Thursday, April 2 — Watching the charts and the shore

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!