Good morning from Cedar Key, Florida.  I am luxuriating in the warmth of the day, ever mindful that Saturday, it could snow in CK.  The lows both Saturday and Sunday have been revised to 30 deg. F.  That is bone chilling especially with the 30 knot winds that will bring in the cold front.  I had a nice little Buddy Heater that runs on propane and darned, if I didn't elect not to bring it. What was I thinking?  Florida I guess.  Fact is, northers come down the peninsula pretty regularly at this time of the year.  It pays to be prepare.


One really cool thing is watching the charger.  With the bright sun I have seen up to 12.3 amps with 8-10 being average.  That should bring the battery bank up to full by the end of the day.  Two days of clouds really ate into the daily amp-hours budget, but I never ran below 12.5 volts so I'm guessing about 75 percent charge at the worst.

Here the charge monitor shows 12.1 amps.

Outside I hear the frequent "blow" of the dolphins hunting all around the boat.  Getting there picture of course, is a matter of rare chance. I don't concern myself with that too much.

Last night, I turned in about 8:30.  The cabin temperature was dropping at an alarming rate so I put on an upper and lower fleece (Polartec) suit and was off by 9 PM.  It really was a peaceful night with almost no rocking and knocking.  Saturday night will probably net me no sleep at all with that 30 knots with gusts to 40 disturbing the anchorage with large rollers and a vicious snap action as the boat wanders back and forth.

I'll have to be honest. I made a mad dash for "Eat at Pat's" the local greasy spoon to warm up this morning.  I'm trying to limit my forays into fast food.  But sometimes I just can't resist.

And I am going to be here a while.  I have to wait for the delivery of the Sea Eagle 380 on Monday.  It looks like the first weather window will be Wednesday.  I think Chrystal River at 20 nautical miles is a reasonable goal, what with the short winter days.  We'll have to check the weather then for the final run into Anclote Key at Tarpon Springs.  I got a months premium subscription to Sail Flow. This program will give you the hour by hour nitty gritty on every feature of the forecast for days to come.  That's how I make my decisions aboard Belle.  I hope that the change in latitude will bring a little more warmth.  I could use it!