sailing solo into the tropics........... from P

It has been five days. Using her sister's car, K dropped me off at the marina in Cocoa. She and her sister (one of the other Ks) drove back to Virginia to help nurse their father back from his recent cancer surgery. So five days ago I set out on my own to keep Senara moving south - so far so good! Every day I have found myself saying "I wish K was here to see this!" As she predicted, I have seen several manatees. I tried to coax one over to the boat using orange peels but he didn't seem interested. I am now seeing the gorgeous aqua-marine colored clear water. Yesterday I couldn't help myself - after dropping anchor I donned my snorkel and fins and jumped in. The water temp is in the mid 70s here and the air temp is around 80 in the afternoon - so it is comfortable to get in. It is cool to be able to snorkel over your anchor and see exactly how it is set on the bottom 10 or 12 feet down.

I am now in the Palm Beach area. Coming through Jupiter was entertaining - the homes and the boats sitting behind them make your jaw drop. I had gotten used to seeing nice waterfront homes, but these were special.

Flying solo presents a few challenges. When anchoring, I have to pick my spot carefully, usually around other anchored boats, idle near the drop spot, reverse the engine to give me a little backward momentum, drop into neutral, run up to the bow, unlock the anchor, free the chain, make the drop, run back to the helm and reverse slowly to set the anchor. Picking up the anchor is usually not a problem unless the wind and current are pushing the boat hard. When that happens the boat starts heading for other boats, or the shore, as soon as the anchor is free from the bottom. Of course, I am still standing on the bow pressing the windlass button, spraying the chain, and trying to get the anchor locked in while the boat is headed toward trouble. Other challenges usually involve trying to read the chart, or get lunch out of the fridge down below, but the auto pilot helps a lot here.

In Vero Beach I went into a mooring ball field, called the marina, and they assigned me mooring ball 11. No problem. Except when I got there, there were already two boats on the mooring ball. Looking around, I saw that every mooring ball had two or three boats rafted and tied to one ball. So I eased along side the boat I was apparently supposed to raft with and hollered for the skipper. It looked like he had gone ashore for awhile. Hmmmm. How was I going to pull up alongside this other boat in an adverse current, and throw a bow line and spring line over, then jump off my boat and tie me up to him? I tried to envision steps to make that work, but it was not going to happen. Especially when a soft touch at the helm would constantly be required to ease up to his boat. I looked behind me and saw a couple in a dinghy coming in my general direction. Thinking these may be the occupants of the boat I hollered to them. After some shouted conversation I ascertained that they were on their way to the restaurant, and they ascertained that I was in a bind. In a flash, the woman drove the dinghy up alongside Senara and the man (Toby, he shouted) climbed over the liflelines and aboard! He helped with the bowlines as I pulled Senara alongside the raft-up boat. As it turns out, the occupant of the raft-up boat (Doug) was there and he came out from below and gave me a hand. I should have hollered or knocked on his boat instead of assuming he was gone, but I still couldn't have handled the bow without the unselfish assistance of Toby - thanks wherever you are! I hope I can help some others as much as I have been helped on this trip. Most sailors are incredibly helpful (empathetic?).

Note: I set a new record yesterday - 6 bridges had to open for me. I am in a stretch of the ICW where there is a bridge every 3 miles or so.