Freezing in Florida

We spent the week dressed for skiing as we motored south along the inland waterway in Florida. It was in the upper 20's or lower 30's each morning and the sea temp... a bit too cold for swimming.

Lots of drawbridges to go through still... I liked this one! It made me think of my sisters, stepsister, sisters-in-law and all my sister/girlfriends. Hey sisters!!

White pelicans in Northern Florida

We spent a rolly night at anchor in Daytona Beach and  walked to the post office there in a bitter cold wind passing stunned looking Floridians in lightweight jackets. We've been in more post offices along the east coast than we'd planned on - shipping out Sweet Maddies orders for the holidays. 

On the way to Titusville the next day we passed through the smoke from a fire burning on one of the small islands along the waterway. It's been exceptionally dry in Florida and the news is full of the threat of fires. 

Just as we came through the smoke, the Kennedy Space Center came into view - waaaaaay in the distance....

The styles (and size) of the houses changed as we moved south along the waterway. These were shot from north to south.

We spent a night anchored at Indian Harbor Beach near Melbourne where they'll let you anchor, but they really don't want you come ashore. There wasn't a spot anywhere without a bold "NO TRESPASSING!" sign stuck in the ground but we wanted to get ashore to do some errands so we left the dinghy alongside another illegally moored dinghy and were happy to see them both still there when we returned about an hour later. 


We're seeing more and more dolphins swimming in groups and on the way to Vero Beach we had bunches of them swim along with the boat. My wildlife photos still need some work... but I did manage to get a shot of this one!

Unlike Indian Harbor Beach, Vero Beach welcomes sailors and are so accommodating that many make it a point to come here. There were a lot of boats but it was still quiet, low key and really pretty. In order to organize all the boats in the harbor it's common practice for boats to raft up together on shared moorings. We rafted up to “Undaunted” and since no one was aboard when we arrived - I hopped over from Saralane to Undaunted and tied up our lines. I felt like an intruder but it was probably best that the captain wasn't there. When we met him later he was inspecting his hull and told us he'd just had it painted and it looked like we'd done OK pulling alongside him. Whew. 


It finally started to warm up by the time we got into Vero beach and we walked to the post office here too. It was only a few blocks between the ICW and the ocean so we walked around and checked out the neighborhoods in between. These people are ready for Christmas... Florida style. Hang ten Santa!

Skip on the ocean side

Boardwalk sign.... Break the Grip!

We left Vero Beach early the next morning, before Undaunted's captain was awake to watch us not scratch his hull again, and the conditions were calm and clear. 

It was right about here - after photographing this early morning work crew on the power tower... that my camera lens made some ominous sounding grinding noises. Then it coughed, wheezed, choked and in an instant went from being a hard working sturdy lens to an expensive paper weight.