Titusville to Eau Gallie

It was quite windy last night and remained so all day long. The day dawned bright and sunny though and we headed out of the marina at 8:30 for the 31 mile trip to Eau Gallie. With the wind from WSW we decided to roll out the jib for the second half of the trip and breezed along (some gusts were close to 30 kts) at between 6 and 7 knots. We made it to Eau Gallie around 2:00 and slowly crept into the small basin to see if it was suitable for anchoring. We decided it was too small and too shallow and headed back out and anchored just south of the bridge with several other boats.

Soon after we anchored, Dan was working on getting the dinghy launched and ready to ride over to Andiamo for dinner while I worked on the blog when I heard a distressed cry, I raced topsides to find the duffel that houses the life jackets for the dinghy merrily sailing away downwind! Luckily the dinghy was just about ready, so Dan made quick work of retrieving the wayward duffel. All are rinsed and drying in the still brisk westerly wind. Well it's off to dinner soon. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

It was interesting to see the VAB (vehicle assembly building) and L-39-B (launch pad) as we passed under the causeway that took us out to Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. The VAB looked plenty large as we drove around it on our tour, but from 10 miles away it's size is definitely still impressive.

It was eerie to look back in our blog book from two years go and see a picture of gulls "dogging" our wake as we approached the Eau Gallie causeway! Here is a descendant of one of those from our last trip!

Several dolphins were surfacing as we both anchored just south of the Eau Gallie bridge/ causeway and I seem to be getting a little better at capturing them as they make a short appearance to breathe.

Dan on a rescue mission!

Layday in Titusville

The day started with a quick trip to the Publix supermarket (we still had the rented car from yesterday) for just a few things - - - between the two boats, we spent over $200! There is this "We have a car and we may never have one again" mentality that hits us all when we cruise the aisles of a supermarket. Putting away my purchases wasn't an easy task because Dan had dis-assembled the entire galley storage area in preparation for installing a new dual Raycor filter assembly that Jay's son Nathan brought with him from his vast supply of odd boat parts that he has stored in his Houston, TX garage. I am including a picture of the rig he drove from Houston. A picture is worth a thousand words, but John McElderry's words said it all when he first saw the rig, - - - - "Well, you can tell they are related!" Nathan is taking the used mail jeep down to his mom so she will have wheels while she lives on her boat for the winter in Marathon.


The process of installing took most of the day including two trips to Napa, and several up to the ship's store at our marina for various parts. In the meantime, I got laundry done, did some waxing and polishing and helped Betty figure out how to put pix on her blog. Here is the mess that Dan made - - - - - - - - - Here are my galley pieces
Here is the new Raycor installed - - - - - - - - - Here it is ready for operation


We ended the day with dinner aboard Brunelle - - - we are really enjoying this cooking only every other day, but realize it will end soon because regularly cooking for 8 is a tall order and that's what it would be once we re-group with Sevilla and Pekabu III. We'll head off in the morning for our first anchorage of the new year. ~~~_/)~~~M&D

Our dock mates were all long time residents and chose to gather at our bow for their happy hour, turns out they were admiring Dan's design for the placement of our running lights which he has centered in the bow pulpit on a platform built out of "starboard" a dense plastic material that every do-it-yourself boat owner loves.

Kennedy Space Center

Be prepared for a non-sailing tale. We probably wouldn't have done it on our own, but when Betty and John voiced interest in taking a day to visit the Kennedy Space Center, we decided it sounded like a good idea. How true! We were wowed two years ago when we arrived in St. Augustine in November and experienced our first lift-off of a space shuttle, Endeavor was on its way to the International Space Station and we watched from 100 miles away from the municipal pier in Salt Run, but it didn't begin to prepare us for the awe-inspiring day we spent at KSC.

We lucked out in that it was mid-week and a cool cloudy day, the parking lot was almost empty and the crowds non-existent. We managed to schedule ourselves really well and got to see all we wanted to see without having to wait in long lines or anything. We finally left around 5:30 pm and got back in time to enjoy a delicious salmon dinner aboard Andiamo. We will probably stay another day here in Titusville (can't pass up the "third night free" special they are offering) and get a few more "chores" done before we join our other Catalina crews further south. ~~~_/)~~~M&D The misty morning added a sense of mystique to the VAB (vehicle assembly building) at the Kennedy Space Center as we arrived for our day of discovery. The VAB is the largest single story building (although it is 52 stories high, it is only "one" story inside) in the world, or so KSC claims. It was only the first of the "scale" problems we encountered today! Also pictured are two launch pads, 39B lower left is being dismantled and rebuilt to launch future space flights while 39A to the right of B is where the last two shuttle missions will be launched. The large marble globe sports major constellations and rotates on a water fountain. The crawler transporter (lower right) weighs in at 6 million pounds, but when it is transporting the rocket boosters, external fuel tank and shuttle, the total weight is 18 million pounds, and it moves along at .9 miles per hour! The second stop on our tour of the KSC took us to the Apollo/Saturn V
center, a tribute to the Apollo missions that took us to the moon. Once again the scale blew our minds. You start out trying to comprehend the size of the stage one rocket booster and what seems like a half mile later you are looking at the capsule that actually held three astronauts on the way into the history books! Those of us who can remember those immortal words "The eagle has landed." are doubly impressed by the enormity of it all. The moon rover was fun to see, but no where near as impressive as the whole picture! The rest of the day was taken up with a tour of the shuttle Endeavor,
boy would I like to have the storage capacity of its cargo bay, and waiting in line to experience the simulated lift-off of a space shuttle. We also watched two amazing IMAX movies, one about the building of the space station and another about the Hubble Space telescope. The questions left unanswered by both are endless! I had to include a picture of moon boots, because who doesn't remember having a pair of goofy boots sometime in the last 20 years, well at least I had a pair (probably still do somewhere in our basement!) It just seemed appropriate, as we crossed the causeway leading away from KSC that we should see a dramatic sunset. A great way to end a great day.

Daytona Beach to Titusville Municipal Marina

Here we are again at a marina! ...but with good reason, tomorrow we have rented a car with John and Betty and are heading over to take a tour of Kennedy Space Center.  We printed out our tickets after ordering them on line and are ready to go!

We had a very quiet day on the water.  The wind was non existent and so was the traffic.  We followed a fairly slow trawler most of the day and were only passed by two antsy power boats.  The trip took us out of the built-up area surrounding Daytona, and very soon we were surrounded by nothing but scrub pines, scruffy palms and lots of sea birds.  It is always amazing to cross these expanses of water where the channel is narrow (but sufficiently deep) and the surrounding waters for miles and miles are less than 2 or 3 feet deep.  We watched one dolphin apparently "grazing in the shallows" because his fin was above the surface for ten minutes or so as he seemed to be "rutching" (a good Pennsylvania Dutch term) along on the bottom.  We had hoped to see the fishing phenomenon outlined in the cruising guide where a bunch of pelicans circle up, flap their wings on the water to corral fish for others that would then dive bomb and feed on them, but no such luck.

We arrived at the Titusville Municipal Marina around 3pm, took on some fuel and tied up next to Andiamo for the next two nights.  It was our turn to cook --- I tried to take credit for last night's dinner ashore, but no such luck!  We have experienced three short rain showers and are expecting more throughout the night, but are hoping for fair skies for our trip to Cape Canaveral. ~~~_/)~~~M&D
Our early departure was accompanied by a brief sprinkle as we slipped lines, handed off bathroom keys to a dockhand with a long-handled basket on the fuel dock and headed out the entrance channel to the ICW. The skies remained questionable as we headed through the first bridge south of our marina, with occasional brilliant spots of sunshine on some of the high-rises of Daytona Beach.
The rest of the day passed quietly, no rain, spotty sunshine and lots of expansive vistas as we traversed Halifax River, Ponce de Leon Cut, Mosquito Lagoon, Haulover Canal, the Indian River and a creek or two on our way to Titusville, just north of Cape Canaveral. We also watched someone messing with a daytime flare, thus the pink smoke. Can't pass through all that expanse of uninhabited waterways without a few shots of waterfowl and the ubiquitous dolphins. I tried to get a decent picture of the white pelicans that are found in the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River, but they are shier than their cousins the brown pelican, so the shots of them are stretching the capabilities of my little point and shoot. They are amazingly BIG and quite WHITE! We also spied a few lovely little islands (most likely the product of the dredging spoils for the ICW) like this one which afforded a couple a quiet getaway for the day.

Palm Coast Marina to Halifax Harbor Marina, Daytona Beach

We seem to be marina hopping at this point. Palm Coast was because the write-ups in our guides about the cement factory creek where we anchored two years ago were not too favorable. Tonight we wanted a marina so we could visit with Pegg's dad, Al, and his new bride Ann. We called them (reaching Al) when we were approaching Daytona Beach and invited them aboard for a drink. Shortly after that Ann called to say dinner was going to be at their house!

The trip to Daytona was a short one and we were tied up at the T head on J dock by 1:40pm. The North wind we had on Monday was gone, but with the sun playing hide and seek all day, it wasn't any warmer on the water. Once tied up, it did warm up quite a bit and Dan didn't mind getting damp as he continued his battle with the white spots left by all the bird droppings. I hiked to West Marine to get more Boat Soap, scrubbies and something called FSR, a caustic gel that seemed to help.

Ann and Al arrived at 5pm for drinks and a tour of both boats (At this point we are traveling with just Andiamo. I didn't ask which they like better!) and around 6pm we headed to their house in Pelican Bay (a very nice gated golfing community.) Dinner was delicious and the dinner table conversations very lively and covered diverse topics. We remembered two years ago when we stopped in Daytona with Jay and Pegg and had dinner with Ann and Al at Ann's house when they had just started dating. Now they are looking forward to their second anniversary! ~~~_/)~~~M&D

I chose birds over "McMansions" today as we made our way further south. I couldn't resist including the lone chair with no evidence of civilization anywhere near it because it reminded me of my youth on the Shrewsbury River where we would often picnic at "Chair Cove" on one of the spoils islands that dot the channel there. Every time we would nose our boat into the reeds near the cove we would find a chair there, it could be an old stuffed arm chair, a wooden kitchen one or maybe a folding beach chair, anyways it brought back great memories seeing this lone chair.

We bid St. Augustine Adieu and head south

Our departure wasn't an early one, what with all the hoop-la surrounding Jay's 70th birthday and all the grunge work necessary to get the boat back in shape after letting it go to the birds for a month. It is AMAZING how much guano can be deposited on one 40' boat. Dan even planned ahead and bought a power washer before leaving home! The power washer was no match for the mess, but with lots of help and lots of elbow grease, we don't look half bad. Unfortunately Nathan, who went up the mast on Sunday to repair the bird damaged wind vane said we should be watching out below as the spreaders are still caked with poop! It was great fun having all of Jay's kids here for the birthday and we were able to keep Darcy, his daughter that lives in Colorado a surprise until the very end.

December was lousy for just about everyone on the East Coast, so we were glad to see a string of very warm days when we arrived back in Florida last week. We did need warmer clothes today as we headed off as the North wind blew chilly and cold. The sun was bright tho, and Dan continued his battle with guano as we motored on toward Palm Coast. An early departure would have allowed us to get to Daytona, but we hadn't done any provisioning and needed to make an early morning run to Publix to fill the fridge. We left Conch House at 10:30 and made the 11:00 opening of the Bridge of Lions.

The trip was easy and uneventful, except when we arrived at the Palm Coast Marina, we had to plow our way through mud to get into the slip as the water was lower than usual (and it wasn't low tide yet!) Our departure tomorrow will be dependent on our ability to get out of the slip. We had dinner aboard Andiamo and then back to Brunelle to work on retrieving photos that I inadvertently erased from my SD card. Of course Sam knew just what to do and talked me through retrieving them! Thanks, Sam!

~~~_/)~~~M&D

We thought we had won the battle after two days of continuous cleaning the deck, cabin top, cockpit, dinghy etc of BIRD POOP until we took Jay's family for a sail on Saturday and discovered the wind vane for the electronic wind instrument had been broken off (probably by one of our pelican buddies.) Luckily we were able to get a replacement vane while nephew Nathan was still available to head aloft.


Andiamo (left) and Brunelle (right) are ready to head out of The Conch House Marina in Salt Run (the Vilano Bridge is in the background) on their way south to meet up with Sevilla and Pekabu III on Monday morning.

Grandma Peddie watches us as we head past the Castillo San Marco on our way to the Bridge of Lions. (photo courtesy of Jay)

We watched these kites for a few miles as we wound our way down the Matanzas River, ....longest tail I've ever seen on a kite! The remains of Fort Matanzas is on the right.