Clutzee the Clown and Vivian

We had a one night stop over last Friday at the City Marina in New Smyrna Beach , Florida.  The town was close by, so the crew of Moonstruck and we walked there for dinner.  Our first choice, Malloney’s Pub was over-full, so we walked a block back to Jason’s Grill and had an excellent meal and bottle of wine. 

We returned to Malloney’s after dinner, because we had been told they usually had some live music and were not disappointed when we entered and heard a trio with a great female lead singer.  Doug from Moonstruck says he loves little tiny neighborhood bars that support local musicians.  He said if it were up to him, he would exempt such places from all taxes provided they had fewer than fifty seats.  The tax free status would allow them to pay the local musicians a decent wage, and provide locals with lots of choices for excellent entertainment.  Not a bad plan…

Tax exemption or not, the folks in this bar appeared to be having a great time, and the music was wonderful.  But, the surprise of the night came when a little four year old girl stopped by our booth.  Doug had gotten up, and she slid into his spot like she owned the place.  We looked around to see if her parents were watching but saw no sign of concern on any of the patron’s faces.

Judy and Vivian

For the next half-hour or so we were entertained by the sparkling personality of four year old Vivian.  At first she seemed a bit precocious.  But as we talked to her, we realized she was just a very intelligent and highly confident little gal.  We learned a lot about her and found out that the vocalist was her piano teacher.  Vivian’s parents did drop by our booth and make sure she wasn’t bothering us.  Quite the opposite, we were all enthralled by her conversation.

Judy, who admitted to us that she was a professional clown (named Clutzee) in a prior life, seemed to have an immediate connection with Vivian.  Whether that was because of her clown experience, or just because Judy loves kids, we’ll never know.  But, when Vivian asked her if she would like to be her grandmother for the night, Vivian owned her!  The "grandma" in my first mate kicked in as well, and Doug and I enjoyed listening to the three girls chatter.

At one point Vivian discovered a set of eyeglasses on the wall that the restaurant keeps for us old folks who might need help reading the menu.  We all had to take a turn with them.  The photos below of Vivian and Judy were taken by Carrie.  The ones of the rest of us were taken by Vivian.

We didn't ask this guy to play...

After the photo shoot, we ordered a couple of slices of traditional carrot cake.  At that point, Vivian produced another little gal (Ruby, age 3) who was more than happy to sit down and split one of our slices with Vivian.  She was another cutie, and a little closer to the “normal” personality of a kid that age.  Both of them were a lot of fun, and both disappeared as soon as the slice of cake was gone!

The Loop is all about the people you meet.  But, whoda thunk the highlight of our visit to New Smyrna Beach would be a meeting a child prodigy named Vivian? 

Epcot, Canaveral and Manatees

We ended up spending three nights at Melbourne, because in addition to the wind howling through, we got a day of hard rain our second day there.  The extra night allowed us to spend a little time exploring the town (by foot) and Crane Creek where we were docked (by dinghy).  Carrie and I found a little Cuban restaurant that we dropped into for lunch.  We really enjoy sampling foods of all types.  We had a Yuca plant appetizer, and our lunch choices (pork for me, chicken for her) were marinated to perfection and served with black beans, rice and fried sweet plantains.  It was different…and excellent!

OK, so it was a two beer lunch!

Later in the afternoon, Fred and Julaine from Boreas joined us for a dinghy cruise.  We all thought the creek would probably only go a half mile or so above the marina, but we were surprised to find it went several miles.  It was like a jungle cruise at times, and other times lawns and homes lined the shoreline.  We saw a lot of bird life, but no manatees, which we thought we would find there.  For those of you who do not know what a manatee is, they are also known as “sea cows”.  They are huge and docile creatures that feed off the sea beds and unfortunately are so slow moving that boats often run over them.  Everyone but me had seen one at one time or another.  It seems I would have to wait a bit longer.

Up the creek, so to speak...

...doesn't this guy have a nice secluded spot?

Two happy (dinghy?) boaters!

Billy from Godspeed...this one's for you.

Tuesday we moved up the Indian River to the town of Cocoa, Florida.  I did finally see my first manatee there in Cocoa Village Harbor, where we were docked.  We rented a mini-van on Wednesday and along with the crew from Boreas went to Epcot Center in Orlando.  We spent the afternoon and evening there and had a great time, finishing off with a meal in the German section and watching the fireworks show afterwards.  Funny though, the only picture we got there was this one:

 

Question:  Which is the real Dory, the one on the left or the one in the middle?

While we were at Epcot, our old Loopmates from Moonstruck, Doug and Judy (aka Cupcake) showed up.  They finished their loop in Port Charlotte back in November, took a few months off and couldn’t wait to get back on the water.  They had timed this trip to catch up and cruise up to St. Augustine with us.  It is great to have my old wingman Moonstruck to cruise with again. 

On Thursday, the six of us went to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.  This was a fantastic afternoon visiting and learning about the Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle missions we have all watched on TV since we were kids.  We also saw an absolutely amazing IMAX documentary about the Hubble Telescope.  We left there feeling very, very, very small, after viewing the Hubble photos of distant galaxies.

 

left to right:  Doug and Judy (Moonstruck); Fred and Julaine (Boreas) and the Admiral and me (Once Around)

OK, we didn't actually see the Shuttles on the launch pads, this is a NASA photo...

...as is this one.

But we did take this one of a Saturn Rocket...unreal...

and we took this one of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB in NASA speak)

OK, I have to put this VAB building into perspective for you.  The flag painted on it is two football fields long and took over 700 gallons of paint to create.  Each of the stars in the flag is six foot tall and the stripes are wide enough to drive a bus on and not touch another stripe!  In other words, it is humongous!  Today (Friday) we made a 45 nautical mile run from Cocoa to New Smyrna Beach, with Boreas in the lead, followed by Once Around and Moonstruck.  We saw a number of manatees on the cruise up here today.  No wonder the poor things get run over, we had to dodge several right in the ICW.  I guess they can’t read the signs.  We did manage to get a picture, which illustrates how tough it is to see these guys when you are cruising.

Two manatees at play in the ICW 

Look closely and Moonstruck's gold looper flag can be seen at the bow

My First Mate multi-tasking...defrosting the fly bridge freezer while we cruise north!

We are staying only one night in the New Smyrna Beach City Marina.  Our plan is to travel another 44 miles or so tomorrow up to Palm Coast, and then on to St. Augustine on Sunday where we plan on having a bit of work done on the boats and spending a few days exploring the oldest city in Florida.



Some Wind, Some Rain, and a New...Pelican???

It’s a good thing West Palm Beach is a nice place to hang out, because the wind gods whipped up some 25-30 knot wind days one after another, and what was supposed to be a couple day stop turned into four nights.  Once again, Boreas and Once Around were the “little guys” in the harbor.  We were sent to the smallest slips, which were sixty footers!  One of the big boats, Cherosa, even had it’s own land dinghy!  No kidding, this guy carries a Smart Car around with him.  Unreal.

Cherosa, with her land dinghy

Poor guy...no Smart Car

Love this boat's name

The marina itself was first class.  The finger piers were wider than many main piers in other marinas.  The only gripe my First Mate came up with was their laundry facility seemed like an afterthought.  I told her it probably was an afterthought; if you have a hundred foot or larger boat you would have a full size washer and dryer, and probably a crew member responsible for doing the laundry as well!  She thought about that a while…and seemed to like the idea.  I may be in trouble here…

Despite the laundry setback, we and the Boreas crew had a good time wandering around West Palm.  They have a free trolley system that takes you around downtown, and we used it to find the City Center Mall as well as the Publix grocery store for provisions.  We had a few meals in town including a great meal at the French Bistro. 

Damn, we missed our opportunity for trapeze lessons!  Maybe next time...

The Admiral and I got a bit of boat crazies the fourth day there and rented a car to run back down to Fort Lauderdale.  It seems she had heard about a yacht decorator there that had a barrel chair she had seen on another boat.  A few hours later we not only had a chair ordered, but had found a really cool bronze statue of a pelican in flight.  You all know how she cracks up at pelicans…so you shouldn’t be surprised she adopted this guy. 

Our new pelican

When we got him back to the boat I told her Bonaparte (our Catalina bonefish that hangs over a salon window) looked a bit worried about having a pelican on board, even though he didn’t have much meat on him.  She said she noticed that Bonaparte was keeping his eye closely on the new pelican.  I couldn’t argue with that…

I still think Bonaparte looks a bit nervous...

We left West Palm on Friday and planned on stopping 30 miles north in Stuart, FL.  But considering the weather system coming in the next few days, we decided to go a bit further doing 50 miles and ending up at Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce for the night.  We never left the marina, as they had a pretty good bar and restaurant on site. 

About all we saw of Stuart was the lighthouse from the water, and Carrie made it look like the leaning tower...not hard from a moving boat

Oh yeah, we also saw the Stuart paddle wheeler.  These always make me think of my RAT brother, Jim...not sure why

Me and the Admiral at Harbortown Marina, Fort Pierce, FL

OK, some of the boats around here are not so fancy...

...but like boaters everywhere, they love to party!

The house of the day

Carrie's dolphin buddies showed up again today, hadn't seen them in a while

Saturday morning we got an early start and almost outran the rainstorms before we got soaked just a few miles from our destination, Melbourne Harbor Marina in Melbourne. 

Early morning departures can be gorgeoous

We arrived here just after 1 PM.  It looks like a nice little town and the marina people accommodated me with a separate little slip for our dinghy, right next to our slip.  What more could a guy want, right? 

A VIP spot for the dinghy

Stern to stern with our buddies on Boreas

My two beautiful girls

We plan to stay at least two nights, as the wind is going to howl on the coast of Florida again for a couple days.