Anchored in Titusville, FL; Tomorrow: Daytona Beach!

Alarms went off at 6 a.m. and Chuck rowed the dinghy to untie our lines from Adagio's cleats. At 7 a.m. we unhooked the mooring and left Vero Beach City Marina, but not before snapping a few photos of the sunrise.

Winds were NE 16-21 knots and it was sunny. The temp was high 70s as the day progressed. We were making a lot of ground today, so pushed along motor sailing.

I called Sara Ryan Turner, a former colleague who lives on Merritt Island, to see if we could get together tonight, since we'll be near her. But she and Mark are on their way to New Jersey for a wedding. Darn!

We saw the U.S. Coast Guard members changing a light on mile marker 60.

It started to pour right before the Merritt Island Bridge, so I took all the books, charts and camera downstairs and we dropped anchor for 10 minutes to wait it out. It quickly passed, so we pulled up the anchor and continued on.

We had two more heavy showers after that, but they were quick, so we kept going.

The wind was kicking and we were heeling over when the gusts caught us, as you can see by this photo.

Around 4:30 p.m., we reached the NASA Causeway Bridge, which opens on demand, except during rush hour. Since it was not opening until after 5 p.m. and Bum's Rest arrived around 4 p.m., they dropped anchor for the night. We were circling around trying to figure out if we wanted to press on or anchor, and Chuck lost his Sheet Music hat!

He lost his Winter's Sailing Center hat last week and couldn't afford to lose another hat. So we circled around a few times and I spotted it. We kept circling around, all the while keeping an eye on it and I grabbed it with a boat hook. I told Chuck it was his lucky day.  Prior to that, he was not having a good day, but that sure put a smile on his face!

We saw Don Bowman sailing on SeaQuel as we were waiting for the swing bridge to open. We met him on the way down, on a day when we were going through a whole lot of bridges.

Chuck wasn't thrilled with the anchorage where Bum's Rest is in case the winds are high tonight, which one site predicted, so we waited for the opening at 5 p.m. and went on to Titusville. We're anchored outside the marina. We dropped anchor around 6 p.m. Bum's Rest has to wait for the bridge opening at 8 a.m., so we'll wait for them here. It will take them close to an hour to arrive in the morning, so I may actually be able to sleep in a little tomorrow.

I steamed some shrimp and we had a cup of soup, a little salad and some shrimp cocktail for dinner.

Tomorrow: Daytona!