Wednesday April 6: New Battery and New Rule

We were up early and pulled anchor at Serenity Island for a short trip of 12 miles to Eau Gallie. Not too far from the space center which was the hotspot for watching the manned space flights lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

Although there are still launches from the center, it's mostly rockets carrying satellites into space or resupply missions to the International Space Station.

The next one is actually Friday 4/8. Maybe we should have dragged our feet ....

Tuesday was another really nice day to travel. Sunny and a bit breezy but daytime temps in the high 70's.

Eau Gallie is a very small city which years ago was incorporated into the city just south of it - Melbourne.


There is a well done public park across the waterway from the marina that was on our left as we entered the channel. After we were settled, a bike ride was in order to check out the park.

Lots of wildlife including squirrels everywhere! White herons and blue herons as well.


And possibly alligators. Steve went looking for them but apparently it's not the right time of day/year for them to make an appearance.

But there was work awaiting us at the boat so we headed back. So while in Banana Bay, we replaced the house bank of 4 golf cart batteries (this enables us to run fridge, freezer, lights, tv etc. using the inverter when we are anchored).

There is a separate 12-volt battery that is used just to start the engine and power the windlass - the idea being we would never run the engine starting battery down. Good in theory and in this case in practise as well!

Should have replaced the engine start battery though when we did the others especially since the permanent magic marker indicating the year of installation was no longer legible!  No problems other than the water (acid??) coming out of the between the top and side of the battery. Never saw that before!

Karen at the canvas shop at the marina was kind enough to drive Steve and our old battery to an auto part store to pick up a new battery. Installed and done.

The ride around town included finding the original cemetery for the area. It was locked up so closer investigation wasn't possible.

Kind of interesting though. And the cemetery seemed to be pretty well cared for.

The cutest dog lives here. His name is Beagle :-) Karen said to be aware he would hop right onto your boat if he smelled food cooking.

Guess he smelled the muffins Steve was baking :-)

Beagle wasn't tall enough to hop onto our boat or I'm sure he would have if he could have!

NEW RULE: Steve is never to get a haircut anywhere near any military base!!

Guess I'd better get back to cutting his hair or quit complaining, right? :-)