We woke to a very cold morning, it was 2 degrees Celcius as
we crept out the marina at sun rise. You
could see the cold mist blowing across the water, we both looked like we could
hardly move with so many clothes on including our ski jackets, gloves and
hat. The good news was we had wind from
the north which although brought the cold would help us make miles.
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| The sun coming up as we left the marina |
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| Very chilly day |
We quickly had the kettle on for tea and breakfast on the
way. Within the hour we had seen our
first even Manatee, every since arriving in Florida we have been desperate to see one
and today was the day. Over the next few
hours we saw probably around 50. It was
only a brief glimpse as the poke their noses out of the water to breath and
then you might see their back and tail as they dive back down. Funny that they all seemed to be heading
north, mainly in pairs but on one occasion 8 surfaced, it was very exciting and
typically just as Amanda put the camera down, so there are no photos.
As the wind continued from the north it was still chilly, we
were able to put up some of our cockpit cover to offer a little protection and
finally we were able to start to thaw out!
We had to pass through Mosquito Lagoon which is a wind open
expanse where you have to stick to a very narrow dredged channel, this take concentration
as you are constantly looking for you next green or red marker and checking the
depth.
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| Mosquito lagoon |
As had become a regular occurrence on the ICW in Florida we were treated
to seeing the dolphins and the pelicans.
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| Dolphins playing around behind the boat |
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| Pelican mid flight |
From the lagoon you pass through a channel into the Indian
River, here the island that runs to the Port side of the boat and protects you
from the Ocean is where Cape Canaveral is; we were quite excited passing under NASA Bridge
and knowing we were so close to the Kennedy Space station.
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| We are actually sailing (well motor sailing) towards the bridge |
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| Another one done |
Today was Thanksgiving so it was a shame that we were making
progress rather than sharing the festivities with some lovely Americans but
with the weather so unpredictable we didn’t have much choice. We passed under 2 bridges where we had to
request an operator to open for us and we did make sure that we wished him a
Happy Thanksgiving, can’t be nice working but I am sure he was on overtime and
at least he was tucked up in the warm.
We pushed on as far as we could worrying a little about
where we were going to get shelter, there forecasted north easterly wind was
still northerly which meant it was whistling down the ICW and with little water
outside of the channel we had to careful.
We finally hopped in behind a bridge at Melbourne, we were unable to get far enough
in to get complete shelter and with 20 knots still blowing it was bumpy but we
were so tired after setting off at first light and just getting in before dark
we didn’t care!
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