Wednesday, Dec 8th:
I'm not sure why “grounded” is usually thought of as a positive description of someone. Well...in that light, I guess we had a positive day - averting other boats from disaster at various shoaling areas. Considering today’s circumstances, the many hurricane-wrecked boats visible along our route was not very comforting. When the second grounding of the day occurred, it was getting closer to dusk and at high tide - which put an intimidating “slant” on things with the anticipated lowering of the surrounding waters in relation to our elevated situation. We contacted the towboat service and as Murphy would have it, the boat was set free just after our arrangements were concluded. We contacted the service again to say “never mind” - and just as Murpy would have it again, we grounded again, once that communication was concluded. Free at last, again, we decided it might be a good time to anchor. Actually, the anchorage was pretty neat - we were the only boat anchored in this manatee-frequented basin. We awoke to a pastoral setting, with a nearby wading great blue heron, circling dolphin fins, as well as breathing sounds and a surfacing snout of what I believe was an elusive manatee.
Today’s town of Titusville was pretty much a disappointment, comprised of fast food restaurants, chain stores, etc. before reaching the somehow depressing historic area. We do have that family rule of no McD’s unless (yet still not required) traveling over 2 hours - but it was hard to determine how Burger King fell into this qualification, as well as 800 plus ICW miles - with 2 hours equating to 10 miles - well, I didn’t hate that vanilla shake - it's probably been about 20 years since the last one (rationale) - and the grease may come in handy if we have any engine trouble - it’s funny how that BK smell still vividly brings me back to my teenage burger prep days at that estalishment. Enough reminiscing...
So we ignored the “don't judge a book by its cover” and “what's in a name” warnings - choosing Cocoa as our next destination. Windy, rainy weather is forecast so we looked for a town, other than this one, that we could reach before the bad weather appeared, and had an Italian pastry shop recommendation in Skipper Bob’s ICW guidebook.
In solidifying our Bahamas route, people keep advising us to take the more southerly one - since the northern islands are only as warm as southern Florida - isn’t that warm? I don’t quite understand why everyone seems to recommend hot temperatures - it’s like suggesting we choose the islands with excessive mosquito populations.
the manatee hangs out by the pelican sign
great blue heron
“It feels good to clean”
Wednesday, Dec 8th:
I kid you not, but these are some recent quotes from Jonas, The Cleaning Machine, voluntarily embarking upon cleaning the boat before breakfast, he whose first words are usually “what’s for breakfast?” and who generally freaks if he’s within 10 feet of a wet sponge.
“My whole life is about cleaning.”
“It feels good to clean.”
“I clean in any kind of weather – even hurricanes and earthquakes.”
(When our departure was delayed due to weather) “It gives me more time to clean.”
“Any other jobs you want me to do?”
I’ve documented these words on Word since I didn’t have time to wait for the e-mail to come up and risk waking up from this dream. I know I’m sometimes confused about the day of the week, but I don’t think it’s April Fools.
Friday, Dec 10th:
I recently had this very vivid kind of grotesque dream that when I looked at my face in a mirror I saw a hole, then realized that deep in the hole was my eye
Well.. Elias was running and tripped upwards on steps - he's okay - but initially there was lots of blood and a deep gash (hole) in his forehead - he ended up having stitches in the emergency room. On a positive note about “coincidences” and human nature - when this happened, we were talking to some fellow ICW travelers - who happened to be trained as EMT’s - who offered assistance and comfort - then, to top it off further, a woman who was watching the park concert with us when this occurred offered to take us to the hospital, where she worked as a nurse - actually her husband drove us (he too had worked for years as an EMT and was paralyzed from the armpits down) - the woman then introduced us to her fellow staff (who eagerly took care of us with help, as well as popsicles and stuffed bears), and had another nurse call her when we were all set, so she could transport us back to the dinghy dock - thus closes this day.
Cocoa in Cocoa
Cocoa Waterfront Park
Let's do launch (Kennedy Space Center)
Sunday, December 12th:
Yes, we did make it to the Kennedy Space Center. Question: What are the odds that the rocket launch had been rescheduled to the time period when we were in the area, and the neighboring boat had rented a car to the Space Center, and although we had planned to resume our ICW travels today the small-craft advisory delayed our departure?
Answer: Not great.
All the ducks were in a row, except that they again resheduled today's 2:30 pm launch to another day, not yet determined. We were not used to spending time with fellow humans - we quickly trimmed Elias’ 3 inch nails. It was pretty fascinating (especially to Jonas - motivated to build Lego launch pads upon our return) - I didn’t realize all the mishaps prior to and during the Neil Armstrong et al mission. I almost captured the requested alligator photo on the Space Center grounds - at least I snapped those booster rocket photos in the swamp. We returned to Cocoa just in time for an outdoor Christmas concert - complete with orchestra, choir, dancers, and puppets.
Hold that rocket - I’ve got the Tang
Cocoa Holiday concert overlooking Missa Gaia