Our plan today was to go about thirty five miles to an anchorage called Red Gazebo. We pulled anchor and left a little later due to the fact we weren’t planning on going too far. That all changed.
We made our way to the anchorage (Red Gazebo Anchorage) and saw there were a few boats already anchored there, not leaving much space for us. In fact, one boat pulled up and anchored right as we were arriving, taking the last spot we might have been able to use. No problem- there are several more anchorages as we keep going north. The next spot was just around the corner: Fritz Islnd by Vero Beach. We finally got to it and didn’t like the depth (or lack there of and shoaling warnings on our charts) and it was also too crowded for my liking. Onward we go. Next is Pine Island anchorage. It was a little ways up the ICW and is situated behind two islands. We found the channel markers that we were looking for to turn off the channel and ease behind the islands. We made the turn and were coming in when we suddenly came to a halt. We had just run aground! I immediatley shifted in to nuetral, then reverse and was able to back us off. Whew. F that- we are going to continue on to another anchorage. A quick look at the charts and we identified Wabasso Bridge anchorage a bit farther north. More onward we go. We follow the ICW and come around a bend to our fourth anchorage of the day. We see there is one other boat anchored here, so it looks good. Upon closer examination, the only boat there was smack dab in the middle of the small deep water area we could anchor in. If we go outside of this we will either run aground, be in the channel, or swing into the other boat. Are you kidding me!? We circled around a few times trying to see if we could make it work, while the person in the other boat watched us. We made an attempt to drop anchor, but then I aborted due to lack of room to let out enough line and still be far enough away from the other boat. At this point we were getting super frustrated about not being able to find an anchorage. What else could we do but continue on and hope to find something. Another look at the charts and we identified an anchorage called Serenity Island. At this point we are racing against the clock- it will soon be getting dusk/dark and we need to find somewhere to anchor. We continued on up the ICW toward the island. As we approached the sun was getting ready to set, and we saw a couple of other boats anchored behind the island. There was no other options for us now, so we made our way behind the island very carefully, with Lauren pointing out underwater shoals so I could avoid them. She could see where the small waves were breaking, which was a great help to avoid them. We finally pulled in about a hundred yards behind a catamaran and dropped anchor. We normally would look to be farther away from other boats, but we were desperate! Once the anchor was set and I felt it was good, I took Frank in the dinghy for a quick trip to the island. He was grateful as it had been a long day on the boat! I had taken the dinghy lights with me and had to use them on the way back because it was almost dark when we got back. Our original plan of going twenty five miles turned into a fifty mile day! What a day!
Now that we were anchored and secure we realized we were only a few miles from Melbourne. We had dinner and talked about tomorrow. Since we were so close, we decided to hang out in the morning and explore Serenity Island with Frank. Here is the descripotion from ActiveCaptain: “This is a great spoil island with a sand bar. Swimming is great with lots of fish in the area. Take the dog to the beach on the island. The island blocks the wakes from powerboats on the ICW. The very visible sand bars are on the north and south ends of the island. There is 6 feet of water on the approach”. In the morning there were a few boats that arrived and beached with families just to hang out. We kept our distance from them and explored, then made our way back to the boat. We had seen an anchorage in Melbourne and decided we would anchor there for a day before going to a marina we had made reservation at (and then modified to be sooner than expected).