The Easter Bunny found his way to Titusville and left a basket of chocolate goodies (and Peeps! of course) for Jassa. (Scroll through photos to see another Easter delivery to two pretty girls!) Very windy this morning. And gray. Cliff and I are happy not to be departing in the wind as we will be VERY short-handed as we leave the dock tomorrow. With Ann’s bad shoulder, we are down to 3 good “hands.” Jessica and Jassa left mid-day and Cliff and Ann went to work: get dinghy drained and re-attached to stanchions, straighten up inside of boat, scrub down outside of boat, dry chrome (who knew it would rain in about 10 minutes), fill the 136 gallon water tank, change linens in guest bath & berth, wash never ending supply of dirty glasses and dishes (note to self: send a thank-you note to Roger and Will for all the dishes they did while on board!), do some re-provisioning for the next several days, find a West Marine store and spend more with them, return Avis car, do laundry and then navigate the jigsaw puzzle of storage to put away the clean clothes. Oh, and dash around madly when it started raining (hard!) to close open doors and zip up driving station…then drape the items that got rained on around the cabin so they could dry. Whew! Watched the UConn-Maryland women’s basketball game and crashed.
Easter bunny tracked Jassa down at Dot.Calm in Titusville. More sugar is just what he needs.Is it possible that Jassa is turning into a teenager right before our eyes? Or are all 10 year olds attached to electronics 24/7?We’re counting on this formal documentation to prove that we returned our car on time. Avis office located inside Sears store. Store was closed, but door to Avis open and provided complete access into the store. Weird.Stormy sky and 17-20 mph winds made us glad to be in port. Should have kept our eye on the storm a bit closer!The West Coast Knowles girls Charlotte and Addison enjoying some Easter fun at Grandma Stephanie and Grandpa Bob’s house in Oceanside. (Sneaking in non-cruise photos of grandchildren is a grandmother’s prerogative.)
Kennedy Space Center is an amazing place. Visiting with a 10-year old is almost as amazing. Grandma is tired. You will have to visit to get the full experience. Here are some pictures.
Looks can be deceiving thanks to a camera angle that makes Jassa look as though he can touch the nose of a HUGE rocket displayed outside the NASA assembly building.Here is Jessica’s version of the picture entitled “What NASA is really working on.”These are the thrusters of the Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 8, the most powerful rocket ever. The new SLS will eclipse that record but not until 2018. SLS is one of a zillion acronyms that NASA uses. Totally confusing!The “landing” slide was so much fun that Jassa did it 10 times (or so it seemed). Cliff got a video of it, if you are interested.The “Rocket Garden” provides a visual history of America’s space quest.Jassa takes a seat in a model space capsule. Somehow with him inside, it doesn’t look so tiny.This is a panoramic shot of the Atlantis rocket. Amazingly large, until you visit the Saturn exhibit.The Atlantic Ocean is a beautiful backdrop at one of the KSC “behind the scenes” bus tour stops.Another stop on the bus tour is the NASA assembly building. Its size is hard to comprehend. It is tall enough for the rockets to stand upright inside. The world’s largest one-story building.Captured this shop of an osprey heralding his catch as he stopped atop a nearby mast. The osprey’s nest is about 50 yards away and we heard the pair calling to each other frequently.
Said a fond farewell to Roger and Will this morning. What a terrific 15 days together — perhaps remarkable given the close quarters aboard Dot.Calm. We learned that we are a pretty compatible group and have had a lot of laughs over the small spaces available to us for making beds, changing clothes or stashing supplies. They’ve returned to the civilization of The Oaks and, I am sure, they are delighted to be back to roomy beds and lots of space. About the same time Roger and Will were departing, Jessica and Jassa left Orlando for Titusville to visit with us on Dot.Calm. A super treat for us. Jassa was excited for his first visit aboard. He said he “thought he died and went to heaven….or maybe I was just hallucinating.” (See his comments below.) Hard to beat that kind of endorsement, don’t you think? Cliff spent the morning getting Dot.Calm’s dinghy to work. The four-stroke engine purred and a little WD-40 loosened up the throttle. (I was to find out how loose later on.) We took Jassa on an exploratory cruise to a small island about 2 1/2 miles out from the harbor entrance. We nearly had it to ourselves. Wading ashore, we all marveled at how warm the water was and how soft the sand. Jassa spotted horseshoe crabs, sea snails, manatees and leaping fish trying to avoid being dolphin dinner. Jassa found an odd spiral-shaped seaweed that I’d never seen before and returned with the remains of a nearly complete horseshoe crab. With Jassa and I in the front of the dinghy for the return trip, Cliff was able to open it up — 30 mph — eliciting more than a few slow down requests especially as we headed into the wakes of other boats. Splash! It’s been fun to get reports from friends who are reading the blog. Even our tax accountant confessed to following along vicariously. Alas, it did not keep him from sending us the news about tax payments that are due. Hi: This is Jassa. The reason I thought I was hallucinating was because I took a nap. But, yeah, the things Grandma said were true… or Ann or what ever you call her… but remember i call her Grandma, okay. I mean it! Do not mess with a ten year old!
This compact car will be the last tight space for Roger and Will for a while I’m thinking. What a terrific time we had.Our boat neighbor told us the manatees love boat cleaning days, gathering around the scuppers for fresh water. We saw a half dozen of them in the immediate vicinity of our slip.Got the dinghy running just in time for Jassa’s visit. The throttle seems a bit sticky.Here’s our destination! A nearly deserted island about 2 1/2 miles from where we are moored.A nearly private island is a perfect place for a 10 year old to explore. And for Grandma and Grandpa to wade in warm waters.Exploring a “deserted” island is an adventure for 10-year olds and his grandparents. What fun to feel as though you are “all alone” on an island!You can tell by Jassa’s expression that he is nearly as creeped out by this spiral seaweed as his Grandmother.Jassa and Grandpa comparing sea snail specimens.Sandy trails cross-crossed the palm filled island, suggesting a lot of earlier explorers.An eco-friendly reminder of our exploration: “J was here.”
An easy, smooth departure this morning. Cliff up early enough to catch some of the pink sunrise. Others of us not up quite so early, but happy to admire his photo. We learned today that there are housing opportunities along the ICW for every budget! We were startled by the number of dreary trailer parks and RV parking areas where the RVs look as though it has been many, many months since any of them rolled anywhere. To be fair, there are some trailer parks that have a community feel complete with marinas/docks and other public areas that look quite nice. Gentrification is happening all along the ICW in Central Florida and was apparent as we saw elaborate and large homes vying for every possible view of the water right dab next to modest and extremely small houses, seemingly designed as if they didn’t even know the ICW was out their backdoor. The ICW itself offered other contrasts today. In one section it crossed wide open expanses of water with only a narrow trench of navigable water. In another, a sharp right-hand turn cut through an island via a narrow, Australian pine-lined canal with a bascule bridge right in the middle of it. The dock help at our destination marina — the Titusville Municipal Marina — was wonderfully competent, a nice change from having no help at all at the Smyrna Yacht Club (none was expected) and a person who couldn’t seem to tie a weather hitch (or do much else right) at Daytona’s Halifax Harbor Marina. A bit confusing was the dockhand’s use of the proper words for nautical things. Who knew that the large docking post at the end of a mooring slip was called a “dolphin”? Now we do. Will and Roger have rented a car for their journey home to Osprey tomorrow, so we will dine in town tonight after toasting to our fabulous journey so far with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot that Will purchased especially for this occasion. Jessica and Jassa arrive tomorrow. Can hardly wait!
A glimpse of sunrise from the back cabin of Dot.Calm. “Red sky at morning” sailor’s caution turned out not to be the case.Roger and Will give a two thumbs up to their ICW cruise. Alas, today is their last day aboard. Ann is distraught as she will have to start doing some work.Managed to get a smile from Captain Cliff as we started our journey.He’s actually happier here — navigating his way to our next destination.Another low bridge to contend with. Happily, this one had an extra three feet in the middle of the span so we did not have to ask the bridge tender for a lift.The ICW is a fairly narrow trench through this wide-open looking body of water. Water is considerably more shallow just a few feet outside the channel. We were pinched into it a couple of times when bigger boats took their half of the waterway down the middle.The canal across an island with a bridge in the middle is shown through the windshield to give you an idea of how narrow it is.Currents and tides are a relatively new element for Cliff to deal with in terms of mooring and navigating. In Chicago, we don’t have either and in Marathon, current is negligible and tides a foot or less. Not the case at this point on the ICW. Here you see a sailboat that has 8 anchor lines out to keep it in place no matter what the current or tide does!You also have to be on the look-out for dangers to navigation. We all thought this was a submerged sailboat. Not so. It’s a power line that somehow ended up in the ICW.These are all doublewides. The trailer and RV parks range from pretty nice spots to just plain scary. Some had mini-marinas and fishing boat docks. Others had park areas and water boardwalks with plenty of benches. It was a shame that we only saw a handful of people watching the parade of boats go down the ICW.That teensy building you see in the middle of the picture is a house trapped between two hug-the-property-line mega homes.This homeowner has a problem. An osprey has built a nest at the top of the lighthouse pillar. He or she (the osprey, not the homeowner) was in residence as we passed.Veuve Clicquot makes a perfect toast to a perfect holiday with Roger and Will.
Jessica visited us at Daytona this morning. Her office is a short distance from the Halifax Harbor Marina where we were docked. We had coffee on the top deck which was lovely — the kind of morning temperatures we’ve been waiting for. After she departed, we took a cab to breakfast at a spot a dock worker told Will about. Ambiance 0, food, 8. Though, we will tease him about this selection forever, he is fortunate that last night’s dinner at The Blue Grotto right next to where we were moored was so bad (the first bad meal of the trip — to which all of our waistlines can attest). Our ride to New Smyrna was pleasantly slow with more boat traffic, more bridges, more condos and more houses. Definitely into civilization now. Lots of manatee zone signs and Cliff spotted the telltale bubbles of a submerging manatee off a seawall close to the ICW deep channel. Our destination is the Smyrna Yacht Club, a venerable organization with a Spanish hacienda style clubhouse just off the ICW. A friendly welcome and nice facility. Roger, Will and Ann hiked to and from the downtown area. The houses along the waterfront display a wide variety of architectural styles — arts & crafts with deep, shady porches, 1960’s modern featuring an eyebrow roof line and big single-paned windows, Key West style tin-roofs zig-zagging over multiple gables. Several had been converted into B&Bs. Our walk back down an interior street revealed lots of renovation opportunities — same style homes, but most badly in need of fixing up. One of our first stops downtown was a building called The Hub, an artists co-op that is in the midst of a fund-raising campaign. For “only” $500,000 you can have the building named for you! There were some outstanding artists represented, several of whom Roger had taken classes from. Further down the street was a recently opened olive oil and vinegar shop which was delightful, from the sampling opportunities to the knowledgeable owner. We helped ourselves to dribs of this and that and tried them with chunks of bread to determine which combos we liked best. I am sure our purchases “made her day.” I facetiously suggested we stay on board for a salad dinner using some of the purchases, knowing that the idea would be quickly shot down by my hungry cruise companions….which it was. Instead we dined (the appropriate word here) deliciously at the Smyrna Yacht Club and had a friendly server named Trinket (really). An early evening for us — Ann has caught a miserable cold and fortunately Roger brought along his anti-cold medicine chest.
Jessica paid us a visit at Halifax Harbor Marina. Her first time on Dot.Calm.The Ultimate Omelet House. We all LOVED our breakfast choices.Even the wildlife experiences more crowding in Florida — one of several “pelican islands” we passed on our way to New Smyrna.Lots of manatee zone warnings along the way.Smyrna Yacht Club docks — fixed, not floating which means more tending of lines as tides rise and ebb.Relaxing before dinner on the top deck.Enjoying dinner at Smyrna Yacht Club. Lovely. Note that Will is not in the picture. He edited himself out. We have had on-going “discussions” about the person on the end of group photos looking a bit wider than actual.
