Sneak peek sunrise over Great Sale Cay Thurs Dec 8th

As crossings go, I don’t think anyone needed weather guru Chris Parker to say “favorable for all interests.” Tuesday was spent in last minute preparations, like calling AT&T to get this year’s scoop on temporary rate suspension. This is never an easy call; usually the help person has no clue what this is, but this time she did and Russ navigated his way through with the help of last year’s notes. We even received a $60 refund of erroneous charges from last winter.  We don’t make the suspension official until we are past the inlet and on our way. Then Russ calls and can wrap things up very quickly thanks to documentation in our AT&T file from the prior call.

I’d balked at leaving from Ft Pierce because, “I had a bad experience.” (you must say those words slowly, a la Italian Job)  However the winds were right, the current was ebbing out but not at max and well, we really didn’t have much choice! A couple of other boats were around but not going east, so it was just ‘lil ole Twin Sisters by herself in that big ocean.

Seas were pleasant at 1-2ft but more in the Gulf Stream, as expected, but not awful by any stretch. The worst was the wake from a huge container ship heading north to Norfolk. Miles of ocean and we have to cross paths. We’d slowed down for a few minutes, crossing well astern and at least one mile away, but that wake was monstrous and Russ said we came within inches of burying the bows.(not a good thing) I was bracing myself down below; my clue that something was up was that we’d slowed from 12ts to 3kts in a heartbeat. Yikes.

As sunset approached we raised our yellow quarantine flag, snapped a few photos and ate our chicken salad dinner. The moon would light our way until we anchored in a few hours.

Two and 1/2 hrs from Great Sale Cay. Dinner time!

Exactly 12 hours after tossing off the mooring lines we dropped anchor on the west shore of Great Sale Cay, an uninhabited cay that is highly used as a stopping place. Yes, it was dark, or nearly. The ½ moon provided enough light to see and we got settled without any shouting, one sailboat neighbor near us; the other 5-6 anchored up inside Northwest Harbor. Yep cuz it’s going be windy tonight- not.

We’d gone 130 nm today. Felt fortunate and very blessed. A little relieved too, because Thursday would be only 54nm and then we’d be in a safe harbor for the nasty winds.

Sunrise was a delight, the virtually non-existent breeze allowed the water to lie flat and reflective. Was perhaps the best sunrise and travel day ever.

Where sky meets water at the peaceful time of day in paradise

Peek a boo, I see you Mr Sun

I don’t recall very many days like this one, where the morning sky and water are one. Being on the open water helps. 🙂

Boats several miles behind us- water was truly that flat

Light and variable; ideal conditions for anchoring anywhere, for motoring effortlessly and as a precursor to a cold front, aka Norther. But the crappy weather was a day away, today we are loving it. Calmer than calm. Gail of m/v Orient Express would say, “a toe nail painting day.”

Our destination: Green Turtle Cay and a mooring in Black Sound, then clear in!

P.S.- be sure to say Cay as if spelled “key”. 🙂

Some things are too good to give up and a secure mooring in a protected “harbor” with easy access to free public transportation is frequently high on most cruisers’ want lists. Add in a large floating dinghy dock, lots of washers and dryers, dog park, other parks and a great Saturday Farm Market reachable via bus or walking and is it any wonder Vero has earned the nickname Velcro Beach?

Travel day two after St Augustine would take us through Mosquito Lagoon which, you may recall, is loaded with dolphin and manatees. A few years ago we encountered Vicki and Del in their outrigger canoe- if you missed that post- click here. We’d anchored in Rockhouse Creek Friday night, with an enchanting (can you tell I need new adjectives?) view of the Ponce inlet and lighthouse. S/v Ti Matou arrived and popped over for a boat look-see and I do believe our cleats and chocks were admired for the very first time 🙂   Ok- so Mosquito Lagoon begins about five miles south of Rockhouse Creek and very soon after we upped anchor we see a small-ish center console with what looked to be a- oh wait- it’s an outrigger canoe and it’s Vicki and Del!! Too bad they were headed in the other direction.

The effects of hurricane Matthew appeared everywhere we traveled. Boats washed up on shore, docks destroyed and that’s just what we could see.

Probably not quite the hidey hole he wanted

Another pretty sunset- this one along the Indian River from our causeway anchorage

We wanted to stop at Melbourne Beach and walk in to our favorite beach market so we braved the windy forecast and formulated a plan to stop and still get to Vero before things got too nasty. The plan was perfect, only when twins approached the pier we could see that there would be no going ashore to the market for this crew.

We landed at VBCM at 12:30 and got the last/only open mooring ball. All balls full and many rafted. Still not as full as you’d find right before and at Thanksgiving.

Almost all orders are in!

Note the long, narrow box- what might that hold? Fishing rod???

New flag on a polished pole

How many trips to Publix? Let me count. Four? Between that and everything else, our waterline was low, very low.  Friday Dec 2 was the local boat parade, one of at least 32 throughout Florida. The parade in 2010 was twice the number of boats as this year and larger too, but it was fun to see and we had an ideal perch to watch the boats.  And, for the first time since our first rafting in 2010, we had a raft buddy who we didn’t know. Nice folks on Cruisin’Cat– new owners of only two weeks! Boy do they have a lot to do,as we can attest to.

The largest boat brings up the rear

Our friends on Traveling Soul surprised us and came in to another Vero Beach marina, so we made lunch plans and to check out Holiday activities at the nearby Vero Beach Museum of Art.

Stars on the bow tips- so sweet. Can you see them?

Adding some class to our lives. Note the painting is of a wreck; not my idea of a fun time

Many boats took a favorable crossing window on Thursday Dec 1; we hoped for one as good. But first we had Dentist appts on Monday Dec 5 before we could leave. Wed, Dec 7 began to look appealing so we finished up our preparations and devised two plans; one would be an overnight if the weather window shortened on us.