Feels Like Homel

The Indian River
27 40.98 N 080 23.07 W

I just went on deck to relieve Libby.  When I got there, the scenery looked awfully familiar.  No mystery.  The power plant and the bridge at Vero Beach are visible 4-5 miles to our south.   Regular blog readers know that Vero and Marathon are are two major wintering holes in Florday.  We'll stay here several weeks, then move on to Marathon.

Well, this season's migration ended with a bang.  Yesterday afternoon a real gale kicked up.  I don't know the actual wind speed.  It must have been 30-40 knots.  It kicked up some pretty good waves on the ICW.  We were in good shape however, less than 2 miles after the wind came up we were able to turn left behind the southeastern side of the Melbourne Bridge.  There we had good shelter from the North and East.  Let it blow, we said, and it did.  All evening and into the night the wind raged, but we were fine.

So, let's sum up the Fall 2011 migration.

• It began with the fear that we could be landlocked in Lake Champlain over the river.  That lasted about a week when we heard that the Champlain Canal would reopen after storms Irene and Lee.  When it did open, we traversed the canal and the Hudson River without difficulty.
• We met Carpe Diem behind Liberty Island in New York Harbor.  I spent a day being a NYC tourist.  
• Then we embarked on an unfortunate and unwise motoring passage to Newark, VA.   I say that because it turned out to be strain on our engine (and Carpe Diem's too).  We did it without a good plan B thinking of what we would do in case of engine failure.  We also did it racing a closure of the weather window.  I'm not proud of that decision.
• We had a lovely time on the Dismal Swamp Canal, the Outer Banks, and the Neuse River.  We saw a lot of nice stuff, made new friends, and got to visit old friends and to visit family.  Great.
• We discovered Carolina Beach State Park.  That will be a regular stop from now on.
• We had a very nice, but slow passage from Little River, SC to Fernandina Beach, FL.  We suffered a broken engine mount at sea, but with sails plus a little jury rigging we got in OK.
• We were overwhelmed with hospitality of friends in Fernandina and Daytona.  It's sure nice to have friends along the way.
• We've had a mostly pleasant and uneventful ICW passage in Florida to here.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but the bottom line is that we had a lot of fun.  We seem to have a lot of fun every year, even though each year is a bit different.  I guess that's why the cruising life is so great.  After all, having fun is the point; isn't it?