Thursday April 11: Marineland!

After we left Serenity Island, Surona was literally dancing across the waves under sail! This was the first opportunity Peter and Cheryl had to actually sail instead of motoring or motor sailing (using both motor AND sail).

It was going to be a relatively short travel day so we quickly passed them by and headed on into Cocoa Village Marina for the night.

This is such a great little town and we try to stop anytime we pass by. There is a great Thai place for lunch, the large 7 building hardware store as well as many small shops along the redone downtown.

I was even successful in finding a canvas shop that had a piece of the sunbrella canvas I needed to redo the front hatch cover.


It's a hard color to find (Captain's Navy) so I was pleasantly surprised when the owner found a small piece after not finding a roll among the many colors of sunbrella on hand. What luck! Really sad though - I bought a couple of yards last time we were in Cleveland and somehow have managed to misplace it. Once again the mystery of how in the world can I lose something on a 36' boat???

Regardless, it was a nice stay at this marina and the weather continues to be great for traveling.

Wednesday was a long day of 51 miles - at 7.5 mph so about 7 hours of travel time. The wind was really blowing out of the south which is fine until there was a turn to the east!

This is a railroad bridge near Titusville (and the Kennedy Space Center) that is automated. There is no one manning the bridge - just a camera and controls somewhere!

The web site assures boaters that plenty of warning would be given if it is going to close but it just seemed weird to see it go down about 20 minutes after we went through knowing it was being lowered by someone who knows where.







We saw a dozen or so manatee that day. It's hard to catch them on film (probably shouldn't use that saying anymore as it shows our age!) as they come up for a quick breath and then dive back under the water. You can see the back of one just going back under in the picture on the right.

This particular canal which connects two very large but relatively shallow parts of the ICW is a good place to spot the manatee as they have begun their summer migration north.

We ended up at a nice anchorage near New Smyrna for the night. Dolphins were around the boats occasionally as were a couple of loons.

It's so nice to see them again - even though they still have their very bland winter colors of grey, black and some white.

They are so much prettier when we see them in Canada in their summer colors.

Today was another long day planned of 50 miles to Marineland, FL. Site of the original dolphin show built in 1938. We've stayed here before and really enjoy the area.

Most of the travel was through marshland but the high-rises on the Florida beaches were always visible. The weather continues to hold for us although it looks like there might be some storms over the next couple of days.

Daytona has such colorful tile on a couple of their bridges. Next time through, I'd like to stop there for a day.

With a goal of reaching Ferandina Beach on the Monday though we really needed to keep moving.


There were a couple of actual houseboats we passed on the way. The marina is defunct so I don't know if anyone really lives in these but they look to be in good shape!

Anyone looking for a houseboat??








Finally by 4 pm everyone was settled at the dock here in Marineland.

After a week and a half of travel covering 420 miles, it was time to take a break. We're staying here again tomorrow :-)

A nice bike path and wonderful beach is the draw. Plus we're just tired .....