We left Vero Beach on a cloudy morning about 8:15 and headed to Cocoa. The winds had died down to almost nothing and the waters were calm. This entire area of the ICW is actually the Indian River. It gets quite wide in places and is fairly heavily traveled. Today we passed many, many motoring sailboats.
The towns we passed were Sebastian, Palm City and Melbourne. Right after leaving Vero Beach there were areas of huge houses, one after another.
Right after that stretch it really flattened out and the scenery was much more remote. Crab pots and crab boats were plentiful.
Thankfully, the ICW is well maintained and the depths are constant because the areas on either side become very shallow, very quickly.
We were pleased to begin seeing dolphins again although they definitely were not as playful and fast as the ones we had seen on the Gulf side of Florida. They appeared to be smaller and just sort of glided through the water as opposed to jumping and twirling…a bit sluggish.
We arrived at Cocoa Village Marina at 54 miles and 5.75 hours after we left. It is a great marina and condo complex and has a terrific Captain’s Lounge and boater facilities. You can easily walk into their quaint downtown ans we will do that after getting tied up and organized. The weather cleared and it is fabulous, 81, sunny and a slight breeze.
The Great Loop 
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