We made it to Vero.

I hope I don't forget too much since we have been here since Tuesday morning and it is Saturday evening.
Dick and I left Elizabeth City and had another good sail down the Alligator River to Tuckahoe Pt. We were bound for Oriental N.C. to pick up George of "Passages" (Vermont) fame. We met George and Mo at River Dunes Marina (land of the best showers). Mo would continue south to Florida to meet with Laurie who was flying in on the 5th of December.
The trip from Oriental to Swansboro N.C. included even more sailing as we downwind sailed the entire Bogue Sound. The next day was much more typical ICW as we missed the bridges or got there too early. The stretch to Wrightsville is always tough but we did make the 1700 opening and were anchored down ready to leave with the weather window we had been watching for Thursday am.
We transited Masonboro Inlet with a couple knots of current and set course around Frying Pan Shoals. The current to Cape Fear wasn't good like it had been last year. We sailed and motored until evening when the wind picked up and the sailing became fast in a bit of a confused sea. George unfortunately lost a battle with some bananas he was retrieving for me at the helm. The worst part was I don't really like bananas, certainly not enough to make a friend throw up. Our 24 hr log was 141NM.
The next day was much warmer than the 41 degree night.(The greenhouse was great). About midday we were joined by a pod of 25+ speckled dolphins who stayed with us for more than half an hour. The water was blue and very clear at our position about 50 miles off the coast. It may have been a bit of the Gulf Stream because our speed through the water increased to 8+kts but our SOG(speed over ground) was only mid 6's The wind dropped off in late afternoon and to reach our goal, Fernindina Beach Fl we started the engine. Shortly after dark we could hear and feel the wind coming back. Unfortunately it was not the forecast NW 15-20kts but rather SW with rapidly growing chop. Our arrival in FL went from 0915 to 1805.
We thought maybe we could sail west and pick up an angle towards our goal. This didn't work well and so we picked up our course of 235 motoring into the chop which had now gotten bigger. The GPS by this time decided that we couldn't get there from here. We concurred and began to go west. We powered into some large waves and were able to make progress toward St Catherine's Sound. When we got closer we called Sea Tow and at 0330 he gave us local info for entering the inlet at daybreak. When daylight came it was if we had been in the "Twilight Zone", close to shore the wind had diminished and the sea was calm.
We diverted again to go to Brunswick Ga. so Dick could catch a Greyhound to get back to "Grey Hound" in Annapolis. We arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina where Sheri and "Killer"(her chihuahua) guided us in. George and I slept like dead men. The weather for the next day was forecast 20-30kts NW. We had planned on taking the ICW to Fernindina but when we went by St. Andrews Sound, it was flat with 15kts NW. We were already under sail so out we went with many options to come back in. The sailing was again fast. The wind did build and the waves grew but "Kismet" was happy and "Otto" was on his game.
When daybreak came, there was a mist on the water from the temperature difference and 7' waves with a 6 second period on the stern. Our top speed was 10.9 kts coming down the face. We were flying. The weather said the next evening the wind and waves were going to increase. New plan, head into Cape Canaveral which we would reach around sunset. As we neared the Cape the wind moderated and veered more west.
Another change of plans, round the Cape and get close to shore. We setup 4 miles from shore and had an easy fast sail to Fort Pierce. A kayaker had been lost off Melbourne Beach and a search was under way. We watched out for him all the time hoping we wouldn't run him over in the dark. We turned the engine back on after 39 hours of sailing and followed the range lights into the inlet. 570 miles from Wrightsville Beach we anchored down in a anchorage where only about half the boats had anchor lights at 0330 Tuesday.
Up at 0800, we made Vero Beach 1100 and waved to Laurie and Mo on the dock.