Carl was up early and pulled anchor, as he was eager to head north and put some miles down. The weather was a clear nice day and the winds were about 15 knots on the nose, so no sails today. As we cruised up the ICW, we are amazed at how wide it is. It most be at least 5 miles or more across you feel like you are out in the ocean.  There is very little traffic traveling the water way, not like the other coast were you see a boat every few minutes. We pasted by some windsurfers who are hauling butt, they must have been traveling at 25 miles per hour. I tried to get a picture but they were to far away and moving to fast, pretty to watch!! The winds began to change and turn NNE at 25 to 30 knots gusting to 35 and the seas began to build to 3 to 4 ft.. We still couldn't sail. I feel for Carl , he is not having much  fun on this trip. He has all of the responsibility on his shoulders,worrying about the weather(which hasn't been great) and all the repairs on the boat. Everyday it seems like its something else. I think the trip is starting to wear on him, I wish he was having more fun... He did have fun surfing!!  We finally got to Mosquito Lagoon and that gave us a short break from the wind and waves. The picture of the shore I am trying to show you how different the shoreline and trees are, nice try...Back out into the wind and waves we went. If it is this rough on the ICW I can't imagine how the ocean must be...After a couple hours of that we arrived in an area that is only about 3/4 mile across and the waves calmed down... That's when I saw our future boat, blue and white a little compact, (to bad we couldn't have the house behind it. No really I would never want to clean that)..I got a picture of that...nice huh...We reached New Smyrna Beach and anchored for the night,we made 68 miles today... Yeah we rock...Just as sunset was arriving, a sailboat anchored near us got out a conch shell and blew it signaling sundown... Way Cool.... I got to use my new favorite thing to cook with.. A pressure cooker. I was a little afraid of it at first.. One wrong move and it could explode... BOOM...
That would not be good... But once you figure it out you cut cooking time down to nothing, rice in 10 minutes. This thing is great.. Thanks Dad for having just laying around in your cabinet. Not much wind this morning so we will see what the day brings..The oil cooler is working great...