January 5, 2014 is day 5 of my trip south to Ft. Lauderdale and beyond.
Due to unfavorable seas, we had to remain on the ICW instead of sailing on the "outside" ... At first I was disappointed being resigned to motoring south. But as the trip unfolds, it turns out that the scenery along the ICW is well worth the compromise of setting sails in the Atlantic...there will be time for that I'm sure. I knew this waterway was a jewel, but never more than in the past few days... we've covered 247miles now and it just keeps getting better.... the scenery here is like a kalaidiscope, in that you never know what you'll get when you shake it up.
Yesterday, we made a whoppin' 60 miles, from Ponce Inlet to Cocoa Beach, where a perfect anchorage awaited at dusk. Today was similar in that Glory Days made about 55 miles to end up on another near perfect anchorage at Bethel Creek at Vero Beach... this is a nice community I can tell. Some folks call this a "velcro setting" for cruisers, because you just can't tear yourself apart to leave.
Motoring at a steady 5-6 knots makes for an ever changing scroll of scenery. It's amazing to see so many other boats all in a line with us traveling south chasing the next port or anchorage. Time passes all too quickly as its never a boring moment.... While Dixon takes the helm, I work on boat projects, prepare food, read, or play guitar, or just stare out into God's ever changing creation. Then we switch places usually on 2 hour shifts ... Today was interesting as we were cruising down the Indian River. It most be 6-8 miles wide but you still have to follow a narrow marked channel... And the winds were absent again today, making for glass like prismic plaines of water to glide across.... sailing would have been a possibility here in the Waterway, had there been any wind.... ya just never know.
As we approach Ft. Pierce tomorrow, sailing on the outside is on the agenda... but now, with the cold front moving in, there are predicting 7-9' seas... even I have enough sense to avoid that... how we get there doesn't really matter because its' all good... we have only 106 miles to go now for this leg, so I'd say this initial phase of the journey is 2/3 done...
lt amazes me just how many people are out here doing this... the cruising community is a consciousness that I am so blessed to be a part of ... everybody helps everybody out... everybody waves and everybody is with you chasing the wind or the next sunset or that next big redfish. Its a comraderie that's hard to explain.
I must have seen over a hundred dolphins today... they cavort around like kids at recess... it seems to never end, this steady flow of wildlife that captivates me... dolphins, gulls, herons, osprey, pelicans, vultures, cormorants, anhingas, and a slough of birds I have yet to learn the names of... such freedom they exhibit... and it's all they know.
So here I am signing off from Vero Beach, Fla, .... this is the skipper of Glory Days now sharing some misc photos below taken from today and yesterday... I know I won't always have the time to post on a daily blog like this because it takes too much time out of doing the things you papport to be doing in the first place.. funny how it works that way...but for now, it's a quiet anchorage after a big meal out, so I hearby post a group of random shots from the past 2 days... I just love taking pictures, framing then up and composing them.... it's a hobby out of control i suppose.
Enjoy...
Vultures tend to hang in groups whereas Ospreys work alone.
Good ole boys fishin' on thier funky houseboat
there's just something about White Pelicans...
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I particularly love this shot of an Osprey sitting on a tree branch. I kept wondering why he didn't get spooked and just fly away when my boat passed by so near to him.. then when I took a 2nd look at the photo I realized it was because he has a nice big fish in his talons and I had disturbed his meal time... no one likes to be disturbed during dinner, eh?
Busy day at the Vero Beach dinghy dock
Time to row back to the mother ship now....
Peace be with you.
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