I can't believe another month has gone by already. Our visit to Maine lasted until 1/7/09 at which time we flew back to Jacksonville. We had a nice Christmas celebration at home with family and another visit to cape cod to visit my mother, sister and brother and his family. We also got in a number of visits with friends and hope to see some of them here in Florida this winter.
Sun Cat was waiting for us when we returned to Jacksonville. She had gottem a new coat at bottom paint. I was very pleased with the service at Lamb's. They did a good job, at the agreed to price and in the agreed time frame. They also were very good to work with.
When we got to the Jax airport we were greeted by Phil and Alice from Wonderland and Paul and Sue from Sweet Dreams and we had a nice dinner out with all. The next day Lamb Chop's crew, Tim and Jan arrived . After a day of working on the boats all 8 of us jumped in Phil's mini van and went to a Barefoot Man concert at the Villages as guests of Sue and Paul. It was a really good time in spite of arriving back at the boats at 0100.
On Sunday it was time to get moving so we headed down the river accompanied by Wonderland and Sweet Dreams. We spent a night rafted at Pine Island and then headed for the Seven Seas Marina in Daytona where we were joined by George on Time Out. We had a nice pot luck dinner that evening on Sun Cat and all had breakfast out the next morning. All but Sun Cat headed south after breakfast.
We took a good walk and then met up with our friends Bruce and Ellie. Ellie made another wonderful dinner and we had a nice afternoon and evening with them exchanging travel stories. On Tuesday, Lamb Chop joined us at Seven Seas and on wednesday son Steve joined us about noon time, having flown down from Portland to Daytona that morning. We had a nice beach walk and toured Daytona a little.
The next day we headed south. The plan was to anchor off of Titusville for the evening but the wind was wrong for that so we anchored behind the NASA causeway. Sue on Sweet Dreams called us and said they had just spent 3 nights on a dock at Cocoa where they had rented a car and toured the Space Center. Our plan was also to tour the Space Center so we planned to head for the same dock the next day as Wonderland had also called to tell us about the dock. She also said there would be a rocket launch from the Space Center that evening. We had a nice dinner on Sun Cat that evening, all sharing a beef stew that Jan had made.
We arrived at Cocoa early afternoon the next day and found the dock wide open so we pulled in. We rented a car that afternoon and the next day drove over to the Space Center which was about 30 minutes away. Jean and I had visited the Space Center a number of years ago with Bruce & Ellie but we found the exhibits far more extensive this time and all 5 of us felt we had information overload by the end of the second day. The trip there m
ade for a very interesting weekend however! When we were headed down from Daytona to Titusville through mosquito Lagoon we could see a large building. This is what it turned out to be. Its the Vehicle assembly building where they combine the shuttle, the fuel tank and the booster rockets and mount them on the pad prior to transport to the launch site.
The final product looks like this.
And this is a model of the shuttle
. Our space adventure ended as we watched the launch of a delta rocket that evening while sitting on the sundeck. It was spectacular and one can only imagine what a shuttle launch would look like after that.After Cocoa, we traveled to Vero Beach where we were assigned to moorings at the municipal marina. Lamb Chop wound up at the north end and we wound up at the south end. We walked over to the beach, enjoyed happy hour at the Pearl and at Mulligans, walked the park-the fitness trail confirmed the shape we were in! On Wednesday we went to the McLarty Treasure Museum at. Sebastian Inlet State Park . The Museum presented the story of the 1715 Spanish Treasure fleet and the subsequent efforts to salvage and find its cargo after it was sunk by a huricanne. The Museum also displayed many artifacts from the fleet.
Steve left for home later that afternoon and we spent a quiet night at Vero. The next day, we left for Stuart where we visited our friends Bob and Allie from Bali Motu at their new house in Stuart. Sun Cat and Lamb Chop were the first boats to utilize their new dock and we had a nice visit with Bob and Allie, touring their construction project and enjoying a nice dinner out.
Today we motored down the ICW to Lake Worth (North Palm Beach) through numerous Manatee zones. We and a nice relax afternoon anchored here with 25 +/- other boats.
Still having a great time.
Steve & Jean
M/V Sun Cat
