Phoenix, AZ - Happy Holidays

Wow, didn't realize how long it had been since the last post. We locked up the boat, boarded the cat, and headed out to Arizona to visit the family for the holidays. So far it has been a busy trip -- we've been running around getting last minute shopping done and visiting friends and family. We stopped by the office to see some familiar faces, and we also drove up to Flagstaff to visit my brothers and sisters (who are attending Northern Arizona University). Kids these days -- they've spent the last couple months without heat bc they thought the furnace was broken. Of course with all the system break-downs Kevin has had to deal with on the boat, he was able to troubleshoot and get the heat up and running within 45 minutes. My husband rocks. Hope everyone has a great holiday season!

Titusville, FL - Shuttle Launch

[Kevin's Post]Well, I guess the photos eliminate any chance of suspense in this post. We saw the Space Shuttle Discovery launch. It was originally supposed to go up Thursday night but was scrubbed due to weather. Today was the second attempt and they were anticipating only a 30% chance, again due to weather. But in the last few hours before the launch the skies cleared up and the wind stopped. At 8:47 PM we were staring at the launch pad waiting. Then all of a sudden we could see the flames and smoke and night became day. Smoke billowed out to sides of the launch pad and the shuttle lifted off. It was one of the most incredible things I've ever seen. The flames were so intense it was like staring at the sun. After a few seconds we could hear the rumble of the rockets. We were able to clearly see the shuttle ascend from the launch pad all the way to orbit 9 minutes later. By the time the main engines cut off the shuttle looked like a bright star.

Our boat is docked at a marina in Titusville only a few miles from the launch pad, and we were able to watch the launch from the dock. Every parking lot up and down US 1 was charging at least $20 for parking. I think the parking lot owners must hope the launch scrubs, because then they get to charge everybody again the next day. An enterprising boat owner could have probably charged $100 a head to view the launch from the water. Maybe next time.

Titusville, FL - Thirsty Manatee

Today I was cleaning out our shower sump (a job that is exactly as glamorous as it sounds) when Kevin called me outside to look at something. He was standing on deck spraying the hose into the water, excitedly saying "look at this!". I had no idea what he was talking about until he said "it's a manatee". It was confusing because at first all you could see was its snout, which looks like a weird alien-head. But when it stretched out behind the boat you could see the whole body and it was huge, about 500 lbs. Kevin had been cleaning the boat when it showed up and started slurping up the freshwater that was running off the side -- I guess manatees love freshwater. Kevin just kept letting the hose spray into the water and the manatee actually rolled over on its back with one flipper on the transom, enjoying the free drink.

So we were looking forward to watching the shuttle launch this evening, but the weather had been iffy all day so we didn't have high hopes. NASA kept counting down until the last possible minute when they finally decided to scrub the launch due to low cloud cover. Because the launch window is only open five minutes per night we will have to wait until tomorrow, hopefully the weather is better then. So the closest we came to seeing a shuttle in the air was this shot of the cheesy christmas light display on one of the boats on the next dock.

Titusville, FL

Sorry for the lack of posts. Kevin wrote a post while we were in St. Augustine and we sent it to the website via email but didn't realize that it didn't show up, so I've put it on there now. We spent the past week in Daytona, FL watching boats run aground trying to get into the anchorage. In Daytona, the ICW becomes a narrow channel in the middle of a shallow river that runs pretty much straight north and south. There is an anchorage off to the west side of the channel but there is a huge shoal running parallel between it and the anchorage. To anchor, you have to motor south until you are clear of the shoal, and then you can make a right-hand u-turn to get into the anchorage. We saw four or five boats run aground trying to come straight in. Despite the fact that I got on the radio and tried to tell them how to get into the anchorage. But when they don't have a radio on, what can you do, other than sit back and watch the show? It was like they saw some boats anchored and figured they could just head right on over without consulting their charts or anything. One guy who was singlehanding ran aground a couple hundred feet from us. While he was waiting for high tide, another boat came up and ran aground about 20 feet away from him. We could see them talking to each other from their boats, and then the second guy managed to use his engine to get himself back afloat, did a 180, and proceeded to run himself hard aground again. Yeah, that's it, take navigational advice from the guy who's run himself aground. We ended up hopping in the dinghy and helping the singlehander (an older gentleman whose charts were so old they did not show the shoal) by sounding out the depths around his boat to help him find deeper water.

On Tuesday we continued south to Titusville. I had never heard of Titusville before but I had heard of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. Titusville is directly across the river from the NASA launch site. Kevin specifically chose to time our visit so that we could watch the shuttle launch, which is supposed to happen on Thursday night. From our slip we can see the shuttle sitting there on the launch pad, waiting to rocket off into space. So we will have the best seats in the house.

We will be at this marina for about a month since it's close to Orlando and about the same price as the moorings in our usual December spot (Stuart). We have already met some of our neighbors, who seem very friendly. The website made the marina out to be a paradise complete with jacuzzi, fitness center, raquetball courts, wi-fi and a sauna. We couldn't believe the monthly rate would be so low with all those amenities. Unfortunately they haven't updated their website in a long time. Seems they are under new ownership so the fitness center equipment has been sold off, the raquetball courts no longer exist and the jacuzzi has been filled in with dirt and turned into a planter. Kevin is especially disappointed that the wi-fi signal is too weak for us to pick up at our boat. So I guess the moral is: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But it's not all bad; the sauna still works.

Where we are:
Location=Titusville, FL
Lat=28 33.258 N
Lon=80 47.709 W

Daytona, FL

We waited out the weekend at Cumberland island so that we wouldn't have to deal with all the weekend boat traffic on the ICW. Just as we are getting ready to get going, it starts raining. Great. The anchorage at Cumberland island has a pretty strong current, so we had two anchors out. Our boat had spun around several times over the weekend so our two anchor rodes were wrapped around each other. After about an hour of work in the rain we had both anchors up and were underway. We crossed the border of Florida pretty early on and the skies cleared up. We had a favorable current almost all day and could have made it all the way to St. Augustine, but decided to stop at a place called Pine Island about 10 miles to the north. As we pull into the anchorage, we see another catamaran, a Manta named Caribbean Call.  They hailed us on the radio and complemented us on our boat. As it turns out, they are hull #14. We are hull #17, so their boat is only a few months older than ours.

Tuesday we headed into St. Augustine and took dockage at the city marina. We stayed here last year and really liked it, but this time, the bridge adjacent to the marina is under construction and they were working on it all night making a lot of noise. It was a little disconcerting watching them hoist these massive steel structures about 50 feet in front of the boat. I guess they weren't too worried about dropping them though since there were guys standing under them as the crane moved them around. We really like St. Augustine, but were glad to get away from the construction. Tonight we are anchored in Daytona Beach where we plan to stay for a few days to go ashore and look around a bit.

Where we are:
Location=Daytona Beach, FL
Lat=29 12.040 N
Lon=81 00.387 W