Well we made it as far as Jupiter Inlet and up around into Jonathan Dickinson State Park today.  For some reason some of my coordinate posts made from my phone are not making it to the blog.  I'm not sure why, so we'll just have to make due with the ones that make it to post.  It seems like they're getting posted close to every other day.
There is now a change in plans, which is important for those of you that had intended on joining me on specific legs of my journey.  I am currently taking a short break and will resume on or around April 6th.  I will be picking back up from Long Key and will be paddling section 14 through the Everglades with four others.
I have decided to hop around during my circumnavigation joining other paddlers that want to paddle specific sections.  I have several reasons for this.  First, my paddling partner pool has dwindled and either they have left the trail already, are in the process of being done with their time allotted to paddle or are just tired and no longer interested in paddling for whatever reason.  I'm starting to take this all very personally.....not really.  But have met several new paddlers along the way that are like minded and will help me with the many sections that I need to complete.
With that said, the past week has been pretty awesome.  There were 5 of us paddling, Randy, Ruben, Carl, Gus and myself.  Carl had tried to catch up with me earlier in the trip but was unable to connect because of the phone charging issues we were having earlier on.  He and Gus managed to catch up for sections 20 & 21which we completed today. 
In this past short week we have all become well acquainted and have earned Trail names which I feel are necessary to share with everyone and a short reason for the names.  Randy who is our fire expert and manages without fail regardless of weather conditions to get a fire going has been named "Short Stroke".  The name has been chosen due to the size of his......saw.  Since the saw he was using was a folding portable saw, when cutting wood he had to use short strokes.  Ruben has been named "Pig Pen" after the famous Charlie Brown character.  I have to say this one is self explanatory.  He just feels its not necessary to shower when on long paddling trips.  Randy made the comment that there's not dust flying around him like Pig Pen, but thats only because he's in or on the water and it's keeping the dust down.  Gus has earned the name "But-her Butt".  You've heard the saying "she's got a great body "But Her" face is aweful".....Well, gus decided that I was giving him too much grief one time while peeing and decided to moon us, sharing way more that I could have ever imagined.  I have acquired 2 names.  The first is "Violet" for the purple arse I had for several days due to a leak in my boxed wine bag that was located behind my seat.  The second, I'm not so fond of, so we'll stick with the first, but will share the latter, that name is "Hand Job".  Apparently they all think it's hilarious that I've given all my head lamps to everyone else so I have to use Randy's eco friendly flashlight that you have to shake back and forth in your hand to charge......you get the picture.  And last but not least Carl.  I called him "Grampa" once just trying to get back at him, I'm sure for some other snyde comment that he made, but that name doesn't quite seem to do him justice.  I'm leaning towards "Paddling Nazi".  However, these things can't be forced.  We'll be paddling together in the Everglades so I'm sure that this will inspire a truly fitting name for Carl.
I will definitely be in contact with those of you that I was going to be paddling other sections with, via email. 

At St. Lucie inlet. Coordinates are 27.18304 N, 080.18092 W

We made it to Ft. Pierce Inlet, literally, between the two bridges. Our coordinates for this evening are 27.46446 N, 080.31764 W.

Made it to Sebastian Inlet today. Coordinates are 27.83495 N, 080.47167 W.

30 to 40mph gusts.....PASS!!  Try again tomorrow.......

Okay, straight up, today sucked.  We put in at 7:30 am at the 520 bridge at Cocoa Beach and made it as far as the North end of PAFB.  We had light winds at no more than 5mph out of the North to start and then a cloud that looked like it could potentially produce a small amount of rain went over and the crazy winds that were predicted hit instantly, coming out of the W NW.  We made a b-line for the east shore only to have 4 ft (absolutely no exaggeration) hitting us in the face for about an hour.  Not fun......again.  Needless to say, we're back home, waiting out the freakin weather again, plus I had already planned on taking Thursday and Friday as "zero days" since my son will be in town.  Sooo, for those of you (Carl & Gus) planning to join us on Saturday, we won't be in Melbourne until Sunday.  So let us know which day you plan on joining us, or if you still plan on joining us.  I'm getting slightly discouraged.............just sayin.

A quick update.....yesterday, Monday, March 5th, Rick dropped us back in Titusville and we put in around 8am.  We had the wonderful winds at our back through most of the day.  We were headed south down the ICW to the 528 bridge in Cocoa at which point we headed East down the barge canal to the Banana River and made to the 520 Bridge at Cocoa Beach. 

Sustained winds for Tuesday are at 20 gusting upward of 30.  It's not looking very good, however, we will attempt to make it the 15 miles planned to Samson Island in Satellite Beach.  Will post again later.

Rainy miserable day just south of St. Augustine.  A great time to find out that your waterproof coat has worn out and is no longer waterproof.....ugh!

Amazing house dock.

Palm Coast condo's.

Palm coast camp site.

I love this boat house.

Finally some sunshine!!!

Ponce inlet campsite.  One of my favorites.

Foggy morning at Ponce inlet as a sailboat passes.

Foggy Ponce inlet.

Our first night out, on a spoil island, just south of Nassau River.

First nite.

Dinner at Dutton Island, our second nite.  Just joking.  John's daughter actually brought us Pizza & Beer!  She's the bomb!

Dutton Island.

Bat box directly above our campsite on Dutton Island.

Dutton Island Campsite.

Todays words of wisdom: The bag in a box of wine is not puncture proof, particularly whilst behind a kayak seat.

Randy and Ruben north of the St. Johns River

Hey ya'll!  Well.....Saturday morning we put in at Haulover canal without a problem....until we got out of the canal.  Sustained winds yesterday at 15 to 20 in our face out of the SW.  Not fun.  It took us 3 hours to just cross the bay.  We made it to the Wilson train bridge just before Titusville Marina and had to turn around.  Washing machine waves on the other side of the bridge were at least 4 ft.  Not gonna do it!  We had Rick pick us up.  Rain this morning with dropping temps made the decision to take out until Monday the right one.  The front that is currently passing will turn the winds around to NW...YAY!  Finally winds in our favor.  We've only had a day or two of that so far.  We'll put back in tomorrow (Monday) morning.

Our attempt at putting back in at Haulover to "paddle on" today was thwarted by a trailer with other plans.  We spent the day repairing and will "hopefully" be back on the water at Haulover tomorrow.  We plan to paddle to the island just south of the 405 bridge.  I'll post coordinates tomorrow evening.

We made it to Haulover canal today and had a pick up so we could spend the nite at home.  Will return to Haulover in the a.m.  (sorry, forgot to grab coordinates before we left).