Heading north up the Florida ICW, our first stop is at Eau Gallie, a small town just north of Melbourne.
Eau Gallie has a protected anchorage from the southwest and westerly winds we are expecting with another cold front passing through this evening. There is also a town dock where you can dock and leave your dinghy with ready access to the town.
The dinghy dock brings you to a park behind the city library. There are no services here for cruisers but it is a pretty spot. Just around the corner is the access to the bridge across the Indian River which enables a 5 mile walk over to Panera, for coffee and a bagel, and back.
A downside to landing your dinghy at the city fishing pier. Heading back from our morning walk, we had some vibration and knocking from the dinghy engine. Upon inspection, there was about 50ft of fishline with a large hook and sinker wrapped around the propeller. With a sharp box cutter, we made a quick repair. All good to go.
It's good the dinghy engine fix was no trouble as the next stop in Eau Gallie is the local brewery, just up the street.
There were two many choices so we had to resort to a flight. Best ones were the Canaveral Porter and the Art Handler double IPA.
Walking back to the dinghy dock we noticed this "Yoga retreat garden" that was open to the public and any volunteers to help maintain.
Sue checked out the papaya tree but there were no ripe ones.
Along the fence were numerous plants with black berries which looked like and tasted very similar to New York wild blackberries. The sign said they were Black Mulberry plants. They were very good.
Sue found the table where they put out the ripe papayas for the public.
We got back to the boat shortly before the front and thunderstorms rolled through. No strong storms like we had in the Bahamas, just a couple hours of rain which are great for washing the salt off the boat.
The next morning the temperature had dropped 30 degrees (to 55) and the skies were blue. It was time to head up the ICW for Titusville, our next stop.
