Best Life

  A good night in Vero Beach.  We are enjoying breakfast for dinner - pancakes and bacon - with the hatches and door wide open to enjoy the 69 degrees!  We had a successful, albeit tiring day.   We have reinstated the unofficial "rule" of working until noon then using the afternoon to have fun, explore or just act retired. Paul's project at the moment, as Captain of the power police force, is to rewire Starlink to a different switch.  This will allow us to leave the salon outlets on, ice maker on and laptop charging without using the power to run Starlink.  Typically we only turn Starlink on to watch a movie after dinner - so easy enough to flip a switch at that time.  (And I usually fall asleep watching a movie causing Paul to get out of bed, climb the stairs and flip the switch sometime during the night.)                                  ...

  I did it!  I woke at 4am and never fell back asleep so I was on deck when the shuttle took off at 515am, as scheduled.  Pretty cool.  We were too far to hear anything and there were clouds that blocked most of the assent, but very hard to miss in the black of the morning. Then during coffee - splishing and splashing.  Dozens and dozens of dolphins feeding on the fish in our little area.                                                                                     First they herd the fish.                                                        ...

  The sunrise this morning - beautiful!  It was a short night since we were on deck at 4am waiting for the rocket launch.  We were just south of Merritt Island and the launch site, so we thought "Cool, perfect time to witness a launch".   We could hear the roar and rushed out thinking we missed it since the original time was 2am.  After a few minutes - silence.  We missed it apparently.  So we went back to bed.  Only to find out this morning it launched about 420am.  Yup - we gave up too soon.  Next launch - tomorrow 515am.  We will try again. The fog rolled in before we could finish our coffee.  Same bridge less than an hour later. We were going nowhere fast.  So we decided to clean out one of the front lockers.  Long pants and sweatshirts - back on. Paul climbed down in there, pulled everything out and reorganized what we kept.  Three bags of trash including inflatable pool rafts that came with the boat, w...

                                         Our view from our dinner table.  Quiet Time is anchored just behind the monohull under the arrow.  Good food (fish tacos), good drinks (Margaritas) and good friends (Sally and Rick) - always a good time!                               Despite being edible - I could not bring myself to chew on the orchid.                               The dinghy ride over to the restaurant was calm and beautiful.  We have anchored here several times and are comfortable knowing we are set for the night.   It's a pretty popular spot but we have plenty of swing room and are well out of the channel.  And the welcome by the dozens of dolphin...

  Goodbye Titusville.  An early morning start in the warm sun!   No sweatshirt required!  Still, I am reluctant to put our coats away yet.  We are down to only two blankets on the bed though - maybe one tonight! A bit of boat traffic (most heading south), a manatee, few dolphin and  many pelicans made the 25 miles pass quickly.  We anchored just outside Georgiana and enjoyed quiet time in the Florida sun!   Finally! A few housekeeping chores.  A murder mystery.  Dinner and a movie.  Life at anchor!                                                                           Our "front yard" for the night.                           ...

                                         Panoramic sunrise at Mosquito Lagoon We dawdled leaving the lagoon this morning.  With only 16 miles on the agenda, we had no worries about arriving too late.  So peaceful and calm. Shorts and short sleeve shirt - perfect for the almost 70 degrees.  Even on the water, I was quite comfortable without layers! So many birds!  Some dolphins but the birds were abundant!  Must be good fishing waters.                                        Even lined up on both sides of the railroad bridge. After grabbing a mooring ball at Titusville Marina (which we executed perfectly!), we headed over by dinghy to pay, grab our key card and do a bit of walking.  Just south of the marina is Sand Point Park....