We woke the next morning with a dilemma. Should we stay inside and continue south on the ICW or pop outside to the Atlantic waters. The wind was out of the north suggesting a good offshore run, but most of the buoy reports (farther offshore than we would be) were indicating some big waves out there. We made the safe choice and opted to stay inside.

We were glad we did. We hadn't traveled the waterway from St. Augustine to Ft. Pierce in quite some time and had forgotten how it widens out enabling sailors to take advantage of the space and in the right winds hoist sail. For the next three days the winds held firm and we felt like we were speeding down the ICW. Each day we made over 60 miles of headway south. I know this doesn't sound like much but we normally average about 50 miles a day on the ICW in the fall so to us the 60+ mile days were huge.

On reaching the Ft. Pierce and then the St. Lucie inlets on the third day we saw something we've never seen before. We saw the line between the muddy river water and the clear Atlantic waters meet. It was clear as day. As if someone had colored the waters brown on one side of the line and a very pale green on the other side. The pictures really don't do it justice as we could look in front of us and behind and as far as we could see was this division of the waters forced by the changing tide.

The Admiral