Happy Independence Day!

What happened to June? Too much happened in June, I don’t remember being so busy… ever. Falling asleep has never been easier.

We left Fort Lauderdale Tuesday, June 29th, sailed about 40 miles up the coast to the Palm Beach area. We both felt lousy from seasickness, which surprised me considering we were only 2-3 miles off the coast. As we arrived at the Lake Worth Inlet we were hit with a heavy rainstorm and became soaked. Yep, a helm enclosure would be nice! I had heard that there are those who have run aground and those that will run aground. It’s nice to get that blocked checked this early. It was nothing major and we were able to get off the sandbar pretty easy.

Our second night we were in Fort Pierce. Soon after arriving we went to a small island and explored with Biscuit. He seemed happy to browse the shore. Soon after getting back to the boat, a late afternoon thunderstorm rolled in. Inside the salon I missed my phone and realized it was outside in the pouring rain. As I retrieved the phone I heard the anchor alarm going off. Yup, we had drug anchor, and were beached. That makes twice in two days, at least we are consistent. We left that area and decided to take a mooring ball for the night. Part of that decision was realizing we can’t drag an anchor if we aren’t on the anchor. That’s true, but mooring balls have their own challenges for new sailors.

We connected to the mooring ball with the bridle, it has a hook on the end with a loop of line. The line setup must have been too long because the mooring ball worked its way back, under our port hull and keel. I had to get in the dinghy, unhook the boat from the mooring ball, while Tania manned the helm and powered us back to another mooring ball. The current around Fort Pierce was really strong and caused us several issues.

As we continued north we decided to stay in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) for awhile. That’s one of the reasons for choosing the boat we did. Her mast is short enough to get under the 65 feet tall bridges along the waterway. We motored from Fort Pierce through the ICW to Vero Beach. Vero Beach is sometimes referred to as Velcro Beach, because folks don’t leave. I understand why, it is a nice area. We stayed two nights.

Today, the 4th of July, we left Vero Beach and motored about 5 hours to a small island just south of Melbourne. The map refers to this little place as Serenity Island. When we arrived, there were several boats at the sandbar of the island, playing music, hanging out and enjoying Independence Day. We watched fireworks and a lightening show from the cockpit.