Depart: Titusville, FL anchorage 9:30
Arrive: Vero Beach - friend's dock - 5:25
Distance: 65 NM
We had gusty winds during our travels both yesterday and today. One minute we would be in the channel, and the next a gust of wind had knocked us out and into low water. We would steer such that we compensated for the wind only to have the wind gusts disappear and then find ourselves too far the other side of the channel. Anyone would think we were drunk drivers to look at the trail of our wake. I thought I was just a miserable pilot until I noticed Clark weaving to and fro. Then I no longer felt like a novice boater.
Most of today's sights were similar to those of other days with a couple of exceptions.
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| I liked this natural pelican "statue" in the water. (This is a Red marker on the ICW) |
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| Cocoa Bridge - Cocoa, FL |
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| 4 Kayaks all in a row (not really there are 5 in the picture - 1 hiding behind another) |
A friend of a friend, who is now our friend, owns a house in Vero Beach and offered that we could stay there for a night if we so desired. Clark decided to give him a call and take him up on the offer if that was still an option. Surprisingly, our friend said he was in New Jersey of all places! Even so, he said we could tie up to his dock and gave Clark details on how to get there.
To make a challenging adventure even more interesting, we arrived in Vero Beach just about low tide. At the Merril P Barber Bridge, we basically made a u-turn and head back north to Bethel Creek. First we passed a marina and then we came to a mooring area full of sailboats. With a maze of boats we had trouble determining our way through to the other side.
Clark wove his way through the mooring field from one side to the other. Upon exiting the far side, we heard over our radio, "Don't go over there captain. There's no water. Captain of the blue-hulled boat, don't go there - no water!" Clark backed off and asked where we should be to get to Bethel Creek. The unknown boater gave us directions to help us on our way.
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| Passed through this Sailboat Maze on our way to our friend's dock. |
Finding the deeper water as we wove our way to our friend's dock proved very challenging. I called out depths from our two depth sounders to help guide Clark through the area. Knowing our friend's boat requires more depth than ours gave us confidence that there had to be a way in.
We made it to the dock by late afternoon. Our friend's neighbor came out and kept an eye on us to see what we were up to. Clark had the boat sitting idle while I ran around tying lines and fenders in place before docking. As we pulled up to our friend's dock, the neighbor disappeared. I expect that he ran and called our friend to tell him someone was using his dock. Oh my!
It turned out to be a nice place to spend the night but it was definitely a "hair-raising experience" getting there!
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| Sunset in Vero Beach, FL |
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