We're in the Barge Canal at a marina, near Cape Canaveral; Riko came to see our boat and is our "care package" angel.
Dec.11 There were tornado warnings and a squall came through the St.Augustine anchorage in the morning, but the afternoon was nicer so we went ashore and checked out the city. We visited the San Sebastian Winery and took their tour. There is also a college here, Flaggler College, right in downtown and near the harbor, and it’s buildings are beautiful, and big, some from early in The 1900’s and some new, all in Spanish-style architecture. When we got back to our boat it had moved, and was tied to another boat! There are always surprises on this trip! Someone in the anchorage noticed that our boat was dragging it’s anchor and got aboard and stabilized the situation by tying us up to another boat (unoccupied). Those people (from Lubec, Maine) are heroes.
The extra low tides due to the full moon kept us from leaving the next day for about an hour (we were stuck in shallow water) but we did get out and traveled in warmer weather (60 degrees) to the Matanzas River. There is another National Park Service site here, a 1700s Spanish fort, and it is the site of a slaughter of French settlers (in a battle with Spaniards). The weather is gradually warming up and the next day we got to New Smyrna Beach where they have 2 free city docks. Almost adjacent to the docks is the main street and we happened on the monthly antique car event, where they close off the main street for about 6 blocks and line up the cars and trucks (about 200 of them). There was live music at one end and a disc jockey at the other playing old songs. If we planned it we would never make it but these things pop up and we are enjoying being randomly in the right place at the right time.
Dec.14 Now it is getting REALLY WARM and we are also going straighter than earlier on the ICW so we can make the miles fly by. Today we went through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, near the Kennedy NASA base, and it is a beautiful section of the waterway. There are supposed to be more bird species here than anywhere else in the southeast, and there are 1000 species of plants. We can see the mangroves along the edge of the narrow Haulover Canal. If the water was warmer there would be manatees here. The end of the day found us at the Titusville Marina, with one last adventure, when the shift lever for the boat got stuck in reverse as we left the pumpout dock to head for our slip. Ken quickly killed the engine and we got tied back to the dock and spent an hour fixing the problem -- Ken’s mechanic skills again come in handy!
We planned to get to Cape Canaveral the next day, where my brother Jim and his wife, Riko, live. Things went almost according to plans until we found out that the Crista McCauliffe Bridge that connects the Indian River (where we are) to the Banana River (where they are) is closed everyday from 3-6pm. We forgot to read the fine print. Jim and Riko were still able to pick us up and take us to dinner so all was not lost. This was a fine day and ended with a feast at a Japanese restaurant. The next morning Riko drove back to the marina we were at (near the bridge) and brought us a “care package” of 2 baskets of food and a newspaper.
Dec.16 We are really enjoying the Florida weather now. Starting today for the next few days the temperatures are in the 70s and the wind is light and there are few clouds. We are seeing more boats and cruisers now. We even saw a Duxbury boat this day, one Ken recognized as the owner of the boatyard we have kept RISING TIDE in the past few years. We hailed the captain on the radio and surprised him by announcing who we were. One more night of anchoring and 2 nights on a mooring in Vero Beach complete this chapter and we are loving the weather conditions and the chance to reconnect with cruisers again, some that we have known from earlier in our trip (good to see you, Addison and Pat!) and some new people, including two Tayana 37s (like ours) in Vero Beach.
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