Wildlife Wild life

March 9, 2016

St. Augustine, Florida

Mile Marker 777 ICW

We have stayed at Banana River mile marker 913, Cocoa mile marker 898, Titusville mile marker 885, Titusville Marina mooring mile marker 878, Daytona Beach mile marker 822, and now St. Augustine mile marker 777, all on the ICW. The stops have all been on the hook except for the one mooring at the Titusville Marine. I have changed the format in how I tell you where we are and where we have been.  I was not having fun trying to give specifics details and this is suppose to be fun.  

I have been in some remarkable places, seen some remarkable things since I last wrote and I want to tell you about them. 

One of my favorite anchorages on the way south was Banana River.  We found this little piece of paradise and safety when we were looking for a port in a storm.  You enter Banana River anchorage around Dragon Point.  I didn’t know the origin of the name until one of our cruising buddies told us. Sure enough we could see the remains of a dragon the size of a small plane that had been slain by the years of harsh weather and seas.  I probably told you about this anchorage on the way down, because I was so excited to be safe and watching the dolphins and pelicans play. This time there were a lot of crew shell teams practicing. It is hard to find a place to go ashore, one place is less than pleasant to tie your dinghy and the other place is a beautiful park where the athletes launch their water craft. Rob dropped me off there to do food shopping.  We were not sure we were allowed to tie up.

Cocoa Village was fun to explore.  There is a day dock where we tied up the trawler, so we could come and go without having to take a dinghy ride to shore. But at the end of the day we had to move to an anchorage.  

We shopped for no-see-um screen.  If you had been anchored near mangroves you would be very excited about buying the screen.  We had to spend an extra day in Cocoa waiting for the screen to come by UPS to a local store.  It has not been installed yet and I have been bitten by a few bugs but nothing like it was.  Rob is not bothered at all by these little “buggers”.  My father had terrible reactions to bug bites and I think that gene has been past on to me.

Next stop, Titusville!

SpaceX launch

I will post pictures but most of you have probably seen the launch in some news format. The talk of the “town” was about one of SpaceX’s attempts at a launch,a delay because of a tug boat in the safety zone.  Poor Captain, I would have been very upset with myself and embarrassed to have delayed a take off.  

What a glorious experience.  

We stayed on a mooring at the Titusville Marina only 7 miles north of our last anchorage. We stayed on the mooring for the weekend so we could visit the Kennedy Space Center and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.  The first time I started hearing the name Merritt Island was when Rob told me he was signing us up to win the HGTV 2016 home, on the island.  I don’t think we won.

We rented a car for a few days, the first time since we have been on this adventure. It was very exciting to grocery shop knowing that we didn’t have to carry it in our backpacks and walk a few of miles.

The first day we visited the wildlife refuge.  Rather than stumble through a description I will let you read it as written in the literature we received.

Merritt Island Nation Wildlife Refuge is an overlay of NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center where the world’s most advanced technology launched man to the moon, and today, contiues space exploratioin.  However, there is another kind of “space” here, one that is set aside for over 500 different species of wildlife and 1000 species of plants.

Contained within this 35-mile long barrier island is a rich abundance of plants and animals from both the subtropical and temperate climate zones.  The Refuge is strategically located on the Atlantic Flyway, a major bird migratioin corridor, and it is a key resting stop for many migrating bird species.  Merritt Island NWR’s habitats support one of the highest numbers of endangered and threatened species found within the refuges of the National Wildlife Refuge System.  The unique relationship the Refuge shares with NASA bears testimony that nature and technology can coexist.

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Part of the visit is a 7 mile loop through many of habitats.  We saw tricolored heron, snowy egret, reddish egret, white ibis, great blue heron, roseate spoonbill, long billed dowitcher, so many I had to stop trying to identify them and just enjoy their beauty.  I thought about several of you I know would have enjoyed being there. I would not miss the opportunity to visit all of the Kennedy Space Center and Merritt Island.  On day two of the car rental we visited the Space Center, a very unique experience to see the site of the SpaceX launch we saw on Friday. 

Yesterday we traveled to St. Augustine working our way north and today we head to Jacksonville to have dinner with people we met on our trip south. It is all very exciting.

Prepare to see the glow of the lift off

Lift off

Map of Merritt Island showing the wear of enjoyment

I love this picture, the purpose is for you to see the large alligator the is on the other side

The tiny alligator, also hard to see

The treasure hunt walk to find more wildlife

We saw three shy manatees

It really bothers me to see the scares on the backs of the manatees from boaters 

Bird of the post

Pelicans in formation

 Armadillo

More wild life

Fascinating to talk to the robot, when I told him to have a nice day he gave me a thumbs up

Atlantis

A very helpful chart to understand the size of the crafts

Made of Legos

For my nephews

Leaving the Center

One good tern deserves another

Other tern

Another Tourist!

Dinner after a long day

Parting Shot

No privacy when trying to keep the sun off my face while taking a snooze.

...and there are my exciting adventures.

Oysters, Horses and Stingray, Oh My

March 1, 2016

Vero Beach, Florida

Mile Marker 952 ICW

I am writing to you from Vero Beach. When we traveled south we stopped here and I didn’t find it particularly interesting.  At that time we were taking cover from bad weather and Vero Beach certainly provided that. 

This time we spent hours with friends and that has made a big difference to us. We had cocktail hour, dinners together and walks to town.  

Before Vero Beach, we visited the Florida Oceanographic Coastal Center on Hutchinson Island. Hutchinson Island is a barrier island on the coast of Martin and St. Lucie counties Florida. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by the St. Lucie Inlet, on the west by the Indian River, and on the north by the Fort Pierce Inlet. We paid twelve dollars to listen to a Stingray Feeding Program, Sea Turtle Program and the Game Fish Program. Fascinating!  We also walked the nature trail and learned about Oyster Reefs. 

I think the only way for you to see what it is all about is to show you pictures. Sorry, but there isn't any bird photo this post. 

The stingers have been removed, so I didn't worry about being stung. I had three pieces of fish to feed the stingray.  They are so soft to touch and when they take the food they are very gentle.

The oyster program

 Shore erosion prevention

In the main building there were many tanks with interesting fish.  The sea horse is about six or seven inches long.

Notice her tail wrapped around the plant

Monday morning

Bad hair day

"Don't come near me"  the pencil urchin.

Parting Shot

More Moorings

February 24, 2016

Stuart, Florida

Mile Marker 6 OWW

We loved the Okeechobee Waterway all 146.8 miles and three days.  The weather was perfect.  We stopped at an anchorage in Southbay that seemed in the middle of nowhere but it wasn’t, we just couldn’t see any town or other goings-on from where we were.  When we anchored we saw a small Bayliner, probably from the 80’s that was just right for taking out on the lake or pond for snacks and drinks before dinner. Before long the Bayliner headed out but not without giving our boat a good look.  They circled around and came back to visit after all they were from the “County”.  County is the name people in Maine give Aroostook County.  The couple has a camper in an RV park over the “hump”. They offered to take us to the grocery store or anywhere else we might need to go.  Nice folks

The people had come into the anchorage to see the rookery of white birds.  We had seen the birds gather there as well, an amazing sight. I didn’t take a picture of the birds in the trees but if you think about a tree filled with white apples you can make a picture of it yourself.

It was Sunday that we traveled the last part of the journey to Stuart. We fueled up just before arriving at Sunset Bay Marina and Anchorage.

You cannot make a reservation for one of the Sunset Bay Marina moorings. It is first come, first serve.  I guess there have been rather heated conversations between boaters thinking that they were the ones that got to the mooring first. We didn’t get a mooring when we first arrived and had to anchor.  Anchoring means no laundry, shower, dinghy docking and lounge privileges.  There were four of us looking out for someone raising a dinghy, battening down the hatches and just plain looking like they are leaving so we can get a mooring before someone else. We now are on a mooring, thanks to Sue and Paul, but it came with strings attached. Because it belonged to another boater and they are gone for a few days we have to be off by Thursday. At that time the lookout starts again and if we didn’t get to a mooring we will have to return to anchor if.  All the time we are looking for a mooring. There are boaters circling around the mooring field looking for signs that people are moving on. Anyway that is the personality of this marina.  

There is this wonderful river walk that is very unique. It is wooded in most places and concrete in others.  I don’t know how long it is but, quite long.  We saw pelicans, red crabs, a beautiful bird, interesting trees, friendly people, places to have a margarita and sit and relax. We can't go on a walk today because it is pouring and rainy.

You will notice that the mile markers a going from high to low and that is because the OWW starts in the east and goes west.

I hope that you are having as good a day as I am.

The pictures

This is the last hand cracked swing bridge in Florida.  If you look closely near the man on the left you can see the hand crank.  The men loved having their picture taken.

Bird of the post

Beautiful bird we saw on the river walk I don't know what it is so if anyone does let us all know.  Melissa? Since I have free Wi-Fi today I am sending lots of photos

I don't think this is a Mangrove but it sure is interesting.

Parts of the river walk

The first two pictures were taken seconds apart and the colors are so different.

 The smoke in the background is from the burning of sugar cane.  We saw some of the bass boat fisherman with bandanas over their nose and mouth and I wondered if this was because they didn't want to breath in the smoke.

The sky has many personalities

Parting shot

Eider

Tricia