Climbing

 3/3-Vero Beach 

   Today was a mixture of sun and clouds. The forecast had called for rain most of the day but as the time drew near they kept pushing back the rain. It was cool though with the towering clouds scudding by all lit up by the sun. We decided to take a hike in between the rain drops that never happened. We climbed the highest thing around- the Merrill P Barber bridge. We summited the top of the 70 foot high bridge and enjoyed the view before having to head back to base camp. The view was spectacular. You could even see quite a ways out into the ocean. It was quite the ordeal having to brave fierce winds and heavy traffic.We persevered climbing to the summit and part way down the backside before we were forced to turn back by the impending threat of a thunderstorm. It was not a harrowing experience. 

    The bridges in Florida and everywhere on the ICW have a controlling height of 65 feet. This is supposedly at mean high water but very few are actually that high. They mostly are supposed to have a tide board the shows the height of the bridge above the water. This is measured to what they call low steel which is the lowest part of the bridge in the navigable channel. The nice part about our boat is the top of the mast is 49 feet above the water so never had to worry about tide boards. 

    I beached the dinghy today and proceeded to scrub the bottom. It must be 5 pounds lighter now as I chiseled of tons of barnacles and other growth. I am paying a diver to come and clean the boat this week. I tried to do it but I can’t stay down long enough as I’m too buoyant in the salt water. I also scratched the hell out of myself on the barnacles while trying to clean off the propeller. We have been sitting here for so long that the bottom of the boat is just a bit hairy.  

   There’s supposed to be another rocket launch tonight which has people onboard. There have been rocket launches happening quite frequently and we have managed to see a few even from here. Time to go and see this latest one. 

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