Blasting off to the Northeast

This past Sunday we left our anchorage in Melbourne FL (ICW mile 918), cruised a few miles up the ICW, and turned east to round Dragon Point (mile 914), and continued northwards up the Banana River, which parallels the ICW and brings us to our anchorage near Port Canaveral, about 5 miles south of the Space Shuttle launch pad, and as close as we're allowed to get to it. There's a small 'spoil island' nearby where I can land Riggs for his business.

Monday morning we're up early to catch the 6:21 am flawless launch of the Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-131 (above). It lit the predawn sky and the noise was really something. After breakfast we traveled west through the Canaveral Barge Canal to rejoin the ICW at mile 894. Now it was our turn to blast off to the north (at 7 knots) as we put in a few long (for us) travel days:

- Monday noon we stopped in Titusville (ICW mile 879) to pick up a few items, then continued on to New Smyrna Beach (mile 847) to anchor overnight.

- Tuesday we pushed north all the way to St. Augustine(mile 778) to anchor in the Salt Run cove. This was a long day's travel.

- Wednesday we continued to just north of the St. John River to anchor in Sisters Creek (mile 739).

These last 3 anchorages we had stayed at back in December/January on our run south. It was MUCH warmer now than back then. In fact we've had a great stretch of weather with sunny days in the low 80's.

Thursday's travel was especially interesting. We started with 30 minutes work changing Spray's primary fuel filter, which was getting clogged after only 45 hours use (did I get some dirty fuel back in Naples?). Then a few miles north to anchor in the Ft. George River (mile 735), right in front of Kingsley Plantation, which is a national park. Our good friends in Castine, David & Carolyn Punzelt, have a daughter, Beth, who lives with her chief engineer husband Jim (and 2 great dogs) on their own spread just adjacent to Kingsley Plantation. After Riggs and I walked around the park, Beth showed up with her dogs, and we walked back to her place for coffee and talk and to let the dogs play. We had the best time, especially Riggs.

By noon we were back aboard Spray and headed up to Fernandina Beach FL (ICW mile 716), just below the GA border, and we have rented a mooring off the town marina for the night. The Siegels had given me a contact here: 'Stowaway Joe', a very nice guy who, among other things, helps cruisers-in-need. He gave Riggs and I a ride to buy some more fuel filters plus some groceries, and gave us lots of good info about the town (we now know which restaurants you can sneak a dog into). Thanks for the help Joe!

On Friday we plan to use the marina facilities for a shower, a waste pump-out, and a water fill-up. Then we'll move a few hundred feet to the Florida Petroleum dock to buy diesel fuel (and hopefully dilute the dirty stuff). The we plan a short cruise across the GA border to anchor off of Cumberland Island, which looks to be worth exploring. Stay tuned!