Cocoa to Vero Beach

Pulled up the anchor while the sun was rising. As much as I hate getting up so early, I really do enjoy the quiet early morning.  The pictures do not do justice to the real vision.

We headed through Haulover Canal which is the cut-through from Mosquito Lagoon to the Indian River. Our first bridge was the Haulover Canal Bridge that has a closed height of 27 feet and we did not need an opening.  There were people fishing off of boats and all along the shoreline and some were not very happy 😊 with us for passing through. I guess we briefly disturbed their tranquil fishing.

Haulover Canal Bridge

Leaving the Canal

We had to go under the Merritt Island/Cocoa Twin Bridges before turning into the Cocoa Anchorage and a town dock area.  The town docks were destroyed during Hurricane Irma in 2017. The town rebuilt them and now there is a 250 foot T-dock and 14 day slips.  The T-dock allows ICW cruisers to stay free for 48 hours. All others have an 8 hour time limit.  When we arrived, there was one other sailboat on the dock.

Mosquito Lagoon to Cocoa

It was time to explore the area. The dock is located at Lee Wenner Park and right nearby is Riverside Park which is a very nice area to walk.  We explored Cocoa Village with little shops and a hardware store. The SF Travis Co is the oldest hardware store in Cocoa providing services for over 125 years.  The store is currently run by the great-grandson of Col. S. F. Travis.  The store is closed on weekends. We would have loved to have seen the inside.

As we were walking around, we discovered the annual Christmas boat parade 🚢⛵🚢 and tree 🎄 lighting ceremony was scheduled for that evening. We needed to be back to the boat by 6 p.m. because we had the perfect view for the boat parade.

Time to watch the Army/Navy game. Amazingly, we were right near Timeout Plus Sports Bar. There were several Navy fans and the game was on multiple TVs.  We were lucky and snagged a two-person table right in front.  Their food and service was excellent.  I ordered the bacon bleu burger and the waitress asked if we were splitting because their burgers are a huge 12 oz. but I wasn't sharing.  Too bad Navy lost!

Back to the boat just in time for the boat parade 🚢⛵🚢⛵🚢⛵.  The dock was packed with people. This 7 year old came over to the boat and was checking us out, so we asked if he wanted to come on.  The boy and his mother both came aboard. He was more fascinated with the boat than the parade. There were 40 to 50 boats participating in the parade and they passed directly in front of us.  

Sunday, December 13th, we headed to Vero Beach. We passed Robert's Island, no significance except the name, and a boat receiving a Coast Guard safety inspection.  

We were also able to see the Space X Falcon 9 rocket launch!  The rocket was carrying the SXM-7 satellite for SiriusXM.   I was only able to get a picture of the contrails (the white clouds) but we could see the rocket.  

Once arriving at the Vero Beach City Marina you are required to stop at the fuel dock for a pump out before going to your slip or mooring ball.  Not a problem for us, because we needed a pump out, fuel ⛽, and water.  While fueling up we met Captain Crusty from Magic, a 36 foot Grand Banks that we had been trailing behind all day.  He told us he was eventually heading to Fort Myers.  When leaving us, he said he needed to go tan and all Loopers do this. He told us, "Tan" means Take A Nap.  Rob has this one down.

Cocoa to Vero Beach

Once we were on our mooring ball we dropped the dinghy and headed to shore to have dinner at Riverside with Zach, Brianna, and Jett.  Riverside has the best tuna nachos. Along with a spectacular sunset.  It is always nice seeing family.

First time using the new dinghy

Dinghy dock

Brianna, Zach, and Jett

We returned to our dinghy in the dark and guess what, the electric outboard motor will not start. It displayed an E32 error code.  Apparently, a communication error.  Rob had to row us back to the boat. At least he didn't have too far to row. He definitely was not 🚫 a happy camper.

On Monday, December 14th we decided on another early start. We had a nice healthy breakfast, yogurt parfait with fruit and homemade granola (recipe in My Onboard Recipe blog). 

We passed more dredging equipment and we finally had dolphins swimming with us, one of my favorite things.  We see dolphins every day, but this was the first day they swam with us.