Dec 4th We anchored in Titusville FL within view of Cape Canaveral Space Center on December 3rd. We had hoped to see a rocket launching but it was rescheduled due to weather. We had a beautiful day with the sail up along the river populated with wildlife preserves, dolphines and fishing camps. There were manatee protection areas all along, but we have yet to see one, nor have we spotted an allegator or pink flamingo. For that matter, the crab still hasn't hoped onto my dinner plate, however Bill keeps trying. We woke up this morning to a light rain, but decided to take off anyway. By 1:30 the rain took on a serious note, so we anchored outside of Melbourne, Fl with fellow cruisers we've met along the way. The shoaling along the ICW persists and the waters are shallow. It really is difficult to get used to these large bodies of water with only 6 or 7 feet depth. The cruisers all keep in touch during the day on the VHF radios, and when we come to an anchorage it is always fun to see who joins you, and try to remember when and where we last saw them. The boat now looks like a Chinese laundry with our wet clothes hung and the propane lantern going to dry them (and provide reading light). The plan is to head for Vero Beach tomorrow. We will be Bahama bound soon!

Dec 7th Rain or no rain, we pulled out of our Melbourne anchorage and headed for Vero Beach on the 5th. The weather declined by the minute and it rained so hard you could only see 150 or less feet in front of you. The Coast Guard released weather info about winds gusting to 50 knt - see safe harbor. Well, there was no safe shelter in the shallow waters so we along with two following sail boats continued on. During a thunderstorm we lost satellite - YIKES! However, a follower did not, and took over the lead. Our electronics came back on within minutes too. The Coast Guard then released tornado warnings from 11 a.m to 3 p.m. However, still not place to go except trudge on. Anyway, long day but safe ending in Vero Beach Municipal Marina. We rafted to a Maine boat, Hook, a Morris built boat out of Southwest Harbor, with a young couplo and their two little girls. We were on No. 1 mooring and aptly put because we were the two most beautiful and smallest boats in the harbor. Again, we did the dry out clothing thing, and gave ourselves Sunday there in the harbor to recoup. Bill and friends got the !!!!!! outboard going while we played with the dogs aboard and so we took the dighny into the big city on Sunday and shopped. This morning, Dec. 7, we headed out again traveling the Indian River with the low water alarm beeping at us continually, but we had the good fortune to be following a huge barge and tug plowing the way. The weather turned into Florida weather - 80's - and partly sunny and we had a nice wind to help us along as we were bucking the tide most of the day. We dropped anchor at 4:30 pm in Hobe Sound along the ICW. We will be down in the Palm Beach area tomorrow.

Dec 8 we played the bridges to North Palm Beach and dropped anchor just after noon. We took the dinghy down a small channel and tied up along a fence, then walked into a plaza area and got groceries.

Dec 9: Hauled anchor (having trouble with the starter) and decided to play the five bridges down the ICW into Delray Beach Marina and hopefully find a mechanic to look at our starter problem. The day again was beautiful, warm, in the 80's and just fueling our fires for the Bahamas. As we go along the ICW there are areas where there are channels that jet off toward the mainland where residences are built with their docks. The channels are sometimes shallow and sometimes deep enough that we see sailing vessels outside of homes. What a life! I think we have decided to jump off the mainland in Ft. Lauderdale for the Bahamas. Ft. Lauderdale is coming up next once our starter problem is resolved.