While we had heavy rain and thunder for most of the afternoon today, there was a nice break in the weather this morning for a few hours. We took full advantage of it and went for a long walk around town through some of the residential areas we hadn’t explored yet. There are some really gorgeous homes on the tree-lined street of the Indian River waterfront. All of them have a spectacular view of the launch pads at the Kennedy Space Center on the other side of the river. We can’t imagine what it sounds and feels like here when one of the big rockets goes off.

We also had a chance to walk around more of the grounds of the state park that surrounds the marina on three sides. The park is bordered on the east by the Indian river which, for a change, was calm this morning. The featured picture is a statue of Poseidon in the park looking out over the river (his trident is broken off). We also got a good look at a sunken sailboat  in front of the park seawall. There was no obvious reason why it sunk (it was in a marked channel) and may be a left-over casualty from hurricane Irma.

The forecast for the rest of this week calls for rain every day, but the strong wind gusts from Alberto have now subsided and there is less chance of convective squalls after today. So, we will be casting off the lines and leaving here early in the morning. Our destination will be an anchorage just south of Daytona where we stopped on our way down the ICW in early February. It’s a relatively short trip (34 miles) compared to our two most recent outings. This is because we’ll be back to a section of the ICW where we have to take the tides into account to get over a few known shallow spots which now dominate the route planning.

Tonight’s dinner was baked chicken thighs, collard greens with bacon and sliced potatoes sautéed in a bit of the bacon grease.