9 April 2015

Another pretty dawn with no wind so it was easy to get off the dock and heading north again. We did another try at going up on plane to clear the front bilge out. Same result as yesterday, wet carpet, my turn to clean it up. On Friday we will try again, going a lot slower.

About 8 AM we heard “Greeks Folly” and “Sweetwater” on the radio, we had crossed with them from Apalachicola to Dunedin back in November. It was nice to catch up with them. And it’s a good sign that we are back with the Loopers.

A few moments later we noticed a huge disturbance in the water ahead of us. Slowing we came up on a number of rays, they were flipping around in the water. Susan did some research, the were either feeding or mating. It’s the right time of year and the frenzy of activity matches up with what she found. We’ll find out later if the pictures came out.

Mid morning we came up behind “Joint Adventure”, they are a Gold Looper. We chatted for a few moments on the radio and agreed to catch up in Titusville.

Of course we came up to “Chamba” that we’ve been playing tortise and hare with all week. They are doing fine, they were going to bypass Titusville and would look for us on Friday.

We started hearing “Thanks for the wake Sapphire”, “Hey Sapphire slow down”, “You idiot Sapphire!”. We looked and there was a 35 Hinkley headed our way. And of course due to the channel he came about 20′ away and waked both us and the sail boat we were trying to give a slow pass to. Some minor damage of things getting dumped on the floor. I radioed the Coast Guard, they seemed highly disinterested. We then listened for the next 30 minutes as Sapphire continued to wake boats as they traveled north.

We docked and were met by the crews of “Marabeel” and “Serenity”. Yay!! We had seen “Serenity” at Tavernier, but it had been December since we had been with “Marabeel”. They along with the crew of Charis were off to the beach, but they would meet us for docktails.

After lunch I headed to the Titusville US Walk of Fame Museum. There are a number of monuments along the waterfront and then a museum with some great artifacts. While most museums are about the astronauts, this one is about the thousands of workers that made the space program possible. They have a huge collection of patches and buttons from all the missions, consoles from the control centers, tools, bolts that were used to keep the rockets upright, etc. Lots of pictures of mission control teams, people working on rockets, etc.

The docents all had stories of who they had met, things that they had worked on, etc. One told the story of how they got stuck on a bus in traffic for a launch. On the other side of the road was Glenn Campbell and his tour bus. Since there was nobody coming out of the launch area they had a clears shot. Their bus driver knew the other drivers and it was the same company. So he lurched across the media and joined the group of buses. They got to the launch site, got to meet Glenn Campbell, and just as they did they scrubbed the launch. So they had an easy trip back out since they were first in line.

Next stop was Playalinda Brewing Company. They have 15 beers that they make and 5 more guest taps, along with a Ginger Soda they make. So of course I had a flight of all the beers they make. The owner, Ron, sat with me and talked about each beer as I sampled. Very cool. He said that it’s a struggle to keep all of the beers on tap, he’s making 3-4 different beers each week. It was nice to get a guided tour of all the beers. One of the things he’s doing is Can Growlers. They only cost him $1, so they are disposable and a easy way for people on the fence to buy his beer. Downside is they only hold 20 oz, so they don’t last as long.

Then it was time for Docktails!!! We hadn’t been to Docktails with Loopers since we left Tavernier. “Mara Beel”, “Serenity”, “Charis” and “Prime Adventure” had a great time. Really missed the crew of “Mara Beel”, they are great people and I just love talking to Mark.

Some of the talk was about the benefits of joining the MTOA. They set up lots of cruises, they are very active in the Chesapeake Bay. The other is access to discounted insurance policies. The members save more on that than the cost of the dues.

Dinner was grilled chicken with the zucchini noodles that I love so much.

A pretty great day!