Day 198: Thursday, March 21, 2013

Port to Port: Indian Harbor Beach to Cocoa, Florida

Underway: 8:43 am      Motor Off: 12:36 pm      Miles Traveled: 16      Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: First time hearing an offshore right whale advisory warning vessels to stay out of the way of the animals as they migrate.

Mile 914 to Mile 898: After a lumpy, noisy night (although I slept through most of it), we woke up to a cool and windy morning. As seems to always be the case, we anchored here because it had good protection from all sides except the southwest. So where did the wind come from until midnight? Southwest of course making for a bumpy ride. This anchorage was definitely better than our other choice farther up the coast, though. Perfect anchorages are almost impossible to find so you end up taking your chances.

We headed out into the ICW straight into a stiff north wind right on our nose all morning. Aurora and Boris pounded into the waves without stopping and we only got sprayed a few times. Luckily the sun was out making the temperature tolerable but we were glad to have only 16 miles to go today to get to Cocoa, Florida. Within minutes of docking at the city’s free dock (3 hour limit), we were hot again and down to shorts and T-shirts. I walked a mile and a half to get gas so we were ready for tomorrow. We were hungry after our cold, windy morning so we found a highly recommended pizza place downtown just a few blocks from the marina and enjoyed a huge pizza and a beer. What a difference a couple hours makes. It is hot and the winds onshore are barely noticeable.

After wandering around Cocoa for a little while, we dinghied back to the boat to relax and get ready for our 20 mile hop to Titusville tomorrow where we plan to stay for 3 or 4 days to explore – maybe go to the Kennedy Space Center if we can look past the $85 entry fee – yikes! Its supposed to be worth it but that is a lot of money – we could do Disney World for that, I bet.