Tuesday November 11: Veteran's Day at Eau Gallie

Happy Veteran's Day from Eau Gallie.

Thanks to all of our current and retired armed forces personnel - especially to our son-in-law Matt of whom we are very proud!



From Cocoa Village Marina we went only 2 1/2 hours south to the Eau Gallie (pronounced 'oh golly') River. The weather was a bit iffy - rain but no thunderstorms so off we went in the rain. It was such a pleasure being on the flybridge and not having to hold an umbrella to keep the drips coming through the canvas from getting me soaked.

The plan to just add a layer of sunbrella to the flybridge canvas worked better than we thought it would - that has to be a first!

We are now at the end of the yellow line at the city that used to be called Eau Gallie but is now a part of Melbourne (since the two cities merged in the late 60's).

This is a very small marina - many folks that live aboard their boats. All seem very nice.

It was not very nice until later in the day. The sun finally broke through enough that we thought it would be safe enough to take a ride around town.

Apparently the old downtown of Eau Gallie has become an art attraction with several studios, a nice art museum and several homes on the National Register of Historic Places.






Personally, I really liked the building mural that was one of the highlights of the old town area. It is really well done.

Cloud formations in the evening were kind of weird. Not sure if it was rain coming or not. Turned out it was not. But one thing we know for sure: wasn't going to snow here - unlike some place up north!

Steve did get a bit of fishing in before dark though. No catching - and no wonder with all of the bait fish in the river.

All of the ripples in the picture are the small bait fish scattering when Steve threw his line out! Never saw anything like it. The fish also scattered when the pelicans were flying low over the water. The small fish jumping was like a shadow of the pelican on the water as it flew over!

Artists must be all over this area if the place we rode to for breakfast was any indication.

Clearly the eagle was one of this artist favorite subjects!



Time for some work. Steve spent a good part of the day working on the generator - again. Personally, I have declared it dead. It's just getting too hard to keep it working. Parts are expensive - when you can even find them. And there is a perfectly fine 2000 watt Honda generator sitting on our aft deck.

So instead I continue to work on the wallpaper. Once again it's a case of something we did 5 years ago - time to redo it.

But rather than repapering, I'm just painting over the paper. It's a very heavy vinyl and takes well to paint. Home Depot is very good at color matching so I do a wall as the spirit moves me. By the time we arrive in Marathon I should have a good start on it :-)

It'll be nice since I've found mildew will not grow on the paint but will go on the bare paper. Score for no more mildew on the paper when we leave the boat for months at a time!

Off tomorrow to Serenity Island. The winds are finally dying down so we can spend the night at anchor. This has been a nice stop though - not sure why we never stopped before ....