchored just off the Titusville City Marina mid-afternoon Friday. You can use their dinghy dock free for the first week; they charge $2 to use their showers. We saw another “Restless Wind” sailboat there. We saw a “Restless Spirit” last fall but never the exact same name as ours. That reminds me that we were mistakenly called “Reckless Wind” by a lock tender back in Alabama when he misunderstood us on the radio (or did he?) The good news was that it was a very calm night; the bad news was that we still couldn’t pick up a wifi signal (that’s why I got so behind with this blog!)

Here are two entries in our “sad boat contest” from the Titusville anchorage. Some of them are unbelievably neglected.

On Saturday morning we followed the ICW across the Indian River to the Haulover Canal which is a one-mile rocky cut between the Indian River and Mosquito Bay with one bridge to open. We saw lots of families kayaking and fishing. That led us into Mosquito Lagoon which was much nicer than it sounded; we were on it about 8 miles. We saw dolphins, picnics along the shore, lots of recreational boaters but they had to go slow as it was a manatee zone. This was a scene along Mosquito Lagoon with New Smyrna Beach in the background.

We had planned to stop there but decided to keep going since it was early. We saw the Ponce de Leon inlet (the cut to the ocean) and Lighthouse off to the east. This was a charter boat we encountered on the ICW near there. Most of the passengers were on the port side and it was listing a bit; it looked like a party!


We had to take the Ponce de Leon cut and it was like rush hour on the highway with all the Saturday traffic. There was dredging going on too to watch out for. This is a view looking aft. I think there are 7 boats visible.


A few of the larger cruisers will slow down to give you a slow pass but all of the little boats just roar on by. We heard on the news there was a boating fatality not too far north of us when two boats collided head on. It wasn’t hard to imagine that happening with all the traffic.

After the cut we were on the Halifax River part of the ICW. After 7 hours on the water we arrived at Daytona Beach. We anchored in about 8 feet of water just off the channel with a few other boats. We had a fairly peaceful night but at 6:18 am we were nearly rocked out of our berth by a wake. It was pretty violent; some plates even flew off a galley shelf! We never saw what caused the wake but when it’s flat calm like it was it doesn’t take much I guess. On Sunday we took a long dinghy ride to shore and looked around Daytona Beach. We checked out the Halifax Harbor Marina and found a West Marine store. Guess what – we bought a new inflatable dinghy! Paul had been looking at them for awhile now and decided to go for it.

On Monday, the 28th, we came into the marina for a pump-out, fuel and a slip for the night; first time at a marina in about 2 weeks – it’s huge with SIX shower and laundry buildings in different parts of the marina. We picked up the new dinghy and here it is. It’s a 10ft. West Marine brand RIB (rigid inflatable bottom) made of PVC which should be a smoother ride plus it won’t leak! PVC isn’t very desirable in this climate so it was less expensive but in our area it’s not a problem.


Here are some stories from the local news that you probably won’t hear in Wisconsin:

There were two shark bites over the weekend in New Smyrna Beach (the Shark Bite Capitol of the World – 20 per year). Both victims were surfers who hopped off their boards onto small sharks – ouch!
There was a dolphin accident at Sea World. Two dolphins collided during a mid-air jump and one was fatally injured – how sad.
There were 92 swimmers rescued from rip currents over the weekend on Daytona Beach. One 19-year old man is still missing.