Cocoa Village, Florida

                                                            

  

Opus V in her berth at Cocoa Village Marina

Cocoa Village is just across the Indian River to the west of Cocoa Beach. This marina is right on the river and at the foot of the bridge that crosses over to Cocoa Beach. Cocoa Village is a mini version of Coconut Grove. Right across the street from the marina is the main section of downtown--full of restaurants and bars and shops amid tree-lined streets. It's really quite quaint. Last year we had pizza with some friends that had followed us over from Ft Myers. Ryan's Pizza and Pub--very good. Yesterday, Diane and I tried one of the more upscale restaurants--Café Margaux-- FANTASTIC!

It's a French cuisine rest. with a Turkish chef. The décor is "Early Grandma's House"--but really quite nice. The service was excellent and the food even better. I had the escargot--best ever -- and the beef Wellington (an individual puff pastry) that was perfectly cooked and delish. Diane had smoked salmon as an appetizer (almost a meal--she took home half and had it for breakfast the next morning) and also had the Wellington.

But the highlight of the town is the S.F. Travis hardware store--allegedly the oldest hardware store in the U.S.

We spent almost an hour rummaging around in this hidden treasure. Suffice it to say, if they don't have it, it's not made. You wander from room to room, upstairs and downstairs and into adjoining buildings. They literally have everything--wrenches the size of small cars; wood burning stoves (not fireplaces--stoves); old time wash tubs; every imaginable piece of hardware--bins of nails, screws, bolts--standard and metric; boat hardware--blocks and tackle heavy enough to lift a boat; antique oil lamps and the globes and wicks to go with them; a paint and cleaning supply room larger than the standard hardware store; stuff I've never seen before and have no idea what it is. Plus--there were at least 8 friendly guys working there-one who interrupted his lunch to take us to an upstairs back room to locate oil absorbing cloths. This place really is an experience (if you like hardware stores--I must say even Diane was fascinated).

Took a road trip today to pick up a couple of replacement batteries--this boat uses 2 sets of 2 6 volt golf cart batteries. One bank had been very "ineffective" when we were anchored out the other night and I had it tested yesterday and confirmed that it was compromised--so off to the golf cart store in Titusville to pick up a couple of replacements. Let's hope this does the trick. (Although I have a deisel generator on board, big enough to run 2 A/C units, the water heater, the battery charger and the Jennaire grill on the fly deck, all at the same time, I try not to run it any more than necessary (kinda noisy)--thus it's important to have strong batteries you can rely on to run the refrigerator, the anchor light, a couple of cell phone chargers and a CPAP machine through the night and still be able to start the engines in the morning. 

Sooooo-we are enjoying, once again, our stay in Cocoa Village but looking forward to moving south after we get back from Houston next week.

ON THE MOVE AGAIN !!!

      

The Admiral at the Helm



FINALLY---we are on the move again. It has been a a busy and trying winter so far but we seem to have finally turned the corner and are picking up where we left off last Spring. We drove our car over to Palm Coast, Florida (where we have been keeping the boat since last April) Wed and Thurs the 17th and 18th of Feb., arriving in Palm Coast--just south of St. Augustine in the middle of the afternoon--just in time to square everything away, open up the boat, say Hi to our neighbors and settle in for "cocktail hour".

Friday was the day to check out all the boat systems and start preparations for getting underway---a slight problem----none of the engines worked!! The generator would start but not keep running. The boat diesel engines would crank but not start (Welcome to the boating world). After checking all the obvious things I finally caved in to a man's worst nightmare--calling someone for help. After checking around on the internet for someone who works on generators (at the time I called him I wasn't aware that the boat engines weren't working--just the generator)--found Al's Marine Service. Al said he could be there in 2 hours--and he was. When he arrived I informed him that my Yanmar diesels weren't working in addition to the generator and he informed me that he was the area certified Yanmar service rep.--What great fortune!-- After checking around--basically all the things I had already done, he put in a call to the generator manufacturer customer support--at least we were getting an error code on the generator--nothing from the engines. The tech talked us through a couple of system checks and we determined that there was a "customer supplied switch" fault which he suspected was tied into our on board engine room fire suppression system. After a call to the fire system guys we determined that the same was true for the boat diesels as well and he gave us instructions on how to wire around it all--which we did and all engines started and ran beautifully. But, this was only a temporary fix as we had to recharge the extinguisher bottles on the fire suppression system (They are tied into the engines--if the system goes bad for any reason the engines die--there is an override system so you don't get stranded somewhere you don't want to be)--Our problem was that both cannisters were very close to their life limits and needed to be replaced or recharged. Of course---ours could not be recharged as they are a Halon system and halon was banned a few years back. So we are forced to buy 2 new cannisters at an unbelievably high price that I won't go into. (Did I mention "Welcome to the boating world"?) So we decided to move on south while Al ordered us up some new canisters and delivered them and installed them while we are in our temporary port in Cocoa, Florida, about 100 miles south of Palm Coast, on the Intracoastal Waterway

The plan was to depart on Sunday, the 21st and after spending Sat. in final preparations and provisioning, we did.

Our first destination was the New Smyrna Beach area, about 50 miles south where we arrived at around 3:00 after an uneventful cruise down the waterway, where we anchored in Rockhouse Creek, a pretty area just off the main channel and with a view to the east, a gorgeous beach and the Atlantic. There were just a few boats in the anchorage so we dropped the hook, had celebratory beer and then dropped the dinghy in the water for a quick trip over to the beach that was crowded with partiers on smaller boats. Then back to the boat for a dinner of shishkabob grilled on the flybridge Jennaire--and early to bed.

The next morning, after an extremely peaceful night at anchor, we departed early for our next destination, stopping briefly at a fuel dock in New Smyrna to top off the tanks. We hold 300 gallons. We filled up with 165 gallons. This should hold us for most of the cruising we want to do this spring.

Then it was, once more, down the waterway, heading for the Cocoa Village Marina, another 50 miles. (This is where we spent 5 or 6 days last year while we hosted Diane's sister, Nancy, for her 39th birthday--AND--sitting on the back of the flybridge watched a rocket launch from the Kennedy Space Center about 10 miles away (as the seagull flies). It was amazing. We are scheduled to see another tomorrow night at 6 something)

We arrived at Cocoa at around 4 PM after another easy day on the water and parked Opus in the same slip that we were in last year.

NASA Kennedy Space Center and Launch Platform From the Water

Today we rented a car to drive back to Palm Coast to retrieve our car, replenished our Tito's vodka and Corona supply, met a nice lady from Texas here on a Catamaran with her husband who have spent considerable time in the Keys and will let us pick their brains regarding favorite anchorages and all. But tonight--we celebrate my 69th BD --out for dinner to Café Margaux (will report later). Tomorrow, the new canisters arrive, and I'll do a little maintenance, maybe change the oil/s, etc., etc., etc.

Life is good in Cocoa, Florida