Tuesday, January 29, 2013 – Telemar Bay Marina, Indian Harbor Beach (Mile 915):

            I woke up this morning humming the words to Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again.”  It is a beautiful morning, and we are outta here!! Not that I haven’t loved being at this marina – it was great – but it was time to go!  We walked around and said “good-buy” to the live-aboards we had made friends with, and said we would look forward to seeing them again in March when we return. 

            Kitty cat knows something is up.  As soon as she saw the charts and the boat bag stuffed with flybridge gear come out, she headed for cover – under our covers!

            All systems started up just fine, with the exception of the depth sounder, which offered the first potential challenge of the day.  We figured it out soon enough though as we had forgotten that we needed to turn the darn thing on down below before the one up on the flybridge would work properly.  Oh yeah – there’s two systems for everything and you better make sure they all work in their proper order or no go!

            As is my nature, I think about biting my nails as we prepare to “cast-off” as the memory of our wild entrance into Cocoa is still fresh in my mind.  But not to worry – the water is calm and there is barely a breeze.  It is still a tight maneuver to wind our way out of here, but we make our escape without a hitch. 

            So as we leave the entrance channel we turn right and head south on down the Indian River.  We only have about 20 miles to go today.  We decided not to go too far the first day, and use this day as sort of a “shake-down cruise” day.  This is a nice stretch of river, plenty of water, and nice houses lining the shoreline.  We discover that the auto-pilot on the flybridge is refusing to work.  We can make it work down below, but not from where we like to drive.  I guess we’ll figure this out after awhile, too.  We go under the Pine Shores Pineda Causeway Bridge, and the wind starts to pick up and there are some black clouds overhead, but nothing to worry about.  Just before the Eau Gallie Bridge, we hang a left by Dragon Point to enter the Banana River and the marina is just a little farther on.

            Dragon Point got its name from this giant metal dragon that adorned the point years ago, but has since deteriorated into a metal heap on the rocks.

            We arrive at the marina, but no answer on the radio or the phone!  Finally, as we are circling around wondering what to do, the nice marina manager comes running down to the dock apologizing as he was by himself and had just come back from lunch.  No problem, and we get the slip right by where we are waiting and he helps us tie up.

            Lucy cat must be seriously turning into a boat cat, because as soon as the engines stopped she came right up and decided to go exploring around the deck to check out the new sites!

            It just so happens that another boat is here that is also a member of the Chesapeake Bay Grand Banks Owner’s Association, and we look them up, and spend a pleasant afternoon on their boat, and then invite them over to our boat for dinner.  We heard that there was a little market selling fresh vegetables and fruit, so we took a walk over to check it out, but, unfortunately, it was closed.  So dinner will be spaghetti with doctored up sauce from a jar, sort of a salad, and lots of red wine!  But hey, that’s boating!

            As I sit here and write this, pelicans are diving, the dolphins are swimming around, a sculling crew is rowing out into the river, and the temperature is pleasantly warm.  Tomorrow, we plan to head for Vero Beach weather permitting.  The wind is coming up now, but tomorrow may be ok.  It is good to be on the go again and see new sites!

Interesting falling-down house

Rowing Crew by our slip