On our way to Cape Canaveral

Tuesday, January 16, 2007, 0730: We spent MLK Jr Day in Fernandina Beach doing laundry and biking the streets of the historic district admiring the beautiful antebellum mansions. When the day was done, it was time to pack up the bikes, roll up the dinghy, and prepare the boat for another overnight run down the coast. So here we are again, sailing out an inlet into the sunrise. This time, we are sailing out the St. Mary's inlet, and we hope to be coming into the Cape Canaveral inlet in about 26 hours. We are trying to time it so that we hit the bridges and lock involved with that inlet after the rush-hour-traffic-bridge-closings. We hope to arrive in our anchorage in Cocoa before noon!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007, 1830: As usual the forecast was a bit wide of the mark; we were supposed to be experiencing north winds of 10-15 knots on Tuesday but we had 5 knot winds from the southeast instead. We found ourselves motoring once more. They had forecast some serious NE winds overnight though, 15-20 with gusts up to gale, and that came to fruition; we experienced consistent winds of 30-35 knots with one gust to 41 knots! The front looked like a big black wall chasing us in the evening. It caught us at 8:30 pm on Tuesday night; in an instant the winds switched from SE 5 knots to NE 40 knots. Reinhart shut the engine off and once again we were surfing our way south on 8-11 foot following seas. I have to say, the Caliber handles wonderfully in these conditions. I was a bit anxious and had a hard time sleeping, so we broke with our usual 3-hour shift schedule and I took part of Reinhart's watch in the middle of the night. We arrived to the Cape Canaveral inlet right on time, if not a bit tired, and actually shared the lock with a manatee. We saw lots of beautiful birds, another manatee, and even a raccoon as we cruised the inlet canal. The big NASA shuttle building loomed over these very natural surroundings and made for one very nice Florida experience. We pulled up to our anchorage in Cocoa (N28 20.995 W80 43.200) a little while later, ate lunch, and took a nap. Reinhart got the dinghy ready for a trip to town, but rain was on its way in, so we decided to wait until Thursday morning to explore.