St. Augustine to West Palm Beach, FL

The trip to Daytona Beach was fairly uneventful.  But we did start seeing more palm trees, at last!  This soon gave way to more development as we neared Daytona.  We also passed under bridge after bridge after bridge...

Daytona to Titusville

There was plenty of wildlife to see on the way to Daytona Beach.   We've been seeing dolphins for awhile now, but we were very uncomfortable with a snake who looked as if it wanted to jump on board...   Nolan had a great time on this leg of our journey, starting with the finger kite that Grandma gave him.  Then he enjoyed being dropped through the hatch onto the aft berth (over and over) and later on fishing (using his own rod/reel) with Brian.

We stayed in Titusville for almost a week, due to undesirable weather plus some work on the boat.  It was a decent place to stay for awhile.  There was a nice park just on shore that Nolan enjoyed.  We also rented a car for a couple of days which enabled us to stock up one last time with organic food from Sunseed Grocer on Cape Canaveral and visit Cocoa Village.  While out and about, we also visited the original Ron Jon's Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach.  Oh, and we saw a manatee - barnacles and all!

For Jean...

We were glad to finally be leaving Titusville, even though Ria and Nolan returned about 1:00am that morning before we left.  We did hit bottom once, pretty hard.  And this time it felt like more than just sand.  Submerged piling?  Stumps?  Rocks?  A wreck?  We had a hard time getting off, but thanks to some local fisherman who came over, circled our boat, and gave us depth soundings, we knew which way we needed to go.  It seemed like deep water was all around us, however, which leads us to believe it was some sort of obstruction rather than just shoaling.  And again, we were right smack in the middle of the channel.  

Between Titusville and Vero Beach, we went through an area of very nice homes.  And just before arriving in Vero, Nolan got a much needed haircut, which we're sure both grandmothers are very happy to hear...  

Vero Beach to West Palm Beach

After departing Vero Beach the next morning, we made a last minute decision to exit the ICW at Fort Pierce Inlet and re-enter at Lake Worth Inlet.  The last few days on the ICW had been nerve-racking - very shallow depths, running aground, extremely narrow channels.   A lack of money has kept the ICW from being maintained properly in many areas so it can be tough on boats like Belisana that draw over 6 feet.  When the channel starts getting narrow, whoever is at the helm slows down to a crawl, stares at the depth sounder, and tries to find the deepest part of the channel - which sometimes isn't deep enough.  This goes on for hours and hours.  Neither of us wanted to go through another day of that.  Plus we did not want to risk hitting another obstruction as we had the day before.  It was a great decision - the weather was gorgeous!  We had the best day yet.

We also made use of our fishing gear on this trip.  Ria's dad, Sidney, helped us set up a rod holster on one of the rear stanchions when he visited, so we can set out our line and troll as we sail/motor along.  The first time we set out the line, a powerboat came zipping behind us, cutting our line and causing us to lose our lure.  Ria re-rigged it and - voila!  Less than half an hour later, we had a fish.  The whole family got on deck and celebrated our first catch of the trip.   It took us awhile to identify it using our fish guide, but we eventually determined that it was a chub mackerel.  Pretty little fish.  Our book said it was edible but not tasty.  We let it go but probably not soon enough for it to make it...  We again set out the line, and in another half hour, Brian reeled in another chub mackerel.  We let this one go right away, so he fared a little better than the first one.

Nolan also loved playing at the fountains in the square by the library.  He and Brian went there often, and Nolan would ride his bike all over, kick the soccer ball, etc.  One evening there was a little boy, Manuel, at the fountains with his mother.  Nolan asked him if he'd like to play ball, so they kicked the soccer ball together - running the entire time - for over an hour...  Finally someone who can match Nolan's energy level!  The next day Brian and Nolan returned to the square but there were no children in sight.  He complained that he wanted someone to play with.  Just at that moment, a man came out of the library and got on his bicycle.  Nolan rushed over and asked him, "Excuse me, sir.  Would you like to ride bikes with me?"  The man replied, "Uh... well...sure."  So he and Nolan rode in circles for about half an hour.  Nice man.  He stayed for awhile afterwards, talking to Brian and Nolan.

Oh, we did not get to celebrate Maria's birthday in the Bahamas but we made the best of our situation.  We got out the bosun's chair (translation:  the chair you sit in to do work on the mast) and used a dockline to create a swing for Nolan.  He had a blast!  Then Brian insisted that Maria go for a swing since it was her birthday.  The next day, Brian's gift was taking care of Nolan so that she could read The DaVinci Code (illustrate version), which she devoured in one day...Brian had read it a while back and we both agree that it was great book.