February 23, 2007

It was another fine day on the move today. This time from Titusville to Wilbur By The Sea. It went from the Indian River till now I am in the Halifax River above Ponce De Leon Inlet. Tonight I am anchored in some very shallow water so when I wake up in the morning I could be sitting on the ground so we will see if I can interpret the tide tables right. I just had a big yacht go by full speed and I thought I was going to be on the shore. If I screwed up I will be sitting on the ground at midnight but that is the only way I am going to be sure as to what I am doing. I am where I am because I wanted to get out the Northeast wind which I have been battling all day. I hope tomorrow it will be calmer. The sunshine today was nice and bright.

I started of this morning on the Indian River at Titusville and proceeded to the end of the river at a place called haulover cut which is what it literally is just a ditch between the two rivers with a bridge over it that separates two rivers. Once you cross the cut you are in what is known as Mosquito lagoon which when the wind is from the direction it was today makes it a very rough patch of water to navigate and stay in the channel which is out pretty much in the middle of a body of water at least two miles wide. This is where Shorty got salted and when I say that I mean that salt water is sticky and then turns to crystals and you have to clean the whole boat with fresh water, canvas and all. Even the screen curtains got a salt bath. But by going on rough days when it isn’t too bad I am learning how the boat takes rough water. After Mosquito lagoon you go through an area which is known as the Canaveral Wildlife refuge and it is a bird lovers paradise. I saw so many flocks of different birds that I did not recognize at all that a bird lover would have had a field day. Then when I got into the Halifax River it became like old fashioned Florida, not all the big fancy condos and huge homes but more fishing camps with boats and such that are meant for shallow water, they call them flats boats and you see them poling them across the shallow water with a big long pole and standing on a perch in the back about three feet off of the boat.

But that all ended in New Smyrna Beach Florida where civilization has again taken over and that is why I am tied off next to a mangrove just where civilization ends and nature takes over for a stretch.

I am running on an inverter on my computer so I better not take too long or I may run my batteries down and can’t start my engine if the tide starts to go out radically. I have been out to measure the depth with a pole every half hour to see how much more it has dropped. I may end up having to move the boat after it gets really dark, right now I still have about 18 inches under the hull itself and we are getting ready to peak out and start back to high tide. I will let you know how my experiment goes.