December 15, 2008.

After spending a day wandering the bookstores and just relaxing in St Augustine, we again resumed our journey southward.

The Bridge of Lions in Saint Augustine was closed for the rush hour until 0830 so we took our time getting ready to get underway. Once through the bridge we had a rather dull day of traveling down the ICW. We found ourselves in Daytona Beach for the night. The anchorage was a little crowded but we found a good spot to spend a calm night with no wind at all.

The next morning we were up and underway early as we planned a long day with Cocoa Beach as our planned stop for the night. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. After only a half mile or so we found ourselves in the thickest fog we’ve ever encountered. Visibility was measured in yards. Along this section of the ICW the channel is narrow and it runs through the middle of a wide, very shallow body of water. The channel markers are about a mile apart. The chart plotter gives you a general idea of where the channel is supposed to be but until you can confirm this by seeing the next set of marks you’re really just making a blind leap of faith.

Even when using the radar we were really just putting to much faith in our electronics to be comfortable. So when we got to a set of marks with a little deep water charted off behind them we pulled out of the channel into an area of 6 feet of water and dropped the hook. We were only 40 yards from the green mark and could barely make it out through the fog.

We ended up waiting for an hour or so before the fog finally lifted but the delay pretty much doomed our days schedule. We made it to the Titusville bridge shortly before the evening rush hour closing and headed south for the Addison Point Bridge. We knew we wouldn’t make it to Addison Point before their scheduled closing so we took our time and anchored for an hour while we waited for the bridge to resume opening at 1700 hours. After transiting the bridge we were still 12 miles from Cocoa Beach with only 30 minutes of daylight left. We just kept plugging along until the light of day faded and we pulled off to the side of the ICW and anchored behind one of the marks 50 yards outside of the channel. We had a boat that was behind us do the same thing about a mile back up the ICW and we spent another very calm night at anchor.

After departing in the morning we were once again beset by fog, although not thick enough to slow us down. We kept up our voyage south to Vero Beach. Some homes have fancy yard decorations such as flocks of fake pink flamingos while other guys just gotta have that certain something that
nobody else has.

We arrived in Vero at 1500 hours and after hitting the fuel dock for 26 gallons of diesel, a pump out and a hundred gallons of water we headed out into the mooring field. Our friends on Solitaire and Far Niente have just both purchased homes here and their boats are moored together out in the mooring field. Since they allow 3 boats on a mooring buoy it was only natural for us to raft up with their 2 unoccupied boats.

We love Vero Beach and plan to spend at least a few weeks here while completing some projects and doing some follow up work at the doctors.

Boat Name of the Day. A small center console fishing boat named Fishful Thinking.