Daytona Beach 4/30/09

We’ve been doing 50 mile days on the ICW and today’s journey took us to Daytona Beach. If you are into Harleys, NASCAR and tattoos, this is your place. It is such a motor culture here that you can pay $5.00 and drive your car right on the beach and set up your umbrella. Are you missing the pictures of the beautiful Bahamian blue water and isolated beaches—we are too. Daytona Beach does have 50-70 yard flat packed beach sand at low tide which was just great for a long walk.

Space Age back to Time of Columbus 4-29-09

“See Ya,” “Freedom,” and “Baby Grand” departed Fort Pierce on 4//27 and had a wonderful anchorage in the lea of 15-20 knot winds at Milepost 918.2 north of the Melbourne Bridge. Plenty of stars and a great night’s sleep which is perfect as far as we’re concerned.

“See Ya” and “Baby Grand” journeyed to Titusville Municipal Marina on 4/28 so that we could tour the Kennedy Space Center. However, at 3am, the inverter alarm sounded and it we lost power and thought that we might have to forego this trip. Bob had the foresight to order a replacement panel for the inverter, and after installing this and rebooting, the batteries recharged and we left the boat. However, when we got back from the Space Center, “Houston we have a problem”-- power was off again so back to the drawing board. It turns out that the Titusville Marina was generating 130 volts and our inverter was set to shut-off at that level so Bob changed the default setting to 131 and voila’, power again.

The Kennedy Space Center tour was very impressive. The next NASA launch is the Atlantis scheduled for lift-off on 5/11/09 at 2:01pm. It is the last service mission to the Hubbell Telescope which has been orbiting for 19 years, 350 miles out in space. Scott Allman, who did the real test pilot flying in the movie “Top Gun,” is the Commander. This rocket land tour takes you from the initial fledgling failures, the space race with Russia, the Apollo moon landings, the Space Shuttle programs, International Space Station to the new Constellation program which will again put astronauts on the moon.

One astronaut described his spacecraft as “a butterfly flying on top of a bullet.” We had the chance to experience some of the thrill of this on the Shuttle Launch Experience. You get a real appreciation for the genius and dedication of the NASA employees and how much the space technology they developed have changed our lives (satellite navigation and communication, water purification systems, medical advances in lasers, ultrasound scanners, programmable medical devices—the list is endless).

I was washing the boat later when this beautiful, gentle, 8 foot adolescent manatee appeared and cavorted in our neighbor’s reverse cycle water stream. Manatees are 6-10 feet long and are herbivores that graze along the grassy bottom and surface every 3-5 minutes for air. They were mistaken for mermaids long ago by Columbus and crew, but when you see their jowly, Rubenesque frame or 200-300 lbs., you know these sailors probably had rickets and had been too long at sea. Still, there is something very hypnotic about them and we would have followed their siren song anywhere.

Fort Pierce 4-26-09

We only stayed one night at the Riviera Marina in the Lake Worth area as the tiki bar band played loudly until midnight but then the morning crew came in at 6:15 am to dry stack boats (boats stacked on racks with a fork lift in a big boat barn) and we need just a little more sleep. We moved on to Fort Pierce Marina with “See Ya” and “Freedom” on 4/24 and it was great to be on the easy ICW again. We have had winds of 20-25 knots for the past few days but don’t have to worry about it.

Ft. Pierce Marina is worth a stop. This is a great marina with helpful staff, 2 tiki bars but without the morning dry stacking stuff, clean restrooms, as well as laundry facilities that work and are only $1.00 per load. After paying $4-5.00 per load in the Bahamas, we felt that we were making money.

Ft. Pierce has a fantastic Farmers’ Market complete with a Latin jazz band every Saturday from 8am to 12 noon. This was perfect timing for us as our supplies are very low and we were craving fresh fruits and veggies. I was even dreaming about fresh ripe cantaloupes. Selection is pretty limited in the Bahamas and prices are often 2-3X as much if you can even find decent produce. I filled up my boat cart with fresh and frozen fish as well and, of course, tasted lots of bakery items and free samples. We are missing the laid-back pace of the Bahamas and have felt some culture shock, but are glad to have the abundance America provides.

We rented a car to do some major provisioning at Target, West Marine and Publix so our bowline is looking pretty low in the water again. After giving the boat a good wash, as well as laundering all the rugs and bedding, we are ship shape again and ready to cruise.

We visited with my cousins, John and Maggie, in Stuart and were treated to a sumptuous brunch at their golf club. It is wonderful to see family along the way and catch up on all the news. We were also delighted to see gold Loopers, Mickey and Doug, on “Bucket.” They completed the Loop in 12/08 and Ft. Pierce is their home port. It was fun to reminisce about our time together on the rivers as well as get some suggestions for the trip north.