It was a misty morning last Sunday in Daytona. There were no hot rods, or any other kind of car, lined up in the tunnel to drive on the beach. It wasn't a good beach day. But we could hear the whine of engines at the Speedway across the river getting tuned up for something or other.

After lunch we headed on to New Smyrna Beach and tied up at one of the two free docks. It was Sunday and the docks were full of families out fishing together but everything in town was closed. Still, it's nice once in a while to be able to step off the boat onto a free pier without needing a dinghy ride.

Still no wind the next day so we motored through Mosquito Lagoon alongside a large troop of manatees. Titusville often has some of the least expensive diesel fuel in Florida so we topped off the tank there and continued on to Cocoa, watching an Atlas rocket blast off from the Kennedy Space Center as we passed by. It was carrying a Mars orbiter.

Cocoa is a great stop and we enjoyed walking around town, hanging out at the coffee shop and checking out the impressive library. With more strong NE winds on the way we sailed two bridges further south and anchored near the boat ramp in the SE corner of the Eau Gallie causeway. There's a big Publix supermarket within walking distance where we filled a couple of canvas bags.

There were three local liveaboards anchored there which was a bit of a surprise. The last time I stopped there I was soon visited by a marine police boat strongly encouraging me to move on. The rules must have changed since then.

Yesterday morning we biked to the Satellite Beach library then sailed a few more miles south to Hog Point Cove where we stopped in a gusting downpour. Even with the Bimini overhead I got drenched from the rain blowing in with 25 knot beam winds.

This morning we sailed in still strong easterlies to Vero Beach and took one of their $14 moorings. We'll be here a couple of days so we can be in Stuart on Monday to have a guy take a look at our Fischer Panda generator which has ben taking longer and longer to get up to speed when it's started. There have been frequent rain showers all morning but who cares when it's this warm.