Indian Harbor Beach, FL

Another leisurely start this morning after a peaceful night on the mooring ball at Vero Beach.  It didn't take long to get back into the ICW and the Indian River.  The winds were light and the seas calm most of the day so we moved along quickly - if that's an expression you can use with a Trawler.....  The Indian River is very wide in this area so I'm glad the winds were light.  The homes and boats in this area are not quite as ostentatious as those in south FL but still quite nice. In fact we saw a sign advertising a lot for sale for 'under a million dollars'.  FL has been nice but I'm not sure I would want to live here.

We saw more traveling boats today than we have seen for a few days. A 45' (or so) sailboat passed us headed southbound that was flying a Turkish flag.  The boat's homeport is Istanbul.  Now there is a worldwide traveler.  It seems that most of the boats headed north along with us are from Canada. I  suspect that most of the Great Loop boaters are delaying their northbound trips until mid April so that they can be in position to watch the last of the U. S. space shuttle launches.  We hope to be well north by then.

Indian Harbor Beach became our destination for the day, mostly because of poor anchorages within the next twenty miles. Again, for all of the water there seems to be in the Indian River the depth out of the ICW's narrow bounderies is very shallow.  We left the ICW and made our way into the mouth of the Banana River where we found a great place to anchor.  We took dinghy ride up the river which takes you past Patrick Air Force and the Kennedy Space Center.  No we didn't go that far up the river in the dinghy but we did make our way in and out of a few of the side channels that are surrounded by nice homes and smaller boats.  There are at least two big rowing clubs in this area and the Banana River had all sizes and shapes of skulls out for practice.  Skulling must be a big attraction around here.  Of interest were the numerous dolphins in the river that didn't seem to mind competing with the boats nor our dinghy.  However, we couldn't find a place to go ashore so we had to be content with going back to our boat and relax.  After diner on the boat we watched another beautiful sunset and now we are enjoying a full moon reflecting on the river.  It's quiet and peaceful!

Y'all stay vertical,

Capt John and First Mate Sue