We departed early before sunrise at 0645 hours this morning... leaving Cocoa, FL bound for Stuart, FL... it would be another long day of cruising.

As we departed another large sailboat was leaving the anchorage just south of where we were docked... they eased into the ICW just ahead of us but we were moving a little faster and passed them quickly. Could hear several other boats on the VHF this morning early... normally the VHF is pretty quiet at this time of the morning and I was surprised to hear the radio traffic. It was from a couple of boats that from what I could tell were behind us... ended up they were beside us in the Banana River... they evidently had anchored there and were heading out. They were soon behind us in the ICW... a trawler named "Refuge" was one of the boats... the name seemed familiar to me and I looked it up in the MTOA online roster and found two boats with that name... a Marine Trader from Maryland and a Monk from Maine... they were catching us and soon they hailed on the VHF.. I assumed they were going to pass but instead informed me that they had slowed down to stay behind me and were not passing... I acknowledged and took a quick peek at what type of boat they were... it was a Monk... I was now curious if this was the MTOA members from Maine ??? I did not see an MTOA burgee flying.

The trip south continued a few other boats passed us... a SeaRay type cruiser and a large power cat... the cruiser had passed us the day before and we exchanged some chit-chat on the radio about seeing each other yesterday and they continued on their way "waking" everyone they passed... :) We had also crossed paths with the power cat a couple of times as we traveled south this year. In the Stuart area we of course got "waked" by several giant sport fish boats... typical of this area every time we have passed through.

The current boost today was not tremendous but it was consistent keeping us above 7 knots most of the time... the only time we dropped below our mean speed of 6.5-6.6 knots was when we turned out of the ICW into the St. Lucie River in Stuart... hitting 5.5-6 knots at the mouth of the river but as the waterway widened we got back to 6.2-6.3 knots.

We docked at the Stuart City docks at approximately 1829 hours. We traveled for 11 hours and 44 minutes covering 84.08 nautical miles and averaging 7.17 knots.

The pizza from Ryan's was great cold for breakfast and hot for lunch... but Susan said no pizza for dinner... we still have some left... looking forward to it for tomorrow!

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 1472.53 nautical miles
Hours: 227 hours 45 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.47 knots
Days not moving: 12

We departed from Palm Coast, FL at 0700 hours and watched the sunrise as we headed out of canals in Palm Coast towards the ICW.

We had a long day ahead of us… planned to go to either Titusville, FL or Cocoa, FL... I really wanted to make Cocoa as this is one of my favorite stops... Ryan’s Village Pizza... seems like that we cruise and plan our stops on what restaurant is located there... Ryan's has the best pizza and they make a giant 24 inch pie... :)

We had very little boat traffic today... we passed one sailboat as we were going down the Haulover Canal and after leaving the Haulover we had a power cat pass us... could hear a lot boat traffic on the VHF but they were behind us.

Had several bridges today but only had to have one bridge opened... L.B. Knox Bridge about 16 statue miles south of Palm Coast... in Daytona there are two bridges and as we approached the Main Street Bridge the bridge tender hailed us and asked if we wanted an opening just to be safe... 22 foot clearance per the bridge clearance sign boards... we need 21 feet... told her I would not need an opening... she came out and watched as we passed under the bridge... think she was worried we were going to hit the bridge but we had room to spare... the next bridge in Daytona is the Memorial Bridge according to the charts 21 foot clearance... same as what we require... as we approached the sign boards said 17.5 feet low clearance with an additional 4 feet at the center... that was 21.5 feet we should make it... dropped to an idle and Susan went to upper deck to check... she gave me the OK... 6 inches to spare as we passed under the bridge... bridge tender was out watching us on this bridge also... :)

It had been windy to day also but again today we had the late afternoon winds pick up to 30 knots as we were passing through the Titusville area and they were on the starboard beam... I had to steer 3 to 4 degrees to starboard to maintain a straight track... so we crabbed our way along for miles until the winds died down... which was just before sunset.

We passed right through Titusville and were bound for Cocoa... the desire for Ryan's Pizza had won over our desire to stop and rest... this would make the day another 2 hours longer but the pizza was REALLY GOOD at Ryan's... :)

We arrived to Cocoa about 1915 hours and passed under the new high rise bridge that had replaced the old bascule bridge that we were used to seeing here and made a 90 degree turn to starboard... our eyes peeled to see if the free dock here had space for us... as we got close I could see just one small sailboat at the 200 foot dock... GREAT! There was space for us... now if I could get close enough to the dock... water is a little thin at the dock and approaching it... depth sounder alarm started going off as we got close but it never dropped below 5.4 feet and I slide into the dock and we were secure at 1930 hours.

The current boost today was not tremendous but it was consistent keeping us above 7 knots most of the time. There were a few spots we slowed down but were shorted lived. We traveled for 12 hours and 30 minutes covering 85.28 nautical miles and averaging 6.82 knots.

The pizza from Ryan's was AWESOME! We ordered a giant 24 inch pie half meat lovers and have sausage... we still have half of it left but it’s even better warmed-up or my favorite cold for breakfast... :)

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 1388.45 nautical miles
Hours: 216 hours 1 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.43 knots
Days not moving: 12

We pulled anchor and departed from San Sebastian River in St. Augustine, FL at 0730 hours. We had a short day of travel today with our destination for the evening being Palm Coast, FL.

Quite a bit of boat traffic today… we passed several sailboats and had several power boats pass us… again the power boats were all delivery captains taking someone’s boat south.

We arrived and docked at Barry and Barbara Kipnis’ home in Palm Coast at 1020 hours.

We spent the day visiting with MTOA friends and had a wonderful dinner in Flagler Beach with Peter and Charlotte Behr, Barbara and Barry Kipnis and Phil and Sarah Lowe… all fellow MTOA members and dear friends! Palm Coast is always a great stop over as we travel north of south on the ICW.

The current was in our favor today all day. We traveled for 2 hours and 50 minutes covering 21.91 nautical miles and averaging 7.73 knots.

Trip totals to date:

Distance: 1303.17 nautical miles
Hours: 204 hours 31 minutes
Avg Spd: 6.37 knots
Days not moving: 12