January 19th, 2021

The day started with disappointment when I found out that the rocket launch that had been rescheduled for today from Monday, was postponed again until Wednesday at 8:03am. Hopefully it will happen tomorrow. Supposedly, we will still be able to see it from here in Vero Beach.

We had a beautiful sunrise and a great weather for the entire day. Our departure from Cocoa Village Marina was uneventful. We had to pass a few slower moving sailboats along the way, but we made excellent time heading down the Indian River. It was wide open most of the way and allowed us to push the throttle up to 23 knots. Since we were way ahead of schedule, we reduced speed for the last hour and a half of the trip and ran at about 8 knots and followed a trawler down the ICW.

Martha enjoyed checking out the Osprey.

Once we neared Vero Beach, the procession of beautiful and stately homes began. This has  been a very consistent theme along the ICW.

After taking on fuel, we tied up in our slip at Loggerhead Marina Vero Beach. It is a very nice location right off the ICW and part of an upscale gated golf course community. We chatted with our slip neighbors that travelled on their boat down from Kingston, NY. We traded stories about our similar adventures and the challenges of boat life. Their challenge is a little different, as they sold their home and now live on their boat. I don't think we are ready for that. We used the marina bicycles for a trip to Publix to add to the boat provisions. The store is about a mile away and it felt good to get a little exercise.

Tomorrow we head to Stuart for a couple of days. That will be the furthest south that we go on this trip. The weather forecast is good and it looks like we will be enjoying warmer temperatures.