We departed fairly early from Cocoa, FL at approximately 0800. “Sanctuary” had left about an hour earlier at 0700 and was headed for Daytona Beach toady. Our destination for the day is New Smyrna Beach, FL. We like to stop and visit our good friends Peter and Charlotte Behr when we stop here. They are always so welcoming and we typically only get to see them once or twice a year, so we really look forward to stopping New Smyrna Beach.

The day went smoothly with nothing really exciting happened… weather could have been a little better… a bit windy and overcast... would of liked to have had sunshine all day but at least it did not rain.

Was not a lot of boat traffic either… we have started to join in with some boats that are heading north... hear the same names on the VHF and several of the same boats that have passed are passing us again… or we are passing them.

Biggest highlight off the day was when we left Mosquito Lagoon… we started picking up a boost of speed from current on our stern and we rode with this boost all the way to New Smyrna Beach… hitting a top speed of 8.4 knots… the boost lasted for last 10 nm of the day… short lived but what a way to end the day.

We arrived to New Smyrna Beach about 1445 and had plans to dock at the free city docks… didn’t happen this trip… they had several boats on al the docks… two MTOA trawlers… won’t mention any names.. … and two or three sailboats. There was just not enough room for us… so we continued on to Rockhouse Creek and anchored. The anchorage was almost empty with only one other trawler anchored. It’s still early… 1515 so there is time for us to get some additional neighbors.

The sun has decided to come out and it’s quite nice now… we’ll take Beecha to the beach for a few minutes to play and swim… she loves the beach area here adjacent to the anchorage. Later we will dinghy over to visit Peter and Charlotte which always a great time.

Our location for the evening…. N29°03.713’, W080°55.862’. We traveled for 7.25 hours covering 48.6 nm averaging 6.7 knots.

We took our time getting ready to leave this morning… “Sanctuary” was leaving from Fort Pierce 2 hours behind us and we were planning on meeting at Cocoa, FL for the night… so a little later start would allow them to catch up and maybe cruise with us.

The forecast was partly sunny skies and ESE winds under 10-15 knots… it was a little choppy but nothing that really had any effect. Watched boat and boat leave from Vero Beach as we took our time getting ready… watched TowBoatUS come in and tow away a sailboat adjacent to us… took Beecha to land in the dinghy and we went for a nice long walk… returned to “Sails”… lifted the dinghy back to the top of boat and we were ready to get underway. Susan graciously volunteered to handle the mooring ball lines and at approximately 0830 we were headed out of the harbor and back into the ICW.

I received a text from “Sanctuary” as we entered the ICW informing me that their ETA to Vero Beach was 0845-0900 so our late departure worked out as intended. I ran a slower than normal to allow for them to catch up… once I could see them I came back to cruising RPM and we were able to cruise relatively close to each other all day.

We planned to go to the Cocoa City Docks but they are small… maybe room for 2-3 boats depending on length of the boats… late afternoon as we approached I could see that the docks were empty… not a single boat so we would have no problem with space. I docked as far forward as I could on the east end of the dock… there was a gentlemen there fishing and he became a little upset when he saw us docking… thinking we were going to dock directly in front of him… I yelled and assured him we would not block his fishing area… he was happy after that. “Sanctuary” docked on the far west end of the dock where the dock is lower and allows easier egress on and off the boat. That left approximately 50-55 feet of space between us.

Once we were both settled I noticed another boat sitting off the dock eyeing the space between “Sails” and “Sanctuary”… and he appeared to 42-45 feet in length. I signaled to him to bring his boat in and we would assist him getting docked. It went surprisingly well from the thoughts I was having about it crashing into the stern of us or crashing into “Sanctuary”… he slipped right in… gentleman on the bow tossed me a line… I wrapped it around a piling and ran it back as a spring to a cleat mid ship… this stopped him from sliding backwards from the wind and also stopped his forward momentum.

Our location for the evening…. N28°21.297’, W080°43.324’. We traveled for 7 hours covering 47.12 nm averaging 6.73 knots.

Tonight we would have dinner at Ryan’s Village Pizza… one of my favorite places to eat as we travel north.

We departed from Stuart, FL at approximately 0745… “Sanctuary” left with us and we headed slowly out to the channel… it was pretty shallow so it was slow going. Once in the channel we were able to come back to cruising RPM… however, we were pushing against a flood tide and 6 knots was about all we could do against the current.

It was a beautiful sunny morning and this made up for fighting the current and also knowing that in a few miles we would reach the ICW and we would have a boost of speed with the current pushing us.

Exiting the St. Lucie River into the ICW is always interesting. This area shoals badly and the shoals shift around. The Coast Guard does try to keep the channel marked with cans and nuns but you never know for sure what you are going to find. This trip was not too bad… saw some 6 foot readings… mostly 7 foot readings and then it drops off to 12 feet plus as you enter the ICW. As we made the turn north up the ICW the current as expected was on our stern and was soon pushing us over 8 knots… very nice when this happens.

“Sanctuary” was following us and was going to Fort Pierce to meet friends. We planned to anchor in the Fort Pierce area but when we arrived it was 1130… again way too early to stop for the day… we opted to continue on a couple more hours and go to Vero Beach.

One bridge to open just past the Fort Pierce Inlet… Fort Pierce North Bridge… a sailboat had hailed the bridge for an opening just as we were approaching and we did not even have to slow down… straight through the bridge no delay.

Two hours later we were in Vero Beach. We had contacted the Vero Beach Municipal Marina and reserved a mooring ball for the night. At approximately 1330 we were secure to mooring ball #11 for the night. Our location for the evening…. N27°39.350’, W080°22.231’. We traveled for 5.75 hours covering 37.4 nm averaging 6.5 knots.

Shortly after mooring a dinghy approached us and it was Elaine and Bud Lloyd from “Diamond Girl”. They are good friends and fellow MTOA members. We later dinghy’d over to their boat and joined them for cocktail hour.