Cocoa Village

This morning as we went north on the Indian River past Melbourne, FL, the Good Year blimp passed us, going south.  We checked their schedule.  They were in Daytona for the Daytona 500 this past weekend and are now headed to Miami for a Heat game.  We had a good day on the river, cloudy but not too windy.  We saw lots of playful dolphins.  Four of them swam with us for a couple of miles. That always makes me feel chosen.

These pelicans were sitting on the bridge fenders as we went by.  They look like inspectors.

Last night the wind did calm, and I slept well in Sebastian Inlet anchorage.  So George gets another check in the correct column.  (Yes, we do keep score.)  We woke at 4:00 when both the wind  and the hull sounds picked up.  George went back to sleep, but I got up at 5:00 am and read.  I felt happy that I'd had a quiet night and enough sleep.  It is hard to anchor in Indian River because the river is shallow, so we can't pull in close to shore; the wind shifts; the river runs north and south in a pretty straight line, so there are not deep curves to scoot into.

Tonight the wind is clocking around, and after looking at anchorages and much discussion, we came to Cocoa Village Marina.  This is a super friendly and helpful spot.  We've had several conversations already with our neighbors.  We took a walk all around town.  One cool place is Travis Hardware, founded in 1885.  We had heard about it and were pleased and a bit surprised to find that it is a real working hardware.  It had crockery, cast iron pans, a bin of canes, and huge tools.

This is part of a wall of giant wrenches.  The largest sells for $1200.



This green heron is at our marina.  We spied him on our walk. See how his long beak blends with the water color?