Friday December 7:Cocoa, FL

The night at New Smyrna Marina was a picture of Christmas. At dusk the lights on many of the boats came on - lighting up the harbor.

There was time for breakfast that morning as we were headed to Titusville - about 5 hours south.

The wind was light so we just anchored out. High Spirits stayed on a mooring ball to take advantage of the marina facilities. We were boarded about 7 pm for a night of Euchre: women won. I think we're ahead of the game .....

 It was supposed to be a rainy day yesterday but turned out to be sunny and warm. Rainshowers were spotted off to the east and lightening over the ocean lit up the sky well after dark.

The most unusual thing we saw was a string of white pelican swimming along with a bunch of corrmerants - enough of them to stretch across the entire channel (like the length of a football field). Weird.

Lots and lots of dolphins around the last few days. Steve continues to spend part of the day at the front of the boat talking and looking at them :-)  They really DO stay longer when he's up there. We finally spotted a manatee and her baby the other day. Fun to see.

No more sightings of them lately though even though the travel is very slow through the many 'manatee zones' that require slow speeds and minimum wake.

Today Steve spent the foggy, overcast travel day washing down the boat. The boat was very wet from condensation from last night so he took this opportunity to scrub and rinse it all down.

Wow - does the boat look nice! Funny how it doesn't seem really dirty until you clean a little spot.

We arrived at Cocoa Village Marina before noon today. Mail was arriving at the post office using General Delivery (thanks Wendy for mailing!!) and I needed to get my blood taken. Both accomplished without too much hassle (other than the 5 mile bike ride Steve had to make to the main post office here in Cocoa).

One last wildlife picture: an island of roseate spoonbills. The only other one we ever saw was in the St. John's River south of Jacksonville. For more info go to: Roseate Spoonbill.

Tomorrow: either Serenity Island or Eau Gallie depending on the weather. If we are at a marina, then I can watch the Army/Navy game :-)

In my adult years, December 7th always makes me think of my parents. They were married on November 25th of 1941 and just shortly the US was dragged in WW II. How that must have been being young and just married and suddenly my dad was in the Army Air Corp (in 1947 this branch became the Air Force). Just makes me stop and think....