Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Jolly Polly Fish Heads

January 18, 2010
Vero Beach, Fl

The Budget Committee Feeds the "Poor Hungry Seagulls" who were following in our wake.
This was especially appreciated by Curmudgeon as only the day before he had commented adversely on his inability to entice more birds to use his deck for their daily ablutions.

Yesterday we made 60 nm. This is 70 statute miles or 120 km for the new generation. It was our intention on leaving Titusville at Eau Gallie to visit friends who were sitting with their very sick diesel. After the 5 hours on the water required to accomplish this we examined the situation carefully and chose to keep going. There was a hellish crosswind blowing (22 knots on the beam) and the channel was both narrow and shallow. A bad combination.

Also we were not sure which marina our friends patronized and since there were yards on both sides of the water we were pretty sure we would choose wrong and then have to dinhy across 2 or 3 miles of rough water in high wind. Finally the anchorages were not that well protected.

Actually what drove the decision was the fact we had made 7 knots or better the whole way from Titusville and there was no way on this planet that Captain Curmudgeon was going to give that up.

Another 5 hours saw us home at Vero Beach Municipal Marina. Departure 7 a.m. Arrival 5:00 p.m. Sixty miles to the good.

Needless to say after 12 hours of steady helming we were tired and after a drink and some cheese and crackers we made our way to our comfortable berth finding sleep about 6:30 p.m.

Before bedding down we did try to call Customs and Border Protection. After 12 minutes on hold we hung up and tried again. On the second attempt we got a guy who gave us a phone number in summary fashion and told us to report forthwith. That number did not work. It did not seem to be on the network.

More on reporting and attitudes in a later post.