4/10/2018

We left Melbourne & arrived Cocoa Village Marina on 3/31.

Left the dock at Melbourne at 10:10.  By 10:15 we were hard aground in the channel.  BTW,  "Mr Personality" (the dock hand) knew nothing about problems with the channel.  We could not move.  Whenever the captain put Craic in gear she would stall.  Called Tow Boat.  Norman came to our rescue.  He pulled us off stern first.  It was not an easy task.  He told us it was hard packed sand & his outboard would dig a trough to get us through.  The whole thing, from grounding to moving on, took about an hour.

A few other issues cropped up.  Tim finally figured out why we had water in the bilge:  generator hose with a crack in it & a float switch that was not working.  Tim sealed  the hose until it can be replaced &  replaced the float switch.  He has also been working on the shower.

Cocoa Village Marina was by far one of my favorites.  Staff was friendly & helpful as were our dock neighbors.  There was a great place to walk Riley.  Residential on one side of the street & the Indian River on the other.  The houses ranged from fabulous to scary.  One especially stood out.  It appeared to be uninhabited.  The yard was over grown.  Some windows boarded up, but the wind chime on the porch could always be heard.😱

The hardware store was amazing.   S.F. Travis & Company, circa 1885.  It was huge.  One could get lost in it, but all you had to do was ask & an employee would take you right to whatever you wanted.  For people from home, Tim described it as Buck Hardware in Avon, on steroids.  I would say mega steroids.  I asked if at one time they had to do an actual physical inventory & the answer was yes.  That had to be a Herculean task.

It seems the loopers are backing up again, due to weather.  So there was an evening of docktails & dinner & discussions of where to go next & for how long.

There was a space  launch on 4/2 which we watched from the dock.  Unfortunately, it was cloudy, so the view was not as good as it could have been, but still awesome to see.  The pictures are courtesy of  Jonell from Getting Looped.

Speaking of space.....I got to see & have dinner with some of my  former co-workers from Kennedy.  I looked forward to & enjoyed that.

Fellow loopers Mike & Jonell asked if we wanted to join them for an air boat ride.  We did.  It was on the St John's River Marshes.  We have never been on an air boat.  Way cool!  They can run in only inches of water, are fast,  can turn on a dime, & are very loud.  We all wore headsets with microphones attached.   The only way to hear/talk while underway.  The captain did complement me on my large brimmed hat with chin strap, but said it was not going to work.  He was right.  Headset would not go over or under the hat.  Darn, I thought that hat was good thinking on my part!  At one point we stopped & took off the headsets  so the captain could talk.  When he started up again, I was slow putting them back on.  The noise was deafening.  The marsh was surrounded by grazing land.  Cows were every where.  We were told the gators did not really bother them & they seemed to be very relaxed! The only sad site was a downed cow at the edge of the water with Vultures feasting on it.  The captain surmised she had a breach birth & that is what put her down.  An Indian mound & its use was pointed out to us.  When the area flooded, the Indians would use these as way points & to be able to stop on land.  Our captain also told us, when in Florida waters, assume there are gators.  Tim had just seen one that morning while walking on our dock.  In addition to things in the wild, there was a small menagerie of other animals kept on the grounds.

All good things must come to an end.  It was time to move on.  Our dock partner, Jack, played the violin on the dock as we left.  We were headed to Titusville for an overnight on our way to New Smyrna.

We arrived New Smyrna 4/8.  It was about 4.5 hour slow run on the ICW.  It was cold, cloudy & windy.  The channel was narrow & the captain was wary of shoaling.  Lots of getting waked.  We made it without incident.

Sue (a co-worker of Tim's at United) & Vic were in town & came to visit.  After catching up with a few cocktails on the boat, we all went to dinner.  A good time was had by all.

Our dock at New Smyrna Beach City Marina is nice.  We are out on the end.  The view from our boat allows us to watch the dolphins.  Riley is getting more bold & now stands guard.  We also saw a very large turtle surface a couple of times.

We walked to the beach.  Once again over bridges.  It was the 1st time we had seen a beach that allowed cars.  The hard packed sand & traffic signs!!

THE WALK TO NEXT BUILDING OF HARDWARE STORE

TIM WITH RESIDENT PIG AT MIDWAY AIR BOAT RIDE

EAGLE SPOTTED ON AIR BOAT RIDE

GATOR SEEN ON AIR BOAT RIDE

AIR BOAT

NEW SMYRNA BEACH

NEW SMYRNA BEACH

TRAFFIC SIGNS NEW SMYRNA BEACH

DEMOLISHED DOCK ALONG ICW

DEMOLISHED DOCS ON ICW

BRIDGE SENTINELS

HARDWARE STORE

HARDWARE STORE

HARDWARE STORE
MAYTAG DEALER?

KENNEDY FRIENDS
STEVE, SUSAN & NANCY

MY NEW FRIEND
CAN I KEEP HIM?

TIM'S NEW FRIEND

SNAKE AT MIDWAY

SNAKE AT MIDWAY

TIM ALWAYS MAKING FRIENDS

TREES ON THE WALK AT COCOA

LAUNCH

LAUNCH

LAUNCH

Something I forgot to mention in a previous post.

We visited the Navy SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce.  If you are ever in Fort Pierce it is not to be missed.   I knew these guys were tough & the best of the best, but I had no idea just how tough.    I left there with a whole new level of respect & awe.  One more thing I learned at the museum.  I am a proponent  of the 5 P's.  Prior planning prevents poor performance.  The SEALS subscribe to 7 P's, proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance.  It remains to be seen if Tim will finally listen & join the club!?!?