Had to wait for these guys to get through the bridge. They took forever.

Calm & nice as we left Melbourne Harbor Marina, but soon wind came up and was steady 25 – 30 mph from east, coming right onto our port side. The instruments were great today. Normal travel in a given direction was tough because the wind blew us to the side so much. The electronic chart has an “extension line” that comes off out boat symbol and extends in the direction we are actually going, instead of the direction the boat is pointed. When I adjusted that line to the proper direction everything worked out great. I used Nav mode, setting a course line to follow, a lot today also.

He smacked the water so many times I finally decided to photograph him. Only had one chance. He stopped after the first snap.

Not too many porpoises today. Maybe they don’t like the wind. The pelicans seemed to be sitting things out as well. Once time I did notice a sharp slapping sound outside. It was a porpoise that would jump up from the wake, turn sideways in the air and come down with a sharp smack on his left side. He did this about 20 times before he left. Scratching and itch? I’ve seen this once before but can’t remember where. Again just a single porpoise. They don’t seem to do this in groups.

All sorts of homes along the ICW. This is certainly not the largest.

At mile 988 (from Norfolk VA) we turned right off the Atlantic ICW into the St Lucie River which tomorrow will become the Okeechobee canal. We had a brief blast of rain as we came through the first 7 miles of the river to the Old Roosevelt drawbridge. This raised up for us by the time we reached it and our Sunset Bay Marina was immediately beyond it. Because of the winds we decided to tie up outside on the dock that surrounds the marina. Much easier than backing into a slip in a crowded marina with a 30 mph wind. That dock divides the marina from its mooring field, so the water was still pretty calm there.