Making our way to Melbourne

Not Australia, by the way.

We left just past dawn (tricky now that we're back on daylight savings -- we got up later, but it was actually earlier). We had coffee only and got underway quickly. Carefully we weaved our way out of the city marina -- which we really liked.

Things looking good, once we passed under the first big bridge our navigation was easy. Go straight. I'd been piloting. Now it was time for breakfast. Russ had finished tidy-ing up the lines so he took over while I went below and made us some cold cereal.

As I brought him his bowl he said something about the auto-pilot seemed to be taking us too close to the marker, so he put it on standby and was going wide. Then I looked at the marker, which was a red triangle. As you head north on the ICW, red is on the left. It was now on our right. Just as I mentioned that to him we felt a soft bump. Yep, we ran her aground a second time. Engines to slow, we made a hard right getting us back into the channel. No damage, other than a few years shaved off our lives from the brief panic.

My navigation assistants

Many, many times people have told us to have a visual aid right on the console that tells you where the red and green markers should be. Typically these are crafty items, made from popsicle sticks and felt-tip pens. One end is green and the other red. When the markers change (and they do!) you just flip the thing around.

One of our next stops will be to JoAnns.

We were passed by fellow loopers who also just started from Vero Beach. Quick greetings and well wishes were passed over the radio. We hope to see Misty and her crew along the way.

Many tiny vacation islands along the route today

A while ago some folks made contact with us, being fellow Endeavour PowerCat owners. Many emails have been swapped, notes compared, and pictures exchanged with them. Turns out they keep their boat at an Army base near Melbourne and, what do you know, that was on the way. Without further incident, we got set up at the Eau Gallie Marina. Greg and Sheila came by, toured our boat, then we all went to dinner and toured theirs at the Manatee Cove Marina. They drove us around, gave us a bottle of wine, treated us to dinner, then gave us a set of bug screens for our helm doors. We can't thank them enough for the wonderful afternoon and company.

The view out the door at the Eau Gallie.
Lovely park, with paddleboarders and kayaks enjoying their Sunday