New Smyrna Beach to Banana River

The Dolphins were showing off for us today! At one point 5 of them were following us. They are so much fun to watch. Someone told us the mullet are running now - dolphins are happy to grab an easy snack.

The tidal current was with us today- we covered 70 miles in just under 8 hours- sweet! We decided to anchor in one of our favorite spots this evening, in the Banana River just above Mathers Bridge. How perfect is that?! 

We will continue to travel south tomorrow although we are having trouble finding a marina on the eastern portion of the Okeechobee Waterway. It seems that lots of boats are holed up at Indiantown and River Forest waiting for better weather. We might decide to spend a few days in Fort Pierce until conditions improve. 

Banana River to Vero Beach

We had hoped to make Fort Pierce today but that didn't happen. We were delayed 3 hours by dense fog at our anchorage. We used the extra time to do a few boat chores, yoga, read and relax. We were entertained by numerous rowers on the river. We saw boats of various sizes, with crews of 1, 2, 4, or 8 rowers. Some crews looked more hard core than others.

This looks like a job Mark would enjoy!

 These rowers even called to us, "Good morning, BIG boat!" This boat is a sweep boat or shell, since each rower has one oar. In the smaller boats, each rower has 2 oars. This sport seems to be extremely popular here. I would be prefer to be the coxswain!

The sun finally popped out, making this the warmest day of the week. We covered 40 miles in just in under 5 hours, docking in beautiful Vero Beach.

Vero Beach

We saw this unusual tree on our walk.