Saturday, March 15, 2014 Titusville Municpal Marina

hauling in anchor

sunrise at Eau Gallie

Eau Gallie

What a good night sleep we got last night!  We needed it after our ‘Anchorage from Hell’, our last night in Fort Pierce.  We woke up to a millpond and less than 2 mph winds, if that.  After enjoying the beautiful sunrise, our anchors were hoisted at 8 am and we are off to Titusville, 35 miles north.   It looks like we will be motoring today.  Not only are the winds light but the winds we have are on our nose!  Once out in the ICW, I called the Titusville Municipal Marina to reserve a dock for 1 week.  We are trying to stall in the warm weather until the north thaws out a bit!  I got an alert from “Mel and Tom’ stating that the Dismal Swamp will be closed temporarily.  It seems the foot bridge (swing) at the Welcome Center is having problems with its hydraulic system.  It should be up and running by the time we get into North Carolina.

Cocoa Beach Anchorage

It’s a bit sad to be retracing our southerly passage that we made in October, November and part of December.  We just passed the Cocoa Beach anchorage.  We both liked this quaint  town with its old hardware store, nice dinghy dock, and their waterfront park.  As we passed, we commented on the fact that the one boat was still stranded up on shore and the same derelict boats were still anchored with their masts laying stretched out on their decks. When anchored here in the fall, there weren't many cruisers that joined us,  but not today.  There are quite a lot of cruisers anchored for the night. 

dolphin in distance

What an awesome day on the ICW.  The dolphins are surfacing

everywhere.  They are still too quick for me to capture them on my camera.  I’d really like one good shot for my photo album!  And the ospreys….they seem to be everywhere.  We saw them yesterday and today feeding their little ones.   They like to build their nests in trees close to the ICW but many of them have nests on top of the day markers.  Since we can get really close to the markers, we get a great view of their nests and babies!

Along our route today, we've passed under 3 fixed bridges.   They don’t hinder our speed.  However, we’re now approaching the Addison Point Bascule Bridge/NASA Causeway .  Since it’s Saturday, there are no restrictions as far as its opening.  It should open on our request.  We’ll see shortly….and it does open as soon as the bridge tender stops the traffic on the road.   There is a sailboat motoring south, Circe.  Who would believe it?  But,  it’s not Billy and Eileen on their Circe!  Anyhow, our boats let this Circe pass under the bridge first.  Soon, we’re on the move again and have 7 more miles to go to reach the Titusville mooring field and the Municipal Marina.

When I hailed the marina at 3:00, they assigned us slip A43.  Before we docked, we pulled up to the fuel dock to purchase diesel….17.4 gallons….not bad considering that’s what Happy Hours drank from Old Bahama Bay, West End to Titusville. 

At 6:00, our plans are to meet the crew at the marina office.  One of the dockhands told Rita to call ahead for priority seating.  This way when we get there, we’ll have no more than a 25 minute wait.  We called a shuttle driver,  'Biggans', and he took us to the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant. Wow, the food must be good.  There were people milling around everywhere waiting for a table.  True to their word, we had our table in no time.   We discovered this restaurant by people recommending it.  The service was great and the food was good!  Dixie Crossroads is famous for their rock shrimp.  At one time the rock shrimp was considered a trash seafood and inedible.  Mr Thompson developed a machine to crack the shell of these hard shelled shrimp and started his restaurant.  These shrimp taste like lobster but just on a smaller scale!  The 5 of us had a great time…until we got back to the marina and had to say  ‘goodbye’.  Our last time together…….

rock shrimp

Rita & David