Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Head on

There is a long way to go from Titusville to Fort Pierce. But I know that Gary has a commitment in Cocoa Beach at 4:00 p.m. on Friday, and the only way to meet that commitment is to be in Fort Lauderdale Thursday night, which means Palm Beach on Wednesday night, with means Fort Pierce on Tuesday night.
So, I got up around 6:00, set up everything including coffee for breakfast, and we were able to leave the marina by 7:00 a.m.
Almost the whole day I was hopeful that we would make Fort Pierce, but that was not counting on the wind and the tide. This is a general rule that if you are in a hurry, the wind and the tide will be against you. And this is what happened, with the wind from the SE at 10 to 15 and the tide (which is not supposed even to exist) against us at about 0.5 knots.
At first, I felt that I was going to make the bridge, even if it meant doing it in the night. But when the sun came down at 6:00 p.m., we were only 4 miles from the bridge and had an opportunity to anchor on the side of the ICW in 7 feet of water, and I chose to take it rather than risk whatever.
This was probably the longest day, so far, with something that 72 nautical miles under the belt and I was happy to relax, enjoy drinks and dinner, and call it a day.
The bridge is for tomorrow.

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