24 February, 2020 Lovely day in Indian River and Mosquito lagoon

Draw bridges, tall bridges and wilderness.  45 SM; 7 engine hours

Such a lovely morning next to KSC.  What a difference 10 hours makes.  Polished mirror smooth at sunrise.

Nary a ripple

Just a relaxing coffee morning.  Last night there were 1000s of Buffelheads (cornell lab)  Never quite close enough to capture with the iPhone camera, so here they are.

Male (white) Female: MDC photo

Early this morning they were taking flight to go forage in shallow water.  Migrators. Aweigh at 0810 following bread crumbs from anchorage back to AICW.   Dolphin were extremely plentiful all day.  Pelicans to include large flocks of white pelicans throughout both Indian River and Mosquito lagoon.  Beautiful natural environments because of the wildlife preserves. Merritt Island National Wildlife Reserve and Mosquito Lagoon

NASA Railroad bridge

SE winds finally picked up this afternoon to 10-15 and forecast to remain fresh from the south all night.  We took a look at free docks in New Smyrna Beach, listed within the no-wake zone by a bridge.  Between stout southernly winds and wakes, we passed on the face dock.  Just too rough and would not have been preferred for the night.  Tho a walk around the town would have been fun.  We cruised on exploring one unchartered anchorage west of the ICW that had decent depth but not enough swing room with tide changes.  We are next to Ponce Inlet (town and ocean) (Ponce) and today/tomorrow there are three foot tide change.  We experienced 1-1.5 knot tidal current early today approaching the area.  We proceeded along the ponce inlet cut-off and have found a decent location with some protection from the forecast 10-20 southerly winds for tonight.  So far great holding at bottom low tide and slack flow.  We secured all at 1505.  (map)  10 feet of cooler water, then down south.  68 degrees SST.

1434.1 Hobbs; 2193 SM elapsed