Jensen to Palm Bay

Yesterday we motored the 15 miles north to Ft. Pierce to say goodbye to our good friends Arthur,Kelley, Aiden, and Sachi. Besides being great company, they helped us out in so many ways while making our preparations on the way down. So, for the second time in a few weeks, we said goodbye and spent the night anchored near the entrance to Faber Cove. N 27 27.308 W 80 18.551 Last night we were the A-holes anchored in the middle of the channel. Not intentionally, we had dropped the hook out of the channel between two boats on moorings. Because the water was about 20' deep we put out a lot of chain, and with east winds predicted and east/west current we should have been fine. Oddly, when the west setting current flowed against the east wind it made us pull all our chain in a straight line to the North, as well as spinning 360's in both directions, putting us right in the channel we had tried to avoid. Oh well, there was still plenty of room for the small boats that were buzzing by and we set out our full array of lights. Sleep was ok until about 3:30 AM when the wind started kicking up to 15-20 against the tide. We got up early and were underway by 6:15 at first light.

The engine seems to be doing fine now. Still a little nervous about it, and I was doing hourly engine room and coolant(visual) checks today, but all seems well so we're confident to keep pushing on. We saw a couple of boats that we knew today, one was Lo Que Se A which I helped build at Mirage, and the other was Sea Trek which I immediately recognized from having read Chuck & Susan's blog. We made 45 more miles today to the southern end of the Melbourne area, just south of Palm Bay where these consistent East winds that we're having allow us to anchor out in the wide open by ourselves, yet still protected from the seas. I don't think there is another boat anchored within several miles of us.

The next stretch of ICW through Melbourne is nice and wide, so we're looking forward to finally being able to sail some of this and give the engine a break. And for those who know us well, we're going to take pictures to prove it!