Last Move

March 30, 2021

We left Cocoa Village Marina for a 10 mile run North. We moved North on the Indian River up to the 528 highway bridge. We spotted several cruisers heading North. Also saw a lot more abandoned boats. The Indian river is part of the ICW. We came down this way when we were moving South.

This time, it was a thrilling ride. We spotted dolphins everywhere. Joe was steering the boat from the upper helm and Coconut and I were upfront on the bow sitting on the bench. Joe saw many from his upstairs view. At one point, there was a dolphin on each side of the boat riding our bow wake. We have never experienced this before and I was just awestruck. We have had them swim alongside us several times, but this was just so special. I couldn’t take a picture of both of them but did get the one on the starboard side. Apparently they do this just for fun. They twist, surf and even tail walk in the wake made by boats. These two were 3’ from me and I was over the moon excited!

Ok, no comments about the condition of our teak rail (you know who you are 😉)… We are letting the cap rail go natural. We just don’t want to spend the time it would take to redo and maintain it. The rest of the wood on the boat is being restored.

After this exciting dolphin adventure, we headed east on the Canaveral Barge Canal. The barge canal was dredged from the Indian River to Port Canaveral. This canal was dredged for large, shallow draft, ocean going vessels to move from the ICW to the ocean.

We immediately noticed, after turning into the barge canal, that it was very shallow. We spotted people standing 500 feet off the channel in the knee-deep water. We saw many boats anchored along the shores of the barge canal. Many of them looked as though they had been anchored for a long time. Along here too were many more abandoned boats. We moved along through a scrub brush jungle, passing marinas, boat factories and several boat yards where we had attempted to store Pursuit but they had no openings. We have heard a lot of Canadian boats are stored in the US. Their owners went back to Canada when Covid hit and have been unable to come back here to retrieve them.

A fire damaged mega yacht in the Barge Canal

The barge canal also crosses the Banana River. Across it we could see the Canaveral lock and the buildings for the port’s cruise ship industry, which at this time are inactive also due to Covid. The Canaveral lock system was created to separate the river system from the ocean. The lock keeps the ocean tides, which are 5 to 6 feet or more at this point, from flowing into the rivers.

Shallow water. If you look closely, you can see a pontoon on the island and people in the water. Sorry for bad quality of pic!

We proceeded to the lock, hailing the attendant who indicated he was on the far side of the lock and we were to wait until the red indicator light turned green. We waited at least 20 minutes with another small fishing boat before the indicator light turned to green. The lock attendant apologized for the delay but there was some maintenance being done on the lock. We pulled into the lock, held lines on cleats on the side wall of the lock and waited as we rode up about 5 feet. We then flipped the lines off the cleats and proceeded toward Cape Marina, our final destination on this cruise.

We were happy to be placed at the end of a floating dock at the T head in Cape Marina. We were also close to the well where the Travel Lift was located to pull us out in the a.m.

After several hours of work moving stuff off of Pursuit, we noticed the tide dropping a lot. We had previously noticed the narrow ladders running up and down the pelican poles at the end of the finger piers. Finger piers are the small docks running off the sides of the main dock. Boats are docked on these side docks. Normally, there are two boats parked in between each finger pier with a pelican pole in the middle to tie your boat off on one side. So, if your boat was on one of these finger piers and the tide was at its lowest, you had to crawl up this skinny little ladder to get up to the dock. Didn’t look like fun to us, especially when toting gear. How would our cute little dog manage this situation? She hates when we carry her like a football. Again, we were glad to be on the dock that floats with the tides.

So as I said before, the cruise ships come in to this port. They normally are across the waterway from Cape Marina but none were to be seen. We did spot a few of them being stored and maintained, at anchor, out in the ocean by Cocoa Beach. It’s odd to see them just sitting there but anchoring is free, right? No dockage fees while there is no income!

Cape Marina is quite large with many boats in the water, a huge storage shed with racked boats and a rental fleet for the Freedom Boat Club.There was a bar, swimming pool and a huge ships store with the largest jewelry counter I have seen in a marina ……

humor in the tiki bar

About mid afternoon, the wind picked up once again. We were glad that we moved the boat early in the morning and didn’t have to deal with the choppy water on the rivers.

Thursday morning, right on schedule, we moved into the well and Pursuit was hauled out of the water. We were pleased to see there was no aquatic growth below the waterline. We had anticipated needing an entire bottom paint job done next spring but now are thinking she may only need some touch up. Now to try to find that brand of bottom paint… oh, and where was that jewelry counter??

The yard guys did a wonderful job power washing the boat and then we were moved into the “inactive” boat-storage lot. This area is fenced and secure. Now is when the real fun began. We needed to put a full cover on the boat, which is set up on jack-stands, in extremely strong winds. This ended up being a time-consuming, frustrating task. The cover is a lighter weight fabric made for warm weather. It kept filling with air. Yikes, a kite!!

About 4 o’clock we decided that we were not going to be able to get the job done and we booked a room for the night. Did I also mention how hot it was? We know y’all think cruisin’ is sunsets and cocktails but there is some hard work involved as well.

A couple new added aspects with storage this time. We needed to add a solar fan to run inside the boat. A bit of airflow will stop mold and mildew. The pieces for this apparatus came to us via Amazon, but it needed imagineering (thanks for your help Jeff R.). You can see the solar panel sitting on the radar dome with a couple of swim noodles for cushion. There is no electricity in this part of the storage yard. Last year we ran a small dehumidifier. Also, was the fact that the boat needed to be strapped down to the ground. This is added security in case of high winds, storms or……… 😙 to stop the boat from flopping over. The inlet out to the ocean is very close to where our boat is being stored. Yes, we tried to store in other places but were not able to get in!! However we found the full operation here to be very professional. They will be checking on our boat and heck it’s insured.

OK, the one downfall with not leaving on the 31st is the fact that it’s April 1. April Fools we are…. everyone is trying to go home. Their reservations are up and they are heading north. The freeway was a nightmare. Lots of RVs. 😬 😉 At this point, we decided to head west and take back roads, we are not on a schedule…… So far, it’s been very nice divided Highway. We enjoyed beautiful horse farms, wildflowers, small towns and a road named Smutty But [Must be a good story there]. We had a fabulous chicken lunch at a local spot, “Lee’s Famous for Chicken”. Oh my, it was delicious. The serving was for one person. We shared and still asked for a doggie bag—we have a doggie 😆. It was so good that we noted where it was in case we come back this way next year.

The road we chose was very close to the Gulf of Mexico so we decided to drive over to Steinhatchee. This town would be the last stop on the water if you were heading north to cross the Gulf over to Carrabelle. No ICW here. This is part of the Loop. No thank you, I don’t think so….. My feeling about this crossing was reinforced by a story I heard in New Smyrna Beach of a boat having engine problems and white knuckling it all the way across. The couple didn’t talk to each other for a week! We spent a bit of time viewing the Gulf, stopping at a few beaches and looking at homes built on very tall stilts… like up 3 stories. It was a nice adventure but I do already miss the crashing waves of the Atlantic.