On The Gulf

We made it to Cape Coral late yesterday afternoon, and moved to a better anchorage, Glover Bight, this morning. I've been working on getting the boat ready for our short passage over the Gulf for the last several days, and hope to leave tomorrow morning.

I dove down and cleaned most the bottom earlier this afternoon, but had to stop before I could finish because of all stuff in the water made it impossible to see. It was actually pretty clean, so I may or may not try to finish up before we leave. The best part was that the prop looked really good too.

Trip watch:

We're hoping to leave tomorrow morning bound for Mobile, Alabama. It's around 400nm, so I'm figuring about 4 days. However, we won't be too far off the coast of Florida, so we might duck in somewhere along the way if need be. The weather looks really good for the next several days.

The trip here from Titusville went really well, though I did have to sit and wait a day before crossing Lake Okeechobee. We crossed on Monday and had great weather. We even got sail all the way across before loosing the wind. The only bad part of the trip was facing the sun every afternoon for 5 days and getting sunburned -- mainly my bottom lip that wasn't shaded by my hat.

Hog Point Cove

We made it to Hog Point Cove last night, and will get underway again shortly. We tried to sail a bit the first few hours, but with little room and a head wind, we didn't make much progress.

It did give me a chance to checkout a few things, and all went well, so all in all I was pleased. We did cover 40nm yesterday, so it wasn't a bad day, however I got a little too much sun and will wear trousers and a long sleeve shirt today.

Zoe hung out in the stern sheets the entire trip and seemed to enjoy it, even with a life jacket and tether. I tried to keep her shaded in the 80 heat, but that was mainly in the afternoon. We had about 50% cloud cover in the morning, and an apparent wind of around 20 knots all day -- 2-3 points off the port bow -- that helped keep her cool.

Bound for Fort Pierce

We plan to leave tomorrow morning bound for Fort Pierce on the inside. We'd hoped to go outside from Port Canaveral, but with the wind out of the SE for the next several days, the direction we need to go, I decided not to wait any longer.

It's about 75nm, so it'll take two days on the inside as apposed to an overnighter on the outside, but without a favorable wind, who knows how long it would take. We'll top off again on fuel and water there, and maybe make another shopping run.

With any luck, we'll be able to start up again either over the weekend or early next week. St Lucie is an easy inside or outside half day run, so I might stop there as well. That also gives us the option of continuing south or going across the Okeechobee. At this point, all options are on the table and revolve around the weather.

The Great Northern Migration

The Great Northern Migration has begun once again. Over the last few months I've noticed fewer and fewer boats heading south, while more and more have started heading north. For a while, the numbers were roughly equal, but it seems like the flood gates opened up last week.

I'm not really keeping track, but I've seen at least a dozen just this morning. They almost look as if they're in formation, one after another. Since I'm headed south, I kinda like it -- fewer boats where we're going.

The charts should arrive to today, so I'll start south in the morning. Depending on the conditions, I'll either anchor in the Banana River this side of the locks, or continue out Port Canaveral tomorrow afternoon. I should be able to post a few more updates, but don't be concerned if I don't -- cell service only extends so far offshore.

However, I will be posting positions via winlink/shiptrak. The trip to Clear Lake is around 1,200nm, so I figure it'll take around 2 weeks. I may or may not make a few stops along the way, e.g., the keys or possibly Mobile, but prefer to go non-stop. I'm still testing out gear and getting to know the boat, so I expect to have a few issues and wouldn't be surprised if I had to stop a few times.

Waiting on Charts

My Gulf of Mexico, Galveston Bay, and Clear Lake charts won't arrive until next Tuesday, so I can't leave until at least the middle of next week. Hopefully the beautiful weather we're having will continue. At least it will give me a chance to finish up a few more things and do some sailing. I'd like to try out my new reefing lines.

Ready to go

We plan to start moving again either today or tomorrow. We got fuel, water, and more provisions late last week, and I took Zoe to the vet for her shots and heart worm medication a couple days ago, so nothing's really keeping us here.

I do have a few more things I'd like to do, but she's more or less ready. We plan to sail most of the way from now on, so our progress won't be terribly fast. We hope to anchor near the Canaveral Barge Canal tonight -- only about 15 south.