Boating with Sunset Delight: 2025 April: Travel to Cape Canaveral FL

29 April 2025
Depart: Vero Beach Private Dock 12:50
Arrive: Gail's Way anchorage near Cape Canaveral 7:30
Distance: ~ 51 nm

Travel time: ~ 6 hours

Don drove Clark to the park with the boat ramp to pick up the dinghy at the scheduled time of 10:00. No one showed! While he was there waiting, he got a text that the delivery was delayed. The driver was in Fort Pierce and had to go back to the shop to get the dinghy and then bring it down. We had been told we were top priority. Apparently, they changed their minds this morning and did not tell us!

When they called him to say they would be late, Clark was told he would get a call later with a new ETA. Clark came stomping back onto the boat in angry frustration! I was shocked as I was looking down the creek expecting him to arrive in the dinghy any minute! So, we now had to subtract several hours of travel time from today's cruise and reconsider where we might end up for the night. We had hoped for Cocoa Beach.

To kill time while we waited to hear about the dinghy delivery, I decided to write up and submit a blog update. After that I managed to do some boat cleaning as I was too edgy to sit still! Finally, we got 11:40 was the new drop-off time. Once again Don and Clark drove to the boat ramp. This time, hopefully, to return with a dinghy.

I was talking to Anna when Don pulled his car into the garage. We went to check to see if he was alone. He was and told us that Clark was in the dinghy, and it had air in the tubes when he left the boat ramp! I went back to the boat to reset the dock spring lines for quick release on departure. The bow and stern lines could not be adjusted until it was time to go.

After that I kept one eye on the creek awaiting his arrival. Finally, I saw a dinghy approaching. Could it possibly be Clark?!

There is no mistaking that green hat from any distance! Yay! Looks like we will finally be leaving.

We got the dinghy stowed on top of Sunset Delight and went up to say goodbye to Don and Anna who were sitting on the patio watching us preparing to depart. Before we could say anything, Don said, "No! You cannot stay another night!" We all laughed as I said, "What? You're kicking us out?" We hugged goodbye and went down to the boat to drop the lines.

We got to see some beaches along the route.

We saw very little boat traffic today, perhaps being mid-week, but we did see some seagulls enjoying the beach at low-tide!

Clark spent quite a bit of time this afternoon "fighting" with the autopilot. He tried rebooting the autopilot and had issues still. Then he reset the entire navigation system. Eventually, he decided that the autopilot was pointing at the wrong waypoint. After that it behaved better but still had some problems.

Further along, we saw something moving quickly across the water. Clark pulled out the binoculars and found it was a hover surf board with a man holding a kite to change directions.

Clark hoped to reach Cocoa tonight to anchor. We figured we could cruise until sunset if need be to cover the distance. At 6:40 we passed under the bridge at Cocoa. We still had daylight and decided we could continue on to another bridge before dropping anchor.