Pursuit

We have been here before, on Bayliner Bob in 2017. This time, we got a much better slip. We had a great view until a 56 Neptunus tied up on the end of the dock. Its like a giant billboard blocking our view… albeit a gorgeous one. On our last visit, we were by the Marina Park and kind of felt like zoo animals with the tourists looking through the locked gate at us. Ha, like we’re not tourists too. This time, we are on the other side of the marina close to “Crabby’s” an on the water bar and restaurant.

The Tiki Bar, now Crabbys, has had a metamorphosis. A whole new name and building.

The Tiki bar closed in August of 2018 after 29 years of business. The new building does somewhat retain the feel of the old place….well except for the thatched roof and color….

Beachside Hospitality Group, of St. Petersburg are the new owners. They own several restaurants and indicated at the time “the building will retain much of the casual open feel that the Tiki currently has in a brand new building that is designed to withstand the heavy traffic, harsh weather and complement the various festivals and events that are held in the marina.”  It all was a bit political with the old place losing its lease in a vote by the Commission; however, we don’t like to get political here so we will say they did a great job with the design of the new place. It took us a bit to realize it had changed. As of today, we have not been there. The locals don’t like it. We again have extremely high wind and eating outdoors is not that pleasant on a blustery patio. Ok, we could go indoors….

Crabby’s at night reminds Joe of Qwik Trip. Not to be confused with Quik Trips which reach much further south. Qwik Trip started in Eau Claire Wisconsin and can be found throughout Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa. For those of you lucky enough to have one in your neighborhood, you know about the treachery of walking in the front door and being bombarded by tables full of bakery goods.

Ok, it is a gas station but they have so much more: the bakery goods, dairy products, coffees, some produce and the best roasted chicken for a $ 5.99. I know we frequent our local Qwik Trip at least twice a week.

The trawler in the above picture was not so lucky with their slip. Soon after we got settled, the owner came over to ask when we had booked. He was not happy to find we had only booked a few days ago as he had booked months previous and was staying for a month. He is not only right underneath the second story deck, and has to deal with the bright red lights that stay on all night but there is live [loud] music Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Wow, the luck of the draw I guess.

Our original plan was to stay in the marina five nights but with the never ending high wind forecast, including the weekend forecast that looks darn right treacherous, we are extending our stay through next weekend. We do have our car here, as our friend John was nice enough to run Joe up to Vero Beach to retrieve it Saturday. Jean and I walked the huge Farmer’s Market that is here in Marina Square every Friday. We made a few purchases.

We love when it works out to meet up with friends and family during our boat travels. This time, John and Jean (friends we originally met in Bayfield) drove cross State from Bradenton to spend two nights near us. They selected the Summer Crush Winery, utilizing their Harvest Hosts membership to camp for 2 nights. Self-contained RV’ers can stay at one of almost 3200 wineries, breweries or farms. There is no charge for your one night stay but you should purchase something at each stay. There is a small yearly fee to join this organization. Shameless plug: our friends Cheryl and Keith in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin at Deer Lake winery are members of Harvest Hosts!

OK, back to Jean and John. We met up on Friday afternoon for a tour of the boat and a bit of hanging in the marina. There was a great show of beautiful boats here at the time for them to ogle. Next, we went to the Sail Fish Brewery and sampled several of their beers. We had the most delightful young server. She is a real go-getter and I would not be surprised if she ends up being a brewmaster herself. Good time, lots of belly laughs.

It just so happened that there was a live music playing at the Summer Crush winery during their stay—a Crosby Stills and Nash tribute band. Jean booked tickets for us all and reserved a table. It was a perfect day to be outside even with that ever present wind. The music was good; a real trip down memory lane for us all. They draw a big crowd at this place. We had been there in 2017 with our friends Connie and Greg. It has grown. The camping area was expanded.

They did seem to have a lot of rules. Every few feet therre was a sign yelling that you might do something wrong. Sign, sign, everywhere a sign…

We got a tour of John and Jean’s new RV. It’s marvelous. Laid out very nicely. RVing is similar to boat living but I don’t think they move as much in the wind. They headed back across the State this morning, settling into a waterfront campground. Good times; great friends.

Summer Crush phot op:

We’ve been enjoying our time in Fort Pierce. As usual walking about and of course boat projects. Joe did another trip to the boat parts warehouse and I walked through the shops. Whew, minimal dollars spent. Also discovered a fabulous bakery (danger) and many brew pubs (more danger).

The Marina Square on the waterfront is a big draw for the town and residents. Aside from the famers market on Saturdays, the square hosts a Friday Festival on the first Friday of each month featuring food and artists booths and live music. Yay! more live music competing with the 2 bars at the marina.

People of all walks use the park at all hours as well. From the young lovers gazing out over the water after dark and escaping the heat of the local neighborhoods to those who chose to pull up a park bench and stay all night, you see all kinds. Some talking to others about all sorts of topics, whether anything is known about the topic or not, some talking to themselves and some just talking to talk and be heard throughout the entire park, there is room for everyone. It is very curious though to see a person dressed up in a benign bear outfit sitting next to a fountain or a guy in shorts with no shoes or shirt at 7 AM. However, when a young gentleman arises from a bench early in the morning and exits the park wearing a backpack and walking backwards out to the street, you HAVE to take notice. Different drummer?? No, different Wavelength!!

Here is a picture of the Square, you imagine what we’ve seen there…

We drove the car south to tour the town of Jensen Beach. Sweet little town. There’s a real Bohemian section of housing but also a nice little downtown area on the river. We had anchored here two different nights but due to weather didn’t get to explore. We had a great patio lunch in between rain showers. The oceanside appears to be a lot of condos but also many beach access parks and green spaces. The rain showers didn’t allow us to get out to the beach and you couldn’t see it through the mangroves. Not as jammed in as many other places. A great day trip.

A few good boat names: Knot Tied, Rough Housing (sailboat) Wy Knot (from Jackson Hole) and Norse Code.

Joe and Mona are lost. I know we have gone past Jensen Beach at least 4 times in the last few weeks. I’m not sure what to do. They said they didn’t like anchoring at Jensen Beach. Apparently too noisy for their old ears. Truth be told, I’m old too and I got a lot bigger ears to hear stuff like loud cars and music. Now we are back on the other side of the bridge swinging on an anchor. Just let it go and take a nap!

I don’t understand why we didn’t just stay at the Marriott. Let me rephrase…why did we have to stay on this boat when we were at a Marriott! We went to the hotel’s tiki bar and had a nice meal by the pool but never went inside to jump on the beds! I did see a very odd cat specimen at the pool. It looked like a mini leopard and was on a leash with a young lady. He never got close enough to me to tell him how dumb he looked. Besides, cats don’t even like pools.

Now that I think about it, I do remember mom complaining that there was an extra hundred dollar fee for me to stay at a Marriott. Wonder why that would matter?

I did really enjoy my days at that beach. My old friends Jeff and Cindy were there. I love Cindy, she had pumpkin treats in her pocket. Talk about being prepared. They went back to New Smyrna. I like the dog beach there too.

Mom keeps saying I need a bath. I like being a Salty Dog. I got rinsed in the cockpit everytime I got hit by a wave on the beach. Doesn’t that count as a bath? I had to suffer through getting a haircut in the cockpit too. Oh and nail clippings twice. Why can’t they just take me to Jacinda and my spa at home?

I do enjoy rides to shore in the dinghy. I think that little boat’s name is “sandbox”…. I wonder why.

Who knows what will happen next…maybe they are trying to figure out where their car is located.

I love digging in crab holes on the beach. Those little guys are quite fast and go backwards into their holes when I go after them. So, what else can I do? I start digging. I can hear them digging deeper to escape and I keep digging after them. I caught one once, actually, it caught me, by the lip. Surprise!! That hurt! I shook him off and he scurried away. I didn’t go after him. Lesson learned.

Well, I guess we are headed to Fort Pierce next. New adventure, new sniffing places coming soon.

It doesn’t sound like much and it doesn’t look like much. A wide spot in the ICW south of the St. Lucie Inlet and north of Hobe Sound. A lake between mainland Florida and Jupiter Island. It’s a shallow lake with a history of catching keels and chewing propellers.

But, it is an anchorage that we have been looking at as an alternative to going back into Manatee Pocket or Stuart with it’s expensive dockage. We also saw that there was access to the ocean beach. Who can pass up a beach day when offered?

As it turned out, our friends Jeff and Cindy were going there from Vero. Let’s tag along! The route took us along familiar territory (from 2 days ago) and passed through Fort Pierce, Jensen Beach and across the St. Lucie Inlet. Yay! Mona’s favorite shallow and ever changing waterway. This part of the route changes so often due to river and tidal flows that the navigational aids (markers) are not on posts but are buoys that can be moved quickly as the channel moves. This year it is a very simple channel consisting of 4 buoys, 2 red and 2 green. You just go between. When we were here in 2017, there were 2 channels marked, both very shallow and it was “choose one at your own risk”.

As we approached the crossroads, it was a madhouse! There was two way traffic going 3 different directions the boats were all different sizes and all going at different speeds. Yikes! We were actually fairly calm about the situation but from about a half mile away, I saw a large Viking sport fishing boat, it looked like a 62 footer, coming in from the inlet from our left at high speed. All indications were that we would meet at the inlet. With Salty Dog in front and Pursuit following, we knew that by the rules of the road, we were the “stand on” vessels and he was the “give way” vessel. Ok, we are right and he is bigger, faster and will have more “attitude” than either of us. So, all the “rules of the road” may just go out the window once we converge. At the appropriate time, Mona says “What are we going to do with THAT!?” I said “…”. Thankfully, just at that moment, he turned north and we continued south and we had a nice orderly port to port pass. Never let them see you sweat….

Monday February 28

Our ramblings are a bit out of order but we don’t want you to miss any of the action and drama. Today is our last day here and we are enjoying the last few hours before we pull anchor. A Bayfield friend with a condo in Stuart told us he knows exactly where we are and that they have also had wonderful times here.

There are only about 10 boats in this anchorage this morning. It was pretty packed yesterday, Sunday, but mostly with day trippers. On our morning walk today, we were the only people, and dog, on the beach. We even let the terrible terrier off leash. She was a good girl and didn’t disappear over the dunes. What we did see coming was an ATV Utility vehicle. The rules are no dogs and no nudity… we saw both yesterday 😏 There were three guys in the vehicle and they waved and passed us by. Not really sure what they were doing but no comment on the dog was great. They stopped probably a half a mile up towards the inlet by the dunes and vegetation. We have heard that they’re very protective of turtles here and maybe there is nesting happening. It is after all, a National Wildlife Refuge connected to a State Park.

A wonderful stay and memory.

We pulled anchor and started heading north. Its a narrow channel and things tend to get crazy. Parts of the channel are “No Wake” but as stated before some people just don’t think the rules apply to them. One encounter with a very large, careless captain is best not to relive.

Our destination wasn’t far—back to Jensen Beach. We booked a slip at the Marriott Hotel, Marina and golf course for two nights with the understanding that we needed to leave by 8:00 a.m. Wednesday morning. Forty trawlers are arriving for Trawler Fest an annual event with seminars, boat exhibits and land exhibitors in tents. Even the famous Nigel Calder is doing a seminar on diesel engine maintenance. All you old sailors know of him and probably own his book.

We had a nice dinner at the Tiki Bar and then back to the boat. Early morning laundry to do and walk to the Publix about a mile away. Running a bit low on kibbles—Coconut was concerned. As luck would have it, a nail salon next door that had an immediate opening for a pedicure. Second one for this trip. I guess we’ve been gone awhile.

The boats on the right side of the Trawlerfest photo are the trawlers brought in for the festival. This is where we are docked now. The boats on the left side are mostly beautiful sports fishing boats.

So up early tomorrow and one night on the hook before we head to Fort Pierce City Marina. We cannot believe it is now March…..

Our trip back up to Vero was pretty uneventful except for a sailing regatta going on in Jensen Beach. Small boats and rescue boats were everywhere and spilling into the ICW. Kind of hard to avoid these fast moving boats when you only are going 8 knots! They were cool to watch and were even using spinnakers.

We were really trying to get back to Vero before 5 o’clock when the marina closed. It’s always nice to have a hand on the dock but Jeff and Cindy assured us they would be there… And they were!

Now the work began of looking at our system and seeing what was up with it. Oh, as luck would have it, Jeff on Salty Dog is a retired electrical engineer and a long time cruiser who has experienced or heard of just about every thing that could happen on a boat.

We did not know that deep cycle golf cart batteries were becoming difficult to find. We located them in Vero Beach but they wouldn’t be in the store until Thursday. An online search and call told us that 6 were available at Batteries Plus in Palm Bay /Melbourne and they would hold them for us! Only 35 miles by car. Wonderful.

Now to get ready for them. Jeff helped to troubleshoot the system and to understand what battery bank was feeding what circuits. Our investigation revealed that the starting battery for the big diesel engine was also toast. A check of the boat’s maintenance logs showed that the 6 golf cart batteries were installed in 2014 and the starting battery in 2016. That explains it. These batteries were WAY past their prime. They had to come out. At 64 pounds apiece, the old guys had their work cut out for them.

After disconnecting the rats nest, we lifted the batteries out, onto the dock (low tide of course) and carted them to the Tahoe. Hard to believe we found room in that truck with the boat cover and tubs of stuff but we did.

The next morning, it was an early start to get to Palm Bay by 8:00 AM when the store opened. Then back to the marina to get the batteries into the boat, hooked up and get the boat out of the slip that was already rented to another boat. We made it. After fueling up, pumping out and filling the water, we were out on a mooring ball to spend the night.

Maybe not the most interesting story but this is life living on a boat.

After a very busy morning, we all needed some lunch. And what better place to spent an afternoon but a waterside bar and grill. We chose the Riverside Grill adjacent to the mooring field. Jeff and Cindy offered to drive so they picked us up with their dinghy and off we went. It was crowded. No open tables but spots at the bar. Boys on one side girls on the other…. Of course the girls sent their tab over to us! Cindy and Mona both raved about their house special fish tacos.

After lunch, we took the dinghy out to explore the neighborhood including the rest of the mooring field and adjacent creeks and islands. We saw a lot of interesting boats and a few remote anchorages where people had found places to park, anchor, tie up and generally stash boats for free. I’d like to think that these boats will be used again but in the case of at least one 37 foot sailboat, we know the owner has died and the family is not interested in the boat. Rumor has it that someone may end up with a free sailboat just for the effort of applying for a new title.

After our tour, we sat a bit and planned our departure the next morning for Peck Lake. This is actually a wide spot on the ICW at the northern end of Hobe Sound, north of the Jupiter Inlet. The anchorage features water deep enough to anchor in, shelter from most wind and a beach to dinghy to with a trail to the ocean beach. A short trial. We anchored close to shore and could hear the surf crashing on the beach about 100 yards away. This is the cruising life we wanted to experience. We were extremely lucky to have 5 days of mild east winds and sunny 80 degree days.

Jeff and Cindy have been here several times before and safety piloted us to our anchor location. Because we have a shallow draft, we were able to anchor quite close to shore. Their 47 foot sailboat draws 5.5’ so they were a bit behind us. There are a lot of shallow spots here and we see several boats run aground everyday. Aqua Map does not have this area plotted in any detail. However, we have seen a few people zigzagging the bay with their dinghy and we can only guess they have some type of sonar capabilities.

This glorious anchorage more than made up for our battery snafu. We walked miles up and down the beach, kayaked and had happy hour on the boats. We even snagged a couple fresh Coconuts and Jeff and Joe got to use a machete.

The walks on the beach are almost indescribable. The beautiful Caribbean blue ocean and lack of people on the beach made it outstanding. Many treasures in the surf, Shells, sea glass, sea beans and the aforementioned coconuts. Jeff even told us we were “real cruisers” now because we don’t have any tan lines on our feet. I haven’t worn shoes for four days. Coconut is truly a salty dog. She is such a trooper, walking with us the whole time, digging holes for treasure and playing in the surf. That is one happy girl…

It is now Sunday, day 5. Jeff and Cindy left early this morning to head back to Salty Dog’s home port, New Symrna Beach. They are reprovisioning and then taking another cruise a bit north for a while. It was sad to get up this morning and not see their boat behind us. We are so thankful for their friendship, guidance and help with the battery issue. It sure made it easier for us in Vero with them there. Did we mention that Cindy even threw a Birthday party for Mona. Cindy had seen in the blog where Mona did not get a birthday celebration yet. That party included a wonderful Kahlúa cake and we were sent back to Pursuit with some cake as well! Thank you crew of Salty Dog.

Some trails are happy ones, others are blue. It’s the way you ride the trail that counts; here’s a happy one for you. Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Dale Evans

2/18/2022

We had a very nice cruise South to Jensen Beach.  We bypassed Fort Pierce for now as we will be going back there the first part of March. Our friends Jean and John will be staying at Summer Crush Winery using the Camp Host program. They were lucky to get two nights and be there for a Crosby Stills & Nash tribute band. We will be staying five nights in the Fort Pierce marina and join them for the concert. Rock on!

During our ride South, we noticed quite a few trawlers and sailboats heading north!  Seems a bit early with the way the weather is going.  Still very cold in our hometown.

Coconut and I sat in the sun in the cockpit for about half the ride.  It was marvelous.  Captain Joe drove the boat from the flybridge.  It’s great visually up there but we do not have a depth gauge or much instrumentation on the flybridge–yet.  However, as long as you stay in the ICW channel you should not have a problem.

There was a “securite” call by the coast guard during this run south. This is a marine radio call usually issuing navigational or other warnings that may concern the safety of boaters.  This one was for a large tug coming out of Fort Pierce moving a huge raft of dredging pipe that was announced to be 700 feet long. You bet we will pay attention when we see that! We have come across such barges on narrow parts of the ICW.  Once it was trying to navigate a very sharp turn in the waterway. At any rate, this tug was standing still and we passed by with no problem.

While passing this apparatus, we did note a huge Perini Navi sailing yacht with no mast along the shoreline.  Possibly 160 feet long! Curious, but possibly going to be refurbished at a new boatyard in Fort Pierce.

Notice the color of the water in the above picture. This was in the river but very close to the inlet. The further south you get, you see these colors in the ocean as well.

We decided to anchor on the North side of the Jensen Beach bridge, close to Conchy Joe’s restaurant.  It looked good, enough depth, only one other boat and a large park to walk The Nut.  Unfortunately, the ‘good’ ended pretty much right after settling in.  A gentleman with a work-type van took it upon himself to provide music for the park and the entire bay.  He was set up with full concert equipment and was sitting under the bridge for that full acoustic sound.  It was loud enough out where we were to be extremely bothersome.  Old AC/DC rock type music–what else!  

Well ok, we are content enough to watch the mullet fish jumping.  It’s like skipping rocks, you count the splashes.  I saw a 6 splashes by one fish!  There were also boaters out and about.  A little bit of boat launch follies with a huge boat and small truck.  But then about dusk, the big horse power guys wanted to show off their muscle….cars.  

We’ve been anchored and in marinas close to bridges and they are always noisy spots. Loud cars and motor cycles love to punch it when crossing the bridge.  Cocoa Village was a prime example but it would quiet down as the night fell.  Not in Jensen Beach.  A long, straight stretch of road ran parallel to the bridge — a perfect strip.  These cars, and a few pick up trucks would rev the engine and go screaming down this track.  Ahh, but that wasn’t enough.  They would exit the park and race across the bridge as well.  Oh and the music was still playing. This was all more than annoying. We determined it wouldn’t be safe in this unfamiliar place to move the boat in the dark but we wish we could have.  I guess we are the old people now!  It may have quit around 2:00.  No Police force in Jensen Beach. Not a good night.

We were just glad we weren’t paying for the pleasure of this show.  On the South side of the bridge, you could pay for a mooring ball.  We believe it was just as obnoxious there.

Ok, one bad night…. shake it off.  So we got up early to move the boat.  Guess what?  It’s 7:00 a.m. and another person is playing music for us all.  A little soft rock for the morning.  

We decided to move about hour south, still Jensen Beach, and anchor by the Marriott hotel and its Marina.  One, there is a Tiki Bar and two, its near a former House of Refuge.  The Houses of Refuge were designated as havens for shipwrecked sailors and travelers along the sparsely populated Atlantic coastline of Florida.  There is a museum there as well, but it isn’t open at this time.  Our luck with museums hasn’t been good since we started cruising.

Our second anchorage seemed better.  It was in a residential area with lots of condos. We dropped anchor and took Coconut to the park.  This park had a better vibe.  Families playing on shore, people sitting in the sun and a whole bunch of wind surfers.  Hmmm, What does it take to Windsurf?  Wind!!  You got it, the wind picked up while we were out walking.  The dinghy we have on Pursuit is a Zodiac inflatable but it does not have a hard bottom.  The ones with fiberglass or aluminum bottoms are called RIBs, Rigid Inflatable Boat. As you can imagine, they go through the water much better.  We had this type of boat on our sailboat.  

Ok, going anywhere was going to be very uncomfortable.  Oh, did I mention it was my birthday?  I decided birthday celebration to be continued …  hanging in the sun on a boat is not a bad thing.  We had windsurfers to watch, boats cruising by on the ICW and reading material.  Oh and a lovely bottle of Tempranillo from Deer Lake Winery — thanks Cheryl!!!

Going out to the House of Refuge was not going to happen.  It was probably a mile away in the dinghy.  We could not move the big boat any closer due to shallow water.

We made a nice dinner (chicken parmesan) and were settling in for the night when we noticed the boat starting to turn sideways to the wind on anchor.  This is not good.  The bow (pointy end) normally rides into the waves.  Our waves were starting to slap the sides of the boat and slam underneath her big fat, flat bottom.  Being the geniuses that we are, we figured out this was occurring because of tide.  There is an ocean inlet just south: the St. Lucie inlet.  Being so close to the inlet makes the tides more intense the closer you are located.  The tidal change was causing a current stronger than the wind.  Now it was dusk and too late to try to move.  Uncomfortable night number two!

In the morning, we decided to move the boat to Manatee Pocket and Port Salerno.  A sheltered backwater once full of fishing fleets that specialized in catching and processing sharks caught off the St. Lucie Inlet, as many as 25,000 were taken per year. The local professional skiff fisherman can still be seen wearing the calf high white rubber boots, affectionately know as ”Salerno Slippers”. Now the Pocket is full of beautiful homes, huge boats, waterside restaurants and lots of walking.  We stayed here in 2017 in a small marina that is no longer available as it was taken over by the nearby homeowners.  However, we knew there was anchoring available.

This was Presidents Day (and Mona’s birthday) holiday weekend which made for a lot of boats in an area with Stuart, Port Salerno and Jensen Beach boat owners showing off their money, I mean boats, in the varied waterways converging here.  There are islands to party on and an inlet to head out into the ocean—so many types of boats including those huge sport fishing boats, were flying around us.  We were familiar with the area and made it back into Manatee Pocket…whew, a no-wake zone.  This means the boats go slow!

We were fortunate to get in the first anchorage with room to spare.  A dinghy ride down to the end of this waterway showed many abandoned, rotting boats.  I cannot imagine owning a home there, with their perfect lanscaping and …well perfect everything and looking at and passing by these eyesores.  We have talked about the problem towns are having with these abandoned boats before on this blog. This town wants to put in mooring fields.  I guess first they need to figure out how to pay to remove and dispose of a lot of boats.

This abandoned boat was anchored in front of us. In the background is a private home and docks. These Ospreys have made it their own. They hang out on the spreaders of the sailboat. If you zoom in on the solar panel (Flat platform on the back of the boat about a quarter way up the mast), you can see their very large nest! This boat has been here a while! Notice the green slime along the water line. It probably is encrusted with oysters as well.

So, after our dinghy ride, we realized the town was choked with visitors.  Very crowded everywhere.  We hung on the boat, made a great sheet pan roasted vegetable and chicken dinner with Thai Chili sauce on rice and watched the world go by… oh and the maybe just a bit too high guy on the permanently anchored boat next to us was thought provoking.

The next morning, after coffee and the last scones, mechanic Joe proclaimed our batteries were not strong enough for anchoring.  When you are hanging on your anchor, you are not plugged into electricity like when you are on a dock in a marina.  Our boat carries 8 batteries (Moonlight had three).  One is a starting battery and one is to run the generator leaving 6 house batteries to run lights, refrigerator and all 12 volt stuff!  The house batteries were weak.  We replaced the generator battery at the beginning of our trip.  So, if this is our 3rd season on the boat, the batteries are at least that old.  We knew the previous owner did not date mark the batteries but Joe did  find he put 2014 in the maintenance log for the purchase of the batteries.

Group meeting …. a few phone calls and we were heading back north to Vero Beach (40 miles) to pick up 6 new golf cart batteries.  As luck would have it (we were due for a break), our friends on Salty Dog were also going to be in Vero Beach!  We were planning a rendezvous with them just south of Manatee Pocket, the spot we just left.  Kismet…..

February 14, 2022 ❤️

We usually start our cruising season with firm reservations at a marina. We have now found, from experience, that after the initial stay, we discuss where we want to go and make loose plans. Prime example: we have a scrap of paper with a loose itinerary that indicated we were going to try to anchor by Fort Pierce as our next location. After looking at several weather providers, we found “strong winds” for the next three days. Any anchorage or mooring in the area would be unprotected. This would make a bouncy boat and very uncomfortable (wet) dinghy rides to get to shore. We made a slip reservation at the Fort Pierce City Marina. Our departure day was Tuesday [15th].

We woke to very strong north winds. Gusts up to 37 and it was a brisk 48°. We had a “to do” list to get the boat reprovisioned but both had our eye on the weather. The waves on the river were producing white caps. The wind in the morning was to be out of the East but this strong North wind had us thinking. For one, our departure would be a tricky one as there is a beautiful Kaiser sailboat tied directly behind us. We determined with the help of a dock hand, it would work fine. We are discussed it with Kevin, who works at the marina, and also happens to own one of the 40 foot Eagle Trawlers we mentioned earlier. Anyway, he said he would not help us but would certainly laugh at our antics… Of course he was kidding. After walking doggie, and being out in the wind, we decided why fight it. It’s nice here. So, fortunately, we were able to keep our slip here at Vero Beach until Friday and cancelled Fort Pierce for now.

We knew there was a cruisersnet broadcast here in Vero but hadn’t listened to it since being here. Our friend Cindy R. reminded us stating its a bit different than the broadcast in the Bahamas. It was interesting to sample. A varied number of topics from weather all the way to the Bahamas, space launches, happenings in the neighborhood, restaurant/bar deals, boaters news and stuff for sale. The gentleman from a sailboat docked in the marina had a wonderful radio voice. Interesting for real cruisers….

One of our ventures was to drive the 15 minutes South to Fort Pierce and check out Marine Consolidated Liquidators. A gigantic warehouse of new and used boat parts. We need a few things for the Bayliner. BTW, it’s a whole different story looking for boat parts that you don’t need immediately because something broke! We found the fishing rod holders we wanted… What??? The Longtins are going to start fishing??? Perish the thought, we need a place to mount the BBQ grill to cook burgers and brats. We also were looking for a better anchor and a regulator for the grill. Struck out on both. Oh, well. Nice try. Amazing place.

We did find another way to add 350 hp to the Bayliner, a couple of these would get things moving nicely.

One of the things Mona wanted to do during our extended stay in Vero beach was visit the historical McKee Botanical Gardens. This site was created in 1929, as the McKee Jungle Gardens and had the largest variety of water lilies in the U.S. as well as over 2,500 varieties of rare plants and flowers on 80 acres of natural jungle setting. Wildlife exhibits included macaws, flamingos, parrots, mynah birds, cranes, monkeys and otters. During World War II the U.S. Navy used McKee Jungle Gardens for training pilots in jungle survival.

Our boat neighbor, Larry, indicated in about 1948, he was four years old and visited the garden. He recalled seeing a photograph of himself holding hands with a chimpanzee!

I am including the following information from the botanical gardens webpage. I found it fascinating:

McKee Jungle Gardens was the vision of land developers Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton, who purchased the 80-acre tropical hammock in 1922 with the intention of cultivating citrus. The property’s natural beauty was deemed too special in its native state to disturb so McKee and Sexton identified a new purpose for the land. The two land developers employed landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, from the esteemed firm of Frederick Law Olmsted, to design the basic infrastructure of streams, ponds and trails while they focused their efforts on assembling one of the most outstanding collections of waterlilies and orchids – augmenting native vegetation with ornamental plants and exotic specimens from around the world. By the 1940’s, more than 100,000 tourists were visiting the Gardens each year, deeming it one of Florida’s earliest and most popular natural attractions. The Garden’s award-winning orchid collection, unusual fly-trapping pelican flowers and exotic wildlife captivated visitors.

As central Florida developed in the 1970s, attendance at the Gardens waned and the family owned establishment was unable to compete with the lure of far bigger tourist attractions in central and south Florida. McKee Jungle Gardens closed in 1976 and was sold to condominium developers. All but 18 acres were developed. These 18 acres, once the heart of McKee Jungle Gardens, lay dormant for 20 years.

A group of community visionaries understood the imperative of preserving these 18-acres and in 1994, with the help of The Trust for Public Land, launched a fund-raising campaign to buy the land from the developer who was finalizing plans for a shopping center. With bare hands, basic tools and unimaginable heart, volunteers of every age cleared the trails to reveal once again the jungle’s treasures. This community effort touched so many that even a young girl gave her weekly allowance to help rescue the Gardens. November 18, 2001 marked the formal dedication of the saved, restored and newly named McKee Botanical Garden.

Today, McKee Botanical Garden remains true to Arthur McKee and Waldo Sexton’s vision. There are over 10,000 native and tropical plants to behold and one of Florida’s largest and most celebrated collections of water lilies. Several restored architectural treasures such as The Hall of Giants and Spanish Kitchen have been meticulously restored to Sexton’s original vision.

The current Garden, McKee Botanical Gardens, was formally dedicated in 2001 and is now a Florida landmark. On January 7, 1998, the property was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places under its original name, “McKee Jungle Gardens.” 

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We found the gardens really magnificent. I wonder if my parents had ever been there. There were so many plants we’ve never seen before. We spied several placards on trees that indicated they were from the original jungle garden but it appeared that most of the buildings and plants were restored. It was a very nice way to spend an afternoon, including a very good lunch al fresco. The only thing we found quite odd in the garden was the large mechanical dinosaurs. They made noise as well; we wondered how they knew what noise each type of dinosaur made??

We will include some photographs at the end of this entry. As a plant lover, I got carried away.

The Captains of Prudence (Grand Banks) and Pursuit are having fun discussing best ways to keep these old boats looking good. Sikkens vs. varnish vs. oil is a main topic. While everyone agrees that varnish looks the best and is required for a truly Bristol look, teak oil will make the wood look nice as well. However, it doesn’t last nearly as long and needs rejuvenating every 3 months in the Florida sun. There ain’t no easy way out… (Tom Petty)

Our extension in the marina ends on Friday. The time went quickly. We provisioned the boat, preparing to anchor out a bit. Our friends from New Smyrna Beach, Cindy and Jeff on Salty Dog hope to join us for a while. We met them during our very first stay in the New Smyrna Beach Marina with Bayliner Bob. I believe this would’ve been 2017. Actually, the next time we saw them, Cindy remembered Coconut before us!

We did get to spend some time with Kevin and Karen on the moored 40 foot boat Avalon, which is an Eagle Trawler like ours, just a lot bigger. Our boat, being on the dock was an easy gathering place so we had a beer and discussed the boats and life! 😉 Apparently the interior of Avalon is quite a bit different than ours but she is also a 1999 where pursuit is a 1987. We do believe that Kevin is the first person we have met who has lived almost his entire adult life on a boat. From Annapolis to Fort Lauderdale and a lot of ports in between, they have lived aboard, with careers and fill-in jobs along the way. A very lovely, loving and interesting couple. Possibly, on our way back to Cape Canaveral, we will spend a night or two in Vero and hopefully see the inside of the newer, larger sistership to Pursuit.

Friday morning we left the dock with the assistance of the most experienced dock hand ever, Larry our dock neighbor!

Borrowing from a 1969 movie, (look it up for a slice of ‘60s pop culture) we are traveling on Tuesdays lately. Not by design so much but our first week’s reservation was from Tuesday to Tuesday and we’ve continued that way.

Our trips have been short and sweet and have given us the time to enjoy our destinations a bit by arriving mid day. Sitting here in Vero Beach, we are relaxing at the City Marina, watching the goings on at the fuel dock. Not quite as entertaining as a launch ramp but busy just the same. This dock has the only fuel around as well as being the check-in for the marina and mooring fields. We are seeing a wide assortment of vessels from fishing trippers to boats cruising north (back to Canada, Eh!) or south. “Where ya headed?” “Marathon!”. Every boat we meet is headed to Marathon… I wonder if there is any more room there.

We’ve mentioned in the past about encountering boats like our Eagle 32 but here in Vero we’ve run across two boats who are our big brother. The Eagle 40. It’s uncanny, but it’s like someone took the plans for the 32 to the Xerox machine and blew them up by 25%. They look almost identical except for the size. Grand looking boats… and one of the marina guys owns one of them! To be continued….

We were here on Bayliner Bob in March of 2017. Not much has changed. It does look like there is more traffic but this is true for all of Florida. There may be more mooring balls at the marina and most of them are holding two boats. This means you are rafted to or tied to another boat and hang off a ball anchored to the river bottom. We did this a lot with friends at the Apostle Islands but wonder about being tied to a stranger’s boat. Could be a good time….but maybe not.

The beautiful Nordhaven 86 is still slipped next door. We understand its owned by a gentleman that owns a fleet of tugs up north.

Our dock neighbors, Larry and Nancy, have a 32 Grand Banks trawler of a similar vintage to ours. He is a retired yacht broker and has led a very interesting life. It’s refreshing to see a person who can most likely afford a much more upscale yacht keep the one he truly loves “Prudence”…. she needs a little work but this couple comes down every other day or so to sit in the cockpit with a refreshing beverage. He did tell us one of the big changes to this area is the amount of wealth moving in. Apparently it is one of the richest counties in the country. We could tell on our ride down the river that the homes were all monstrous and then a drive down the ocean roadways showed the same. As we noticed before, there is very little beach access here for the common folk. Gated communities keep us out.

Larry is also an airplane pilot. His employer was the “Ray” who started SeaRay boats! He piloted Ray’s Learjet for years. At one point, Ray told him he needed him to start doing double duty and move his boat to the west coast. Not the West Coast of Florida mind you but the west coast of the U.S. Larry said sure, I can drive a truck cross country. Ray had other ideas, Larry needed to get his captains license. This began another saga in Larry’s life, moving boats around for Ray.

They will be moving temporarily onto their boat today, Valentines Day, as their townhome had a “little fire”. They are very realistic about what they lost in the fire—joking about now being able to say “It was lost in the fire” when an item cannot be located . Sadly, his life time of work on a model airplane collection were totally destroyed. Irreplaceable. A very interesting couple. His slow and low Southern drawl is so soothing. She is the wisecracking sidekick. We are hopeful we have boat neighbors as interesting as they are in our next boating adventure on Lake Michigan.

Bob and Donna came to visit us last week and we had a great lunch at the nearby Riverside Cafe. I ordered their “best selling—loved by all” fish tacos. They were quite good with their added ingredients of slaw and guacamole. Their dock also contains a charter boat service so we could watch people going pontooning. Bob and Donna will be moving their motorhome from Cape Canaveral to Savannah, GA shortly. Looks cold there!

We are enjoying our time here just chilling, walking, driving around and sampling local beers and “stuff”. We have mostly been eating our meals on the boat. We have determined that we now pretty much have Pursuit outfitted almost as comfortably as our sailboat Moonlight was set up. By the way, the addition of the air conditioner to Pursuit has been wonderful. OK, truth be told mostly we have used the heat strip that was an added extra! It was advertised as being able to “take the chill out in the mornings” a very accurate description. One day though it hit 85 and as the port side of the boat is exposed to the sun it got quite warm in the bridge. We kicked on the air conditioner and within 15 minutes it reduced the temperature by 10°. Successful I would say.

After hours here, it is fun to see the “Pirates” come by dinghy to fill their water containers from the hose at the fuel dock. We believe if you stay on a mooring ball, you get the use of the dinghy dock, bathrooms, laundry room, bus ride to the grocery store and water! We can only think these are people anchoring outside the limits of the mooring field. Water is a necessary thing when living on a boat but hauling enough in 5 gallon cans to fill our 140 gallon tank would be daunting 😏 At any rate, we wonder why they come after the marina is closed unless you have to pay for water. Do they know they are seen by cameras?

We will be moving to Fort Pierce tomorrow morning—another Tuesday! At least at this point that is the plan. We are supposed to have very high winds for the next three days. Our first choice was to anchor or grab a mooring ball at Jensen Beach but it would be very unprotected and uncomfortable out on the water in high winds. We instead are going to stay in a slip at Fort Pierce. So far, we have not had any problem getting slips for our 32 foot boat. Of course the further we go south, the more crowded it will be. Stay tuned!

A few Vero Beach photos:

We mentioned a few times we were going to walk across the creek bridge and see where the rowers and small boat sailors were ensconced. Disappointing. The entire compound is behind chain-link fence. There isn’t even a sign indicating what is contained in the current building and what is going into the one being built. We learned the boats are coming from The Florida Institute of Technology Sailing Club and the new building is called Morton’s Marine Center.

Somewhere on this little spit of land, behind the chain link is the Ralph S. Evinrude Marine Operations Center which houses small outboard-powered craft and medium-sized workboats. These vessels are available to graduate students and faculty for teaching and research use in the freshwater tributaries and the Indian River Lagoon. Ok, part of the technical college. Did you get the namesake is “Evinrude”!

Also adjacent is the Melboune Yacht Club which we did not go to as they were having a fancy Commodores ball.

During this walk we did end up at a fabulous farmers market. Always a good stop. Especially when they have croissants!

Attached to the Melbourne Harbor Marina office is an establishment called Ichabods. It seemed like your average screened porch type of tiki bar. We walk past it several times a day but you couldn’t really see inside. We’ve checked out other places on our walks but until yesterday, not Ichabods—maybe its the name? We decided to have a beer there….Holy Cow, what a surprise. It’s fine dining in a Tiki-like setting. We were only going to have a beer but after looking at the menu, who could resist an app of grouper medallions? Plus, we had a coupon for $5 off and it must have been happy hour as the beer prices were lower than any we’ve seen. Fabulous find. Oh and we have another coupon—both given to us when we checked in at the marina.

One thing we learned is when you are giving family directions to find you, don’t tell them to “just plug Ichabods into the GPS”! There is a dockside location and a beachside location. Sorry Tom. So the Longtin clan came down for an afternoon to hang with us. Tom helped Joe get the outboard running better than ever. A bit of carb cleaner and Seafoam improved it but he still needed to tear out the carburetor and poke at stuff… Apparently this helped and now the motor runs better than it ever did.

We sat in the cockpit for awhile discussing camping life vs. boating life and admiring the views of both boats and wildlife. We selected a spot called Drew’s Brews for lunch. Our first choice, a Cuban Cafe, was not open on Sundays. Drew’s was fabulous. Five stars. A really nice outdoor patio. Clean, nice furniture and views of a park and the creek. We were seated under a small pergola which the Longtin boys could not help dissecting its design and product application.

Our server was truly darling. Young and cute with hot pink jeans, large lollipop earrings and the sweetest smile. One of the guys also pointed out her “up to here” long legs 😚 Boys! The menu was extensive. We soon had our brews and ordered our meals. This place served real food! Six happy people. Burgers, meatloaf sandwich, fish fry, gumbo and a grouper sandwich. All delicious. Drew himself came out to check on us and a discussion was had about hockey and curling. He was from New York and played hockey in Canada for years. He had been to St Paul several times. His Place has only been open for a few weeks. As suspected, everything was made from scratch. He smashed the hamburger patties himself and took a lot of pride in his menu. A winner! I left a great review for Drew’s Brews.

Next, stop “The Mansion”. A 1905 Queen Anne mansion about a block from the Marina and historic downtown. This home was originally built as a winter getaway for a young northern couple. It ended up being their full-time residence and they lived there hosting social events. Upon their death, their daughter and family resided in the home. In the 1970s it was purchased, painted pink and remodeled into a restaurant known as the strawberry mansion. This was a successful restaurant quickly became a beloved gathering spot among locals and enjoyed a long run as a fine-dining and social destination before officially closing in 2006.

After sitting vacant for about four years, New owners purchased and renovated the property and opened The Mansion, a “culinary entertainment complex.” This spot is now part restaurant, wine cellar, whiskey bar, craft beer joint, terrace, garden and multiple dining areas rolled into one.  We enjoyed a cocktail at the top of the building on the terrace. It had a nice view of the Indian river. We also traversed the lower level cellars which contain room after room of top shelf liquors. The tequila area itself would have made a few of my friends swoon. A very interesting place. The weather that day turned out a whole lot better than it was forecast. We enjoyed mostly sunny skies and 70°.

The last restaurant Joe and I visited just before we left Melbourne made the decision for us that we will be stopping back here on our way back north to store the boat.

The authentic Cuban restaurant El Ambia was open. Ambia means Friend in Cuban slang. The outdoor atmosphere was funky and the piped music Cuban. The owner’s statement: Ambia is my Cuba, customers are my family and friends. A friendly space indeed.

“El Ambia was founded in Historical down town Melbourne, in May 2009. The owner defected from Cuba in  an airplane piloted by himself right before 1994 Cuban Rafter Crisis. In 2008 he visited his oldest son an airman at Patric Air-force Base and got fascinated with Melbourne. He decide than to bring  Cuban, food, music culture and history to Melbourne.”

Neither Joe or I were familiar with (or could remember) the “Cuban rafter crisis” here is a short explanation: The 1994 Cuban rafter crisis which is also known as the 1994 Cuban raft exodus or the Balsero crisis was the emigration of more than 35,000 Cubans to the United States via makeshift rafts. The exodus occurred over five weeks following rioting in Cuba; Fidel Castro announced in response that anyone who wished to leave the country could do so without any hindrance. Fearing a major exodus, the Clinton administration would mandate that all rafters captured at sea be detained at the Guantanamo Bay Navel Base.

We dined outside starting with a fruity red sangria and a Cuba Libre. All employees were Cuban with their charming accent. Our last encounter with the Cuban culture was on Big Pine Key many years ago. A gentleman we met named Mario defected having been a doctor in Cuba. I guess that would be a whole different story. This one is food porn.

We ordered and authentic “Cuban” sandwich to share. There were a lot of other dishes on the menu but we have had a interest in the sandwich since having one in Ybor city, near Tampa. This is a Cuban settlement, complete with cigar makers. We had a Cuban sandwich at Carmichael’s, which billed itself as famous. We were not impressed with the sandwich. We’ve seen it on several menus since then and thought it was time to try another in a restaurant with real Cubans. By the way Carmichaels did have the absolute best crabcake ever, it looked like a baked potato.

The other dish we shared was an appetizer, Tostones Rellenos, made with smashed then fried plantains. Each plaintain base was topped with one of their different meats: pork, shredded beef, or Piccadillo. Yummy. The appetizer would have filled us up. We ate half the sandwich and saved the rest for lunch the next day. We are hoping to hear live music on our return visit.

~Cuban food is not spicy-hot,
The only thing spicy and hot in Cuba are The Cubans

2/4/2022

We are still in Melbourne and thoroughly enjoying sitting on the boat and doing walkabouts. The weather during the week has been spectacular. This weekend, spotty rain moves in but it will not get too cold (By Wisconsin standards). Our most popular event here is watching the pelicans dive into the water for a meal. Even if you don’t see the dive, you hear the big splash. Our first night here, we saw them, just beyond the Harbor Avenue bridge. Dive splash dive splash…a whole squadron of them in the early evening light. Very pleasant cocktail hour entertainment.

We have admired for years these great birds gliding over the ocean waves and soaring up high in wind swirling around oceanfront condos. None of them ever tips a wing into a wave getting a spiraling dunking in the ocean. These are huge birds but they fly so beautifully. Perfect formation and precision swoops and turns. Very impressive.

Maybe I have a prejudice. I have said before, my dad wanted to “come back” as a pelican after his passing. I sincerely believe now and then certain pelicans are watching us and are satisfied with what they see.

As I am writing this, at about 7 a.m., I hear that telltale splash. The back door is open so I look out and yes there is a pelican searching for his breakfast. I don’t think he was successful. If they score, they scoop up the fish in their beaks and then drain the water from their pouches before swallowing their prey whole. Delicious!

A bit of research tells me that “several adaptations protect Brown Pelicans as they dive, sometimes from as high as 60 feet. Air sacs beneath the skin on their breasts act like cushions. Also, while diving, a pelican rotates its body ever so slightly to the left. This rotation helps avoid injury to the esophagus and trachea, which are located on the right side of the bird’s neck.”

A few facts: A pelican’s wingspan can be 11 feet. There are 8 remaining species. They weigh 8 to 26 pounds. [Some of them flying over our heads look bigger] All of them have large bills with a gular pouch (throat pouch) which they use for catching fish and draining water. Gular sacs are also used for mating displays and regulating body temperature.  The brown pelican is most common in florida. Pelicans are social creatures who nest in colonies, sometimes as many as thousands of pairs.

I have not been able to get a pic of a diving bird …. yet. This photo is borrowed from internet.

This marina has been a wonderful stay. Our slip is perfect; our cockpit faces the open water in the Crane Creek and out to the Indian River. We have reservations here for a week and then we are moving down to Vero Beach for another week in the Municipal Marina. We are unable to stay here longer as a boat club is coming in and taking all available slips. It’s hard to believe we’ve been gone from home a month already.…Oh wait, a quick check of my credit card statement tells me we’ve been gone longer …… 🤭

This marina is right off the Indian River up a small creek. We tried to explore the creek by dinghy yesterday but our outboard would not start. Of course, Joe worked on it and believes it has a carburetor problem. We do not have our truck and there are no auto parts stores within walking/biking distance. It can wait until tomorrow when we do get the truck.

This has to be one of the best places we have a been with early morning and evening free entertainment. Early this morning, even though it rained, I have seen the aforementioned pelicans and a group of women going out rowing. I believe this is a class. Right across the river is a yacht club and some type of marine facility. We will get over there today to check it out.

Also this morning, I saw something larger stick its head out of the water. People have been talking about big Snook in here. The pelican are still diving but I cannot get a picture of the Splashdown! The mullet are very lively so I’m sure the pelicans will be too.

So much to do, so little time. It starts getting noisy around 8:30 a.m., so the solitude wanes. I took Coconut out for a quick walk before it started to rain again. We scared up a big blue heron off the dock. I am watching for the rowing ladies return. They are getting very wet. They headed out to the main part of the Indian river.

The girls came back!

This looked like a training section. There were two people in the boat. The guy on the dock was holding a long line attached to the boat. Rowing techniques??…. Or trying to move the dock…. Who knows.

I have seen so much already this morning, and can’t help but notice the beautiful 51 foot Navy hulled Maritimo yacht next to us spends their time watching a giant TV….constantly on Fox news…. to each their own 😁

A wonderful bird is the pelican

His beak can hold more than his belican

He can take in his beak

Food enough for a week

But I’m damned if I see how the helican

—Dixon Lanier Merritt

2/1/2022

Tuesday was moving day.  We moved the boat a whopping 20 miles to the Melbourne Harbor Marina.  

First things first, we needed to walk Miss Coconut and pay for a few pumpouts (empty the holding tank) and electricity.  We rarely pay extra for electric.  Normally, at least for a boat our size, it is included in the slip fees.  Ironically, it has been cold here and we have been running one or two heaters at night which will make for a high electric bill.  Oh well, so worth it.  🥶 We had a few freeze warnings but never saw a temperature below 40.

We paid our tab and said goodbye to Leah and the gang.  We were treated great here.  Not the ideal place to spend 3 weeks with no showers or laundry, but we made do with Pursuit’s microscopic shower and we mooched laundry facilities off friends and  family…  It was also fun to watch the rockets blast off and not blast off.  One was delayed at least 3 days in a row.  One of the scrubs was because a cruise ship was in a restricted area.  Bad Captain!

We will be back at Marker 24 Marina early next year to have the bottom of Pursuit sanded and painted.  Looks like we will need to find a place for us to stay that doesn’t float for a week or so while the work is being done. Man, I might have to get on that soon the way things are going with rentals these days. Hoping the fabulous looking bar and restaurant at Marker 24 is open by then.

So, we cast off our lines after a quick call to Leah to open the drawbridge.  As we were moving out the channel, a couple on shore was hollering to us asking what kind of boat Pursuit is… we get that a lot… not as much as “cute dog” but quite often.  Fun to have a unique boat.   BTW its a Transpacific Eagle 32!!!

We had a very enjoyable cruise down the Banana River. As we rounded Dragon Point, we checked off another milestone on our journey. It’s fun to start and finish certain goals such as geographic areas that we have always heard about as boaters. Our first was the Chesapeake and then the different waterways and rivers along the way. We know where Coinjock is located! Now we have done the navigable length of the Banana River that starts at Cape Canaveral and ends when it merges with the Indian River at the south end of Merritt Island.

A note about the south end of Merritt Island: Land’s End is called Dragon Point. From 1971 to 2004 a giant green concrete dragon graced the rocky point. Named “Annie”, it was built by the landowner to honor an Indian legend of a dragon rising from these waters and bringing good luck. My own contribution to the lucky legend has been to order a Dragon Point IPA at every watering hole I can find!

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Delightfully, the first thing that happened as we continued south was dolphins joining us by riding on our bow wake.  That never gets old.  You cannot stop being amazed by these beautiful mammals. Our own sign of good luck.

We also were happy with all of the birds we saw in the area around Patrick Air Force base.  It was a down right estuary.

We were the only boat moving on the Banana.  Once we merged with the Indian river there were a few more boats but its cold for Floridians and we are not running into many mcruisers at this time.  We passed easily under several large causeway bridges and one swing bridge that we needed to radio to the bridgemaster to swing open. This occurred very quickly and we were on our way after a “thank you” on the radio to the bridgemaster.

We arrived at Historic Melbourne early afternoon with enough time to walk around and get a lay of the land.  It’s a beautiful marina with several condo buildings helping to make it a protected spot.  A nice backwater (Crane Creek) with a sailing community, manatees, a beautiful view, several parks and the ever present coastal railway.  Oh, and squirrels….

2/2/2022

Last night Joe saw a view overhead that we have never seen or heard anyone discuss. Wave after wave of white birds flying at night….. They seemed like a larger bird, not seagull size. Cranes? It was so amazing; we watched for quite sometime. We shall try to find out about this beautiful occurrence. They were heading east, to the coast.

Curious: Google search Melbourne, you get Australia.  Odd, google knows I’m looking for sandals by sending me many unsolicited “ideas” but doesn’t know I’m docked in Melbourne Florida.

Joe got a bit of excitement late last night when a 60′ Sunseeker yacht came in looking for a spot to dock in the dark.  The only open spot was the fuel dock which is adjacent to our slip.  I watched from our v-berth porthole.  Beautiful boat with a large crew but they were having difficulty with the wind and current.  The captain was issuing orders and with Joe’s assistance handling lines, they got her in.  His reward, a nice imperial IPA.

Where our sailboat sat in Bayfield, we saw many boats come in, stay overnight at the fuel dock and leave early in the a.m. before the marina staff arrived.  Thus, avoiding the slip fees. Lets see, arithmetic….. $1.75 per foot x 60 feet = $105. A bargain! You wouldn’t think this would be the case, avoiding slip fees, but one never knows….

A walk about town was really nice.  We do like being in an area like this with a town and many parks.  Walkable. We did our walking at the ocean while at Cocoa as Marker 24 marina was in a residental area with no sidewalks.   Ok, a quick walk through the historic area showed us what was here. We will explore more thoroughly later. We found an outdoor patio and partook of a couple adult beverages and a shared basket of boneless teriyaki chicken wings.  Excellent, these did not come off a truck.  We also had another delightful young server.  I had my new favorite beer.  Mango Cart.  I first encountered this beer last summer in Kiwanee, WI.  It’s a light wheat ale made by Golden Road Brewing in Anaheim, CA.  So refreshing.  Only a bit upset when Publix (grocery store) had a two for one special and they were sold out!  

Our first few days have been marvelous — 70 and sunny. We are outside making up for those cold days in Cocoa. We are sitting up on the flybridge watching pelicans dive for fish and manatees go by. Very little boat traffic. A few small sailboats head out to the main river now and then. We are trying to eat on the boat a bit more. We were a bit out of control in Cocoa Beach; we wanted to try too many places. Funny, one of the diviest places had the best coconut shrimp and Mahi tacos!

It looks like we will get a few more days of this glorious weather. We need to explore the other side of the river and take a dinghy ride. We left the truck at Marker 24 marina and don’t think we will retrieve it until we move again….