Fort Pierce to Peck Lake, Port St. Lucie, Florida

 We woke up to 38 degrees and 47 in the cabin and started the generator for heat while we were making coffee. Bright sunshine warmed up the salon so by noon we were underway back over to Fort Pierce City Marina for water and a pump out. We cruised across St. Lucie Inlet and on into Peck Lake with fourteen other boats. We took the dinghy to the beach and took the short path to the Atlantic Ocean and found some logs to sit and have our anchors down beers. The plovers were like beach pigeons coming over begging for food and liked our peanuts. We walked down the beach a ways shelling but only found one sea heart sea bean. A hot shower won out over happy hour on the flybridge as the cabin was toasty from the solar heat. We are plenty warm sleeping under two blankets and a sleeping bag as a comforter. Another near freezing temperatures last night.

Super sized shrimp

Great service at City Marina fuel dock

Ships at port

Seagulls frolicking

Porpoises jumping trawler's wake

Dinghy landing at Peck Lake

Beautiful wildlife refuge

Flowers along the beach trail

Ocean view through the sea oats

Surf's up

Not shy looking for handouts

Hungry bird came up to my shoe

Flowers and coconuts

Enormous driftwood

Beach treasure hunting

Another chilly night and we woke up and put on our long underwear. The sun quickly warmed up the cabin and it was in the high 60's when we took off for the beach. We headed down towards the inlet and ended up stopping at the park entrance bench and taking the path to the canoe launch. We turned around here instead of heading all the way down to the boardwalk since we got a late start. We ended up walking 6 miles and finished the beautiful day off with happy hour on the flybridge before having our chilli for dinner. We are looking forward to the warming trend and more seasonal weather.

Great blue heron guarding the canoe launch

Today's beach treasures of hearts, purses, hamburgers and palm nut

Vero Beach to Faber Cove in Fort Pierce, Florida

 We set an alarm to get up in time for the 6:30 am marine weather on the Single Side Band radio. It was still dark out and we could hear loud and clear that the weather for crossing is unsuitable for several weeks. We pulled anchor and headed past Vero Beach Marina and under the North Fort Pierce drawbridge and over to the Fort Pierce City Marina for fuel. While at the dock we met another PDQ power catamaran owner, New Hope. We headed past over a dozen boats anchored in our usual spot along the causeway of Hutchison Island and continued into the sheltered Faber Cove. We have anchored here once before and it is nice and protected with four other boats anchored here. The sun was out the entire day and the temperature is back up into the 70's. The wind picks up Friday night and the temperature drops on Saturday so we will be snug here. Glenn took a test ride in the dinghy around the cove and it was probably a good thing we did not leave since the trawler behind us dragged anchor and we are waiting for Coast Guard to deal with it. 

Cute nesting pair

Turning into our usual anchorage along the condos

View off the bow of Faber Cove anchorage

Sunset over Faber Cove

We took advantage of the warm temperatures and calm winds to head into town. We pulled into Cove Point Marina and tied up to their dinghy dock for a $10 fee. The wind was going to increase in the afternoon and we did not want to get caught coming back from Fort Pierce City Marina. This is the first time we walked the Seaway bridge and then walked down US1 to the Marine Supply store looking for windshield wiper blades that seem to be out of stock everywhere. We stopped back by CVS and Publix and ended up eating lunch at Seaway BBQ that was our closest visit to a tiki hut so far. We enjoyed the pork and smoked chicken sandwiches and mac and cheese and some cold draft beers in icy mugs. Our original intent was to continue to walk over to Ace Hardware down past the City Marina but decided nothing was desperately needed on our shopping list. The sun came out and we stopped to buy two pounds of shrimp from the local lady near the entrance to the marina. They were setting up a sound stage and had the pork butts smoking looking like Friday night party time. It was a warm evening to enjoy happy hour on the fly bridge followed by a delicious shrimp and grits dinner

Foggy morning walking across Seaway Bridge for our 8 mile hike

Misty view of Fort Pierce City Marina 

Egret at the base of the bridge

Fort Pierce Yacht Club

Nice park and boat launch

Nautical bait shop

Passenger train waiting on the tracks

Kite flying above inlet park

The howling wind woke us up around 2 am and we tightened down the canvas helm cover and life sling cover that were flapping along with some ropes that came lose on the weather clothes. We were so comfy we ended up sleeping in until almost 10 am. We cranked up the generator for heat as it was 47 degrees but with the brilliant sunshine the cabin became toasty warm. We'll work on our to do list of getting the boat ship shape. With the windy and the cold conditions, we hated that we had to miss the great Fort Pierce Farmer's Market. It is predicted to be near freezing temperatures tonight.

Cape Canaveral to north of Vero Beach, Florida

We woke up to rain so we removed all the sunshade curtains on the outside windows to give us a better view for steering from the downstairs helm. We donned our silk long johns and wools socks, Gortex rain jackets and rain pants and rain ponchos and steered from the fly bridge for awhile and then enjoyed the comfortable cruising from down below. We passed by Cocoa Village under gray skies and had a few motor yachts pass us on our way past Indian Harbour Beach, Melbourne and Sebastian. The skies remained dark and threatening so we anchored on the south side of Wabasso  bridge before reaching Vero Beach. There is one small sailboat here that the owner paddled out to on a paddle board and since there is very little boat traffic it should be a peaceful stop for the night.

Bundled up on the flybridge in our huge rain ponchos

Came close to osprey on the nest

Local brown pelican perched on day marker

Migrating white pelican

View of our anchorage from the fly bridge

Titusville to near Cape Canaveral Barge Canal, Florida

 Finally we moved out of Westland Boatyard where we had been for hurricane season to an inside dock at Westland Marina. We splashed on Thursday and planned to depart on Monday after provisioning over the weekend and moving our car into inside storage at Life Storage facility. Monday was the coldest day of the year so we waited until it warmed up on Tuesday afternoon and headed down the intracoastal waterway. It was raining off on and so we stopped off the waterway at a designated anchorage near the entrance to the Cape Canaveral Barge Canal. The rains continued overnight and the wind changed directions so we were rocked to sleep. It was still great to be at anchor despite the cold and the rain.

Splish, splash!

Sitting at the inside dock across from dinghy dock

Leaving Titusville City Marina in our wake

Passing through Titusville City Marina mooring field

View from the fly bridge of Titusville Bridge