Surprise, Surprise

A final blog posting tonight from "Onboard MicMac" as we finish leg one of our trip down the ICW

We had a BIG surprise this morning as we left the ubiquitous (but necessary) pumpout station at our marina.

We heard "Hello, Pete" from the nearby dock. Then we saw Stu and Claudia, old cruising buddies from York River Yacht Club on their new "home" (a Viking 63' Widebody motoryacht). Hadn't seen them for more than a year. What a coincidence that we'd be staying in the same marina.

After a round of golf at Indian Hills and laundry duty, we joined them for "docktails" on their new floating mega-home with 4 bedrooms/cabins, 3 heads, full-sized galley, dining room, and huge living room.

Returning to MicMac after a visit aboard this spacious floating home was an adjustment. But as Stu pointed out, "there's always a bigger boat out there." Bigger and bigger mega-yachts are still being built. Then there's the world's newest cruise ship, the Oasis,  that's now in Fort Lauderdale. It can handle 5400 passengers, Now that's a really big holding tank!

Thanks, Stu and Claudia, for a fun night of catching up on "Evening Star."

Captain Cook did NOT have a blog

And he didn't fly home after 53 days. But WE will!

During this leg of our ICW voyage, both of us read Blue Latitudes: Boldly Going Where Captain Cook Has Gone Before by Pulitzer winning journalist Tony Horwitz. It was a 2002 NY Times bestseller that you might have missed. Cruisers and volunteer crew on replica ships would especially enjoy it.

Horwitz succeeds in telling Cook's story by following in his wake (pun intended) in TODAY's world, talking with South Seas, Hawaii, New Zealand, and Alaska folks about Cook (He was NOT a hero to the indigenous people!), and using Cook's detailed journal for accuracy. He pulls the past and the present together, within the native and English perspective, and with humor too. It's a "laugh outloud" book on many pages.

We learned how Cook redrew the map of the world when we studied "early explorers," but that was in 4th grade. 50 years later, Pete and I stood at the Cook Monument near where Cook was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii after motoring to this hard-to-get-to place. Now we understand the "big picture" of Captain Cook's explorations.

We are SO thankful that we were not onboard the 97-foot long Endeavour with Captain James Cook or on any of his three voyages, from 1768 to 1780. What a tough and demanding life during an era when a third of the world's maps remained blank. Pete and I now hold him in high esteem and respect his navigational abilities.  I thought of him often as we used our GPS chartplotter to weave our way down the ICW, kept up with the non-ICW world through emails and WiFi, never went hungry, and met no cannibals.

Cook's first voyage lasted three years! He sailed more than 200,000 miles on his three trips. Seven and a half weeks is sufficient for this first leg of our voyage and we've covered just over 1000 miles from Two Rivers Marina to Fort Pierce, Florida.

We arrived here yesterday, along with Harriet and Skip on "Moondance." We missed them at the Vero Beach anchorage (see photo)where there were more than 100 boats on moorings and got together with them over dinner to swap plans for leg two of our respective trips.

After a few days of clean up and maintenance work, we'll leave MicMac tucked into her slip at Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce. We'll fly home to Willieburg on Wednesday to reacquaint ourselves with friends (hope they remember us!), eat up three months of food minimum at the club, and celebrate Christmas. The planned second leg of our ICW trip will begin in mid-January when we fly back here and head to Key West, where we'll turn into Parrotheads for a few weeks. The Bahamas will then look inviting, so who knows where leg three will take us.

We'll look for Moondance and Harriet and Skip farther south after Christmas. Maybe I won't get my shadow on Skip's shirt next time! thanks for the ride to West Palm Beach Airport.

Happy Thanksgiving (#3 of 3 postings today)

The Daytona area gave us our first glimpse of mega-condos and highrises. I'm afraid that we'll see lots more of this look as we get farther south, especially around Miami. The St. Augustine city fathers (and mothers?) got it right when they ruled against any additional buildings higher than two and a half stories in the historic area. But the Florida coast is the major example of development gone wild in America. Plus, most of it is build on swampland!

We prefer to see the natural areas surrounding the ICW, although some of the most natural are the man-made canals connecting the rivers. We passed by a number of non-Ritzy "fish camps" yesterday.

We've been looking at the Cape Canaveral missile launch towers in the distance for the past two days as we zigged and zagged in the ICW channels around Titusville. Sure hope that a blastoff is scheduled when we come north in the spring. THAT would be a sight from a close-by anchorage. Most Americans are so blase these days about space launches too, except for the folks who live here.

The Titusville Marina dockhand was very friendly, but we won't get a slip here again. The Titusville Chamber of Commerce should make some effort to make this  neighborhood more cruiser-friendly. No sidewalks into "town," no cutesy shops or restaurants within walking distance, sketchy folks hanging out in a nearby park, and no Bobuli pizza crust in the nearest grocery store! The grocery clerk suggested a crust mix in a box. How bad could it be? REALLY bad, but we were hungry and it had started to rain by the time we got back from our less-than-scenic walk. But we were thankful for the wine!

The funniest thing was courtesy of the frozen Mrs. Smith pumpkin pie that we bought last night. I put it in the frig to defrost and woke up today wanting a slice for breakfast. Captain/MicMac chef Pete took it out this morning, mumbling about the box being drippy. Then he described the pie as "soupy." Not knowing that you needed to bake this pie, we have now earned the "Mr. Du Mass Award" of the month!

We've gone under (or requested openings) from 19 bridges since we left St. Augustine! We noticed the Christa McAuliffe Drawbridge on the chart, but it's off the ICW. That provided the most somber moment of the day as we recalled that tragic mission.

Today's a glum, gray, rainy day. But we can't complain since it's the first day that we've motored in the rain. Not bad when you consider that we've been gone for more than 6 weeks. We headed to Cocoa Village Marina today since it's raining. What a nice marina--with super showers and laundry. If it stops raining, I just might tackle some of the laundry. We got to Cocoa in time to visit all the cute shops. Pete was just thrilled! We enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Cafe Margaux. Then we visited the unique, humongous, historic (built in 1885) Travis Hardware Store. It's the old-fashioned kind of hardware store that has everything and then some.

Tomorrow, it's south to Melbourne Harbor Marina where we have Thanksgiving dinner reservations at the Chart House. We'll finally get that pumpkin pie! So much to be thankful for! Then onto a mooring at Vero Beach, and then a few more miles to Fort Pierce.

Like Being in Sea World

We enjoyed a short day (2 hours) on our way to the Rockhouse Creek anchorage two days ago. Pete explored the mini-island off to the south which turned out to be a spoils area for the sand the Army Corps of Engineers dredged out of the nearby ICW. I spent a LOT of time looking for the elusive manatee.

Yesterday we motor-sailed down Indian River to the Titusville Marina since rain was forecast and it's sometimes a tad bouncy at anchor during a thunderstorm. Again we looked for manatees.

First thing I wished for on this trip (6 weeks so far!) was a dollar for every dolphin that we saw. Hardly an hour goes by on the ICW that we don't see one. There are loners, devoted pairs, and the occasional pod. None of them have had SeaWorld training, however, so they don't leap out of the water. We usually only see their backs and dorsal fins. But one scared the beegeebers out of me one day by blowing out his/her airhole inches from the side of the boat as I was immersed in my book. Captain Pete found my levitation very amusing.

Then I wished that I had a dollar for every pelican we saw. They are definitely NOT endangered any more. Their droppings on docks even less so. We even saw lots of pelican rookeries.

But what we really kept looking for were manatees. If you believe that "Manatee Zone" signs equate to the manatee population, they must be lurking throughout Florida waters.

This morning we lucked out, just as we were getting ready to leave our slip in Titusville. Thanks to a leaky water hose on the dock near us, five of these huge gentle mammals were taking turns getting a drink. Four of them were at least 6-7 feet long, and one must have been a juvenile. They politely took turns, although one big old guy kept swatting his buddies out of the way.

All of them did indeed have boat propeller scars on their backs or sides. Ouch!

Potty Police board MicMac

As we left our quiet anchorage, the Volusia County Sheriff's Department boat speeded up to visit us. We had read postings on fellow boater's blogs about the POTTY POLICE who have been very vigilant about the holding tanks on boats in the ICW.

They politely asked, "When you flush your head, where does it go?" We assured them that our holding tank's Y-valve was locked down and we were frequent visitors to pumpout stations. After Captain Pete told them that he's a Coast Guard Auxiliary vessel safety checks examiner and  looks for locked down Y-valves too, they knew we were kindred spirits. I've been on a pumpout crusade for a few years as well, and written in a number of publications about boaters who choose to dump overboard. My solution is that they should be forced to jump overboard and swim in the "stuff."

They told us that about 40 percent of the boats they check do NOT have locked down holding tanks--and that most of the offenders are sailboats. Yikes. I assumed that sailors were especially environmentally wise. Guess not.

The manatees and dolphins are dumping enough "stuff" in the ICW, fellow boaters! Puleeeze use those pumpout stations!

Now In Daytona

We've had uneventful but relaxing two days after leaving St. Augustine. No scary bridges or shallow spots, and the current was with us all day yesterday--but against us all day today.

Last night we stayed in the super-quiet residential-like Palm Coast Marina and enjoyed a steak dinner on board. It was like staying in Two Rivers Marina.

Now we're in the huge Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona. I have no idea where the name Halifax came from here in Florida. Maybe we'll sightsee tomorrow and find out. I am NOT interested in any Daytona 500 activities. They must have something here besides cars.

The good green news is that Halifax Harbor Marina gets a gold star for having recycling bins on the docks. This is REALLY a "Clean Marina." MicMac will no longer look like a "garbage barge" with bags of recyclables in the shower and v-berth! We'll have so much free room onboard!

Pete will cook some salmon in a bit. We have NOT gone to the dark side by staying in so many marinas, but good anchorages are few and far between. Plus we have to eat down our freezer, so we can leave it empty when we fly home in 10 days (MAYBE?)

The game plan is to end up in Fort Pierce, Florida, in about a week. It's only about 135 miles. We've reserved a marina slip there on a monthly fee basis. So we'll tidy her up, change the oil, and leave MicMac there and fly back to Williamsburg and north points for Christmas. Then fly back in mid-January and go to the Keys. After that, who knows.

The Fountain of Youth is fictional

So we're still the same age today as we leave St. Augustine.

But it sure is a beautiful town and we felt like we were in Spain in the "Old Town" area. There's the oldest house, oldest school, oldest church, oldest drug store, etc. to provide the authentic atmosphere.

We decided to stay at the Municipal Marina for a third night since I wanted to visit the Lightner Museum (in the former Alcazar Hotel) and Pete preferred (anything but shopping) to climb up the Lighthouse and see alligators up close and personal. The Alligator FARM (a real zoo) provided this thrill.

Touring Henry Flagner's Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College) was one of the highlights of our trip. It opened in 1888 to much fanfare, and it still awes visitors--and the girls who now experience it as the girls' dorm. The dining room has the largest collection of Tiffany stained windows in the WORLD.

The "gilded age" certainly was an opportunity for the rich and famous to spend money. Flagner required hotel guests to book a suite for the entire 3-month holiday period (Jan-March). Women changed their jewelry 6 times each day. The largest indoor pool, spa, bowling, etc. were available across the street at the Alcazar Hotel (also built by Flagler.)

Today, it's the cutesy pedestrian-only St. George Street that entertains most visitors--plus the great restaurants. We left the Grenada look for an hour for lunch in the French Bistro de Leon. It was the first day for the release of Beaujolais Noveau, so ver y appropriate. Then we again boarded the touristy sighseeing trolley-train to check out the rest of St. Augustine.

Pete had called one of his old Bristol-Myers buddies and lucky us, their grandkids had just left town. We hadn't seen Gary and Rita for about 14 years, so we had lots of catching up to accomplish over dinner. We'll catch up some more next spring on our way north. Re-connecting with old friends has really been another highlight of this trip. Time and distance are obstacles we can easily overcome.

On our "separate afternoons" yesterday, I walked all over Old Town, found something I liked for Dave's 29th birthday in a gallery (sorry Dave, but this small frog bronze was priced at $450), and toured the super eclectic collection of the Lightner Museum. Mr. Lighner took advantage of the 1929 financial demise of many rich Chicago folks and bought up their "stuff." Then he bought the Alcazar Hotel here in 1947 or so and started moving this humongous collection here. In addition to the crystal, furniture, Churchill's stuffed lion, artwork, stained glass from homes that were being demolished, and all kinds of other collections, there's even a shrunken head.

How many blogs have a photo of this?

Luckily I was there at 2 p.m. when one of the docents shows off the collection in the music room. She wowed us by playing the 1904 nickelodean, 1800s German orchestrarian, and a gizmo that included a violin.