Day 95, Year 11: Passage to FL, Day 6—Dolphins and Gannets
Date: Monday, January 25, 2016
Weather: Mostly Sunny, High Upper 60’s, Lower 60’s F Tonight F; Wind 10-12 NNE
Latitude: 28 03.960 N
Longitude: 080 28.180 W
Location: Motor Sailing 3 Miles Off Melbourne Beach
Miles Traveled: 176 nautical miles @ 4:30 pm
Hopefully last night was our last cold night at sea for a bit. In fact, it should be the last night at sea for a few days as we should arrive in West Palm Beach tomorrow morning. Tonight the temp should be a balmy 60 degrees. Yippee! Hopefully we can shed the winter coats on watch and have our wool sweaters be enough to keep us warm. Unfortunately another cold front is headed our way so the temp on Thursday and Friday nights in West Palm will dip into the 50’s, but the daytime temps will be warm. We have only had to use our Mr. Heater a couple of times on this trip, but it is a lifesaver when you need it.
This morning Cape Canaveral was in view. Even though it was sunny, there was a haze in the air, so it wasn’t a great photo op. Later in the afternoon, however, the photo op arrived. I have been observing larger than normal sea birds sitting on the water in the distance since yesterday afternoon. This afternoon, we finally got close enough to one to take a photo. It was a Northern gannet (Morus bassanus), the largest seabird in North America. At first I was confused by the coloring. It was white with a yellow beak, but it had black splotches near the tail. I thought it must be a juvenile that just hadn’t lost all of its dark feathers. Then all of a sudden there lots of these birds, both white (adults) and dark (juveniles), swooping and diving into the water. They were in a feeding frenzy and put on quite a show. I went out on deck to get some video of them and then the dolphins arrived and added to the show. A couple of these guys were the largest Atlantic dolphins I have ever seen. It was a great show.
Otherwise, the day was filled with more mundane activities. We ran the watermaker and then took showers and did a small laundry to make sure we used up all the water we made. We love the West Palm anchorage, but the one downside is that there is no laundry nearby and no water. We’ll just have to keep that watermaker going and get back into the bucket laundry technique.
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| 160125 Day 95 Passage to Florida–Day 6, Cape Canaveral, Dolphins, Gannets |
