Saturday morning we left West palm beach and started to motor North along the Intracoastel Waterway. We remember coming down how stressful it was following the day marks, worrying about running aground, and the shallow depths. After being in the Bahamas sailing around coral heads, reefs, and shallow water the ICW is a piece of cake. At the very least there is Tow Boat US everywhere and services along the way. We were delighted to find about 10K of wind out of the east so full sails went up along with the motor. We had lots of daylight and great speed so we sailed 60 statue miles to Vero Beach. We left West Palm at 10AM (had to wait for higher tide) and arrived in Vero beach at 6:30PM.
Sunday morning (Easter day) we left Vero Beach fuel dock at 7:30 and again had full sails up with motoring. We were able to go 8-9miles per hour most of the time. At one point in our trip three large dolphins surfaced beside the boat and rode along with us for about 5 minutes. Peter put us in auto and we both watched them over the side. They would swim, surface, angle towards us, sometimes go deeper, only to return again. It was such a thrill to see these beautiful creatures play in our waves. We heard on the VHF an announcement from the Coast Guard about enacting the security zone for the shuttle Discovery launch. It was planned for Monday morning at 6:20AM. So we decided to push ourselves again for another 60 mile day and arrived in Titisville by 4:30PM. We had a lovely Easter dinner of shrimp & wine for appetizers, steak on the grill, mashed potato, fresh steamed broccoli, and cheesecake topped with raspberries for dessert. All out of our freezer!!! One of the best improvements we made on the boat last summer.
We called our friend
s, Fred & Verena, to see if they wanted to meet us at the boat for the launch. They drove 1.5 hours to arrive here at 6AM so Peter collected them in the dingy and we had a front row seat from our anchorage to watch the shuttle launch. We could see the ground ignition and entire lift off clearly in the dark since we were only 4 miles away from the launch pad. What a rush. You could hear people shouting and cheering in the distance. We were surrounded in our anchorage by Canadian boats so I'm sure they were awakened by the noise. The sound of the shuttle was like a jet engine next to you for about 15 seconds! We finished the morning off with coffee and breakfast and our friends actually stayed the day relaxing with us. We moved to the Titisville marina for tonight so we could do laundry & refresh water, etc. Tomorrow we start a 100 mile trip further north to St Augustine. It should take 2 days.
Sunday morning (Easter day) we left Vero Beach fuel dock at 7:30 and again had full sails up with motoring. We were able to go 8-9miles per hour most of the time. At one point in our trip three large dolphins surfaced beside the boat and rode along with us for about 5 minutes. Peter put us in auto and we both watched them over the side. They would swim, surface, angle towards us, sometimes go deeper, only to return again. It was such a thrill to see these beautiful creatures play in our waves. We heard on the VHF an announcement from the Coast Guard about enacting the security zone for the shuttle Discovery launch. It was planned for Monday morning at 6:20AM. So we decided to push ourselves again for another 60 mile day and arrived in Titisville by 4:30PM. We had a lovely Easter dinner of shrimp & wine for appetizers, steak on the grill, mashed potato, fresh steamed broccoli, and cheesecake topped with raspberries for dessert. All out of our freezer!!! One of the best improvements we made on the boat last summer.
We called our friend
s, Fred & Verena, to see if they wanted to meet us at the boat for the launch. They drove 1.5 hours to arrive here at 6AM so Peter collected them in the dingy and we had a front row seat from our anchorage to watch the shuttle launch. We could see the ground ignition and entire lift off clearly in the dark since we were only 4 miles away from the launch pad. What a rush. You could hear people shouting and cheering in the distance. We were surrounded in our anchorage by Canadian boats so I'm sure they were awakened by the noise. The sound of the shuttle was like a jet engine next to you for about 15 seconds! We finished the morning off with coffee and breakfast and our friends actually stayed the day relaxing with us. We moved to the Titisville marina for tonight so we could do laundry & refresh water, etc. Tomorrow we start a 100 mile trip further north to St Augustine. It should take 2 days.
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