After yesterday’s grounding, today’s trip to Melbourne seemed…not dull, but definitely calm. After a light fog lifted, we slipped our mooring ball and took off. The ICW on this leg consisted of wide,  calm,  shallow expanses of the Indian River with a deeper, but narrow dredged channel that we kept within. We passed by Cape Canaveral and could see where the Falcon Heavy rocket took off from on Tuesday. Can’t imagine how loud it must have been at that spot.

There were some mansionesque homes on the shoreline, especially in Cocoa, and a few speedboats and some small shallow-draft sailboats flying with sails full in the NNE breeze. We passed under several fixed bridges and were stared at by armies of pelicans who lined the bridge stanchions, (think intense fish odor) and our one twin bascule bridge passage went smoothly.

We’ve just anchored in Melbourne’s southern anchorage, just beyond the Melbourne causeway bridge. This will afford us some protection from the freshening NE winds  (now 16 mph) that are expected to be present till after midnight. Pot roast and vegetables tonight. We hope to make Vero beach tomorrow.  We have marina reservations there for Friday and Saturday nights.