In the Land of Bridges

After much grief from friends and relatives we finally pulled off from Vero Beach (AKA Velcro Beach) on Day 57. We really had a great time while we were at Vero and used our time wisely in a very pleasant spot. The mooring field was full of life and the kids learned to spot a manatee trail, enjoyed beautiful sunsets, scared up catfish, and listened to osprey sing their victory tunes.  In addition, the free bus made adventuring in the land of humans a little easier.  Part of the reason for the extended stay was to catch up on school and work, but we also completed a significant number of boat projects including fixing, repairing, replacing, learning and maintaining boat systems.
Bob travelled for work last week and returned on Sunday, with Grampa in-tow, who will be with us until we reach the Bahamas. We decided some time ago that it would be prudent to have another adult onboard for the crossing of the Gulf Stream and we have had a great time with Grampa here (he even does dishes!).

We finally cast off from mooring ball No. 54 on Wednesday morning, fueled and filled with water and headed south on the Intercoastal waterway.  We once again have shunned the cities in our travels passing through Fort Pierce and Stewart and anchoring adjacent a beautiful State Park in Peck Lake on Day 57.

Of all the museums and amusement park opportunities in Florida, the only one that really piqued my interest was the Kennedy Space Center.  With our homeschool theme of Adventurers and Explorers, I launched into the internet to figure out how to get a car and drive up to Cape Canaveral for a visit. We decided that the ticket price- $180 for a family of four- was a huge deterrent and that it wouldn’t be worth it. We also learned that there would be a rocket launch at the end of the month.  The morning we left, I was reminded of the launch when I heard a coast guard security announcement on the rocket launch and Anna and I sat down for a little lesson.
We found Cape Canaveral on Google Earth and the compass course from our anchorage on Peck Lake. The launch window was 8:48 to 9-something, so we all trundled up on deck around 8:45, some reluctantly, and waited, looking north towards the lights of Stewart. There was at least one skeptic in the bunch but a few minutes after we arrived, I asked Anna to confirm her compass course relative to the bright orange light I could see in the sky. Duh! It was the rocket! We watched as it climbed high into the sky, arcing off to the east and developing a real cone shape as it burned through the atmosphere. It was very exciting. And just like that…it was gone. Finn was hesitant to leave, insisting that he could still see the rocket, which was the anchor light on the boat anchored adjacent to us. The fun part was the next night, he asked to go up and look for rockets again.

We knew there would be a good cold front coming through first thing in the morning on Day 58 and planned to rise early and decide if it was safer to ride it out in the anchorage or travelling. Neither Bob nor I sleep all that well while anchored and were a little slow to rise in the morning. We knew the cold front was imminent so we sat in the cock pit waiting for it to blow through. As we were watching the boats bounce around, a 50-foot catamaran broke loose and careened through the anchorage.  We were discussing trying to radio them when one of the other boats started blowing a bull horn. The occupants quickly came up top, but not soon enough. They managed to break something which left them with little steerage. They dropped a spare anchor and got on the radio, hailing Tow-boat. They received a prompt response but were then shut down when the operator told them to go back to channel 16 and try calling Tow-boat Stewart who apparently was still asleep. After several unanswered calls to Tow-boat Stewart, the Coast Guard came on the radio and eventually they were able to wrestle up a Tow-boat operator. We started moving then, anxious to get out of the way before the extraction began.

We then entered the Land of Bridges including passing through 14 opening bridges in Day 59. Bridges can be exciting but often involve a lot of waiting. Grampa took advantage of this time and Anna and Grampa got in some good fishing including catching, an … electric eel? Well that was at least the first guess when he pulled this electrifying-looking, prehistoric beast from the deeps of the ICW. Anna poured over the fish ID book and still was not able to find it. Bob suggested a ribbon fish, which was not in the ID book index, but Grampa managed to find it on Google.  What did people do before the internet?  Turns out, the beast, a good fighter on the line, is a cutlass fish, AKA a ribbon fish. Don’t EVER question Bob’s fish knowledge! These fish are deep water ocean fish which is why it wasn’t in our reef fishes book, but this was not apparent to the fish...apparently.

We pulled into Fort Lauderdale on the afternoon of Day 59 and were stunned by the wealth in both boats and houses. We have had a productive few days visiting with friends, taking a shakedown cruise out to the Gulf Stream and prepping for the crossing. More news to come soon!