Moving on down the road - Leaving Ft. Pierce, to Cocoa FL 4/29 to 5/3

Everything is fixed!

The aft toilet finally flushes after Kermit and Jim the plumber replaced 20 feet of hose from the far aft to the holding tank in the forward part of the boat. We learned that coffee grounds in a bowl placed in an AC vent smells lots better than head hose fumes. Evidently the hose was completely and totally blocked. Some of that was from being in salt water which crystallizes the stuff in the hose. Most of it is from being 17 years old. It was time.

The new port railing is installed!It is beautiful, strong, and not bent. Best of all it doesn't have any awful bubbly welds at the base to mortify Kermit. Sigh.

We also engaged a diver to clean our bottom. We never do this  in Lake Erie because 1) the crap doesn't seem to build up so much, (unless you never move your boat like some friends in All Ports!!) and 2) we are only in the water for 4 or 5 months so crud doesn't build up so much.

We have been in the water for 10 months now and stuff accumulates. The diver reported the bottom paint still looks great. Best of all the props look almost new. The still have the ridges originally installed by Wolverine last year when the props were machined. I hope I haven't just jinxed this great news!

The diver installed new zincs. The port zinc was almost completely disintegrated. Kermit says they disintegrate when there is electric current in the water as a way to protect the boat. We can never be sure where it happened or when. I guess it is a fun game to play: which marina or anchorage was so crappy that electric current ran through the water?

The entire dive took about 30 minutes. These divers wear wet suits with hoods to protect their heads from the crap they scrap off the bottom. The tank sits on the dock on a rolling cradle with a narrow hose attached to the tank and a breather. The diver jumps in with fins and a scraper and do their thing. This picture is from Cocoa but the concept is the same. See the tank on a cradel? This is a great cottage industry. Kermit could definitely do this job. So could Martha for that matter!!

We had a great dinner and cocktails with Bunny and Evan at The Edge to celebrate a great time in Fort Pierce. It is fitting that our last dinner in Ft. Pierce should be at the same waterfront restaurant we photographed on our way into Ft. Pierce on April 15 arriving from the Bahamas. We are so lucky to have such great friends and great hosts! But it is time to move on.

L: Bunny's friend, Bunny, Evan, Kermit, and Katherine 

The view of Ft. Pierce Inlet from The Edge

On Tuesday, April 30 we left our slip at 8am and got a long needed pump out.YEAH!!! We are pumped clean again.

At 9am we got on the road...er water again. We took the InterCoastal Waterway because the weather is pretty crappy. The other other is to run really fast through the ocean along the coast but the weather is too crappy for that and we don't want to spend the gas. So the ICW works for us.

Rain, rain, go away...

It is threatening to rain and finally does rain but the ICW blocks the wind to make traveling in the rain downright lovely. Aside from the need to periodically unzip the glass and wipe down our "window" so Kermit can see. 

Markers on the ICW can be fascinating. While you are watching your gauges, paying attention to the currents and traffic, you occasionally see markers like these coming out of the Fort Pierce Municipal Marina. This is a green/red combo telling you to be aware that you are coming up on a transition or change to another road. It is sort of like a yield or merge sign on a highway. When you see this marker you know you are entering another channel, in this case the ICW.


This picture tries to capture the merger of two streams of water - the murky brown of brackish water on the ICW with the blue water of the Ft. Pierce Inlet, water that is coming from the sea. It is pretty cool!

Fort Pierce is at ICW mile marker 965.9. Just like the inland rivers, we can use the mile markers to tell where we are and how far we have traveled. The wierd thing is the chart plotter talks in terms of the numbers on the channel markers and not in mile markers. Take it from me, we started at MM 965.9. Our target was Cocoa, FL at MM 897.3, we we planned a trip of about 40 miles on our first day back on the water.

In some ways, the ICW looks like any other river we've ridden down. Aside from the palm trees at some places I swear you would think you are on the St. Clair River headed for Lake Huron. Maybe the Detroit River because the water is brown. I guess you have to ignore the unusual critters like this pelican or the porpoises!

Or the sunk and abandoned boats you see occasionally.


Or the crabpots and the little boats that scoot around to remove the contents periodically.

But other than that, sure, you could forget where you are for a while.

The ICW is very wide in most places rimmed with fancy houses especially near fancy places like Vero Beach where Dick and Deanna Shephard are docked.

Entering Melbourne FL

We had lunch with Dick and Deanna on the previous Sunday then visited with them at Ft. Pierce on Monday when they came to pick up their revised props at Cracker Bob's. Dick had surgery on Tuesday, the day before we left Ft. Pierce. He is doing fine. We waved when we went passed their marina on the ICW on our way north but we didn't stop. He needed to rest.

Our target on 5/1 was Cocoa, FL but the weather just got worse and worse so we stopped in Melbourne FL for shelter, at MM 918.5.

Melbourne is a fairly large city but we didn't get to see much of it. It is home to Florida Institute of Technology Evinrude Marine Operations Center. We passed the sign along the channel as we entered but we didn't go in.

We ate a wonderful dinner at Ichobods, the bar at the marina. It was packed. We listened to the rain pinging off the metal roof while we ate.

These folks are a little wild so we enjoyed crowd watching, especially the party that pulled a homemade birthday cake out of the fridge!! Never saw one like that in real life. The entire bar erupted, so to speak!

Melbourne FL after the storm

Kermit had yet another great steak, "the best I've ever had". This one was a little odd, with sauted spinach, bacon, mushrooms, covered with provolone cheese and a bearnaise sauce. It was a low cal meal, especially when served with mashed potatoes and broccoli. I had salmon with teriaki sauce served with little roast potatoes just like I make at home. MMMmmmmm.... We were happy.

 The next day dawned chilly with that perfect glow just after the rain stops. Rusty and I walked around the park but didn't go into town. We saw birds, murals, and some of the dirtiest boats I have ever seen. Kermit said it would take SoftScrub with bleach to get the gunk off this SeaRay. No thank you.

The filtiest boat ever

On We rode through the sun, clouds, and rain to Cocoa FL. Judy and Michael of One September really liked Cocoa. It is cute. The community takes really good care of it. Cocoa is on the west bank of the ICW. There are two bridges over the ICW, or Indian River, to take traffic to and from Merritt Island.

The Kennedy Space Center is on the ocean on the other side of Merritt Island. I guess we are about 10 miles away from the Kennedy Space Center by car. We visited the KSC a few years ago with Marissa so we decided not to rent a car and visit this time. We really wanted to see the launch pads with the towers. Dave and Diane from Boot Scootin, hailing from Toronto, visited there on Friday but the gale force winds greater than 65 mph meant that portion of the tour was cancelled. So we couldn't have seen what we wanted anyway.

Cocoa Village is a historic landmark with shops on streets restored to their original state from the 1920s to 1950s when the town was booming.

Restaurants are good. We stopped in a Mexican restaurant for lunch that is located in an old bank building. Folks in Florida do a lot with old bank buildings. the Anytime Fitness in Fort Pierce was located on the first floor of an old bank. El Charro is similarly situated. It has interesting balconies on the inside. Kermit also ate at the local Thai sushi place. Check that off the list. We don't have to hit Asian food for weeks now.

 Lots of murals and scupltures on the streets.
 

Cocoa Village Playhouse has been restored to glory!

One of the best parts of this trip is being open to new events. Just say yes whenever the opportunity arises. On our walk on Thursday we passed the Cocoa Village Playhouse. We bought tickets for "Big River" showing that evening. We invited Dave and Diane at the last minute to make it a party!

The Widow Douglas

Huck greeting his fans

Jim, the runaway slave

It seems perfectly appropriate on a big trip circumnavigating the eastern part of the US to see a musical about Mark Twain's story about Huck Finn's adventures with Jim down the Mississippi.

The story takes us on the Mississippi from above the Illinois River to Alton, IL, past St. Louis to Cairo, IL at the Ohio River, to Kentucky, down to the Missouri River. Huck learns about life from Jim the runaway slave.

L: Kermit, Katherine, Dave, and Diane from Boot Scootin

I read Mark Twain during this part of our trip but it takes the breath away to hear the old language spoken and see the bad treatment of African Americans during slavery. After the show, the actress who played Widow Douglass explained that the cast worked very hard to understand how to express the 1840s to a modern audience. The kid who played Huck Finn was awesome. He is only 17 years old but he has been involved in this theatre group since he was 9! The actor who played Jim was amazing, bringing tears to my eyes while he sang about his misery yet kept a positive attitude about escaping.

The singing was totally amazing!! I never experienced such a wonderful community theatre group, especially with a musical. Wonderful!

Travis Hardware Store is a place frozen in time. Three buildings right across from the marina are jam-packed with stuff. Rows and rows of stuff. I can't imagine what it is like to do inventory. Then again, I bet they don't do inventory. It is the kind of place guys visit to spend time away from their nagging wives.

Kermit had a blast. He bought a new trailer hitch to replace on of the dinghy lifts on our aft deck. This thing had an inch of dust on it. I think it is actually  made of steel. It cost as much as the cheap Chinese version currently rusting on the boat. The cost probably reflects a nice profit on the purchase price in the 1950s, not counting the carrying costs.

All week the storms have been around central Florida. It hit us each day in some fashion. On midday Friday you can see the storms about a mile or so away circling Cocoa but bright sunshine overhead.

 We got a LOT of rain. This dinghy has about 3 inches of water in it after the storm.

 Friday night Dave and Diane took us to Arby's for a fast food adventure. We haven't had fast food for months. Bad for us I know but it tasted so good!!

 Cocoa is really beautiful so we walked around a lot with Rusty.

I saw this little plaque in front of an old home down the street from the marina. It says, "The Albert E 'Doc' Travis Cottage Built in 1923. Doc Travis built this cottage for his betrothed, Miss Mamie Price. Doc and Mamie were married in February, 1924. On May 14, 1925, at age 33, Doc drowned dring a fishing trip at the Southern end of Merrit Island."

I wondered why there should be a plaque for a fellow who only lived in the house for 2 years. Then I realized that the hardware store is the Travis Hardware Store! So Doc was a relative of the hardware store that is such a town fixture. No wonder there is a plaque!!

We plan to leave on Saturday but the weather just north of us is crappy. Storms will leave tomorrow so we will stay for one more day then head to New Smyrna on Sunday. That means Derby Day Party at Cocoa!!!

Have a great Derby Day!!