Jan 20:

We had driven to Stuart after rowing last night to get closer to where we might again put the boat in the water and add some more miles to our total. I had wanted to see if we could row the short distance across the "Crossroads" in Port St. Lucie. We had passed this section because of high winds and warnings about its dangers on our way down the coast. After driving to every vantage point we could find to see what the water was like we decided that it was worse than the first time we had seen it. North winds would be behind us but the tidal current and mixing of wakes from four directions where the ICW crosses the Okeechobee cross Florida waterway made a raucous mix of whitecaps and swirling tidal rips. I was happy when Heather said she was proud of my decision to forego it again. We drove on to find the point where we had started on Dec. 31.

Arriving in Oak Hill, a small town south of New Smyrna Beach, we sought a place to put in about twelve miles further north. The wind was even higher than in Port St. Lucie. I started to take the boat off the car and noticed that it started to blow off by itself when I loosened the straps. That was it. White caps on gunwale height waves had built up in a short distance and we would be heading straight down a long run which would give them time to get too high for us. I sensed that Mother Nature was telling me to get smart and use the day to catch up with the log and emails. So we drove to Daytona Beach and checked into a pink hotel on the beach. Yes, pink! But the price was right and we could take a walk and fly our backpacker’s kite. That’s right. Mother Nature told me to go fly a kite.