Day 194
The ridiculously high winds finally having calmed down on Tuesday morning, 03/23/21, Legacy left slip C84 at Fort Pierce City Marina about 8:00 am, with little fanfare. We continued northward up the FL ICW past the Fairlane Harbor Homes development, just south of the FL Hwy. 656 bridge, and continued north past Royal Palm Pointe.
North of Vero Beach, FL, the ICW (which is also the Indian River in this area) becomes really wide, even though the cruising channel stays fairly narrow, due to rapidly shallowing depths on either side of the channel.
Steve spotted our friends on Radian Journey, Ray and Diane Parrish, cruising about 20 miles south of us on the ICW, via the Nebo app! We hoped to rendezvous with them that evening at Cocoa Village Marina, if they could score a last-minute transient slip for the night. Diane and I texted with each other throughout the morning to monitor progress.
About mid-morning, we cruised past a motoring sailboat with a familiar boat name, Luna Sea. I immediately recognized the boat as belonging to Nicole, one of my former yoga instructors at the Marathon City Park Amphitheater! As we were traveling right beside them, I rushed down from the flybridge to the starboard side of the boat and asked the man at the helm if this was Nicole’s boat. As soon as I said her name, she stepped up into the cockpit of their boat and we waved ecstatically at each other. 😊 Sure enough, just as we’d told each other at our last yoga class together, our paths had indeed crossed again! It’s crazy how excited you get when spotting another boater you know along the way. I mean, back when we lived on land and drove cars, we’d often spot friends and neighbors in the grocery store parking lot or at the gas station, but that was usually only a mild pleasantry at best. But wait until you’re traveling on a boat and passing people you know on the water. It’s a whole different thrill, and I have absolutely no idea why! WHY I didn’t think to snap a picture of Nicole and her fiancé aboard Luna Sea, is another idea I don’t have…
For a little while we followed and passed what appeared to be a lone, female sailor on a sailboat named Mer Sea, which I thought was very clever. It reminded me of the name Phillip and Anna plan to christen their new boat, which will be Sea La Vie, so I immediately sent Anna a text about Mer Sea. (Yeah, well traveling for miles and miles at 10 mph or less, makes for quite a bit of free time when you’re not at the helm…😊)
FINALLY, we had some dolphins (porpoises – not sure why we all call them dolphins…?) riding our wake again today! Apparently, Ray and Diane on Radian Journey had been hogging all of them that morning, since Diane kept posting dolphin video after dolphin video on Facebook of them riding along side their boat 20 miles to our south, where we had seen not a one until late-morning today. My mood immediately escalated ten-fold, as it always does when I spot these beautiful creatures! On really calm days with glassy waters, we can actually HEAR the dolphins riding our wake before we see them sometimes, as they leap high out of the water, which sends their glistening bodies back down onto the water with an audible SLAP! As soon as we hear the slapping, I’m running down out of the flybridge to get closer to them.
As we passed Vero Beach, Sebastian, Roseland, Micco, Palm Bay, Melbourne, and Palm Shores, and arrived at Cocoa Village Marina, it dawned on Steve that as of today, we have cruised Florida’s Emerald Coast, the Forgotten Coast, Paradise Coast (Naples area), the Treasure Coast, and the Space Coast! Pretty impressive (to us, anyway 😉).
We arrived Cocoa Village between 1:30 and 2:00 pm that day. Just after we passed underneath the Florida Hwy. 520 Bridge (aka Hubert Humphrey Causeway), we found a narrow, skinny (shallow water) channel into the marina, that was well-marked. We had already hailed the marina on the radio, they gave us our transient slip number, and were there on our dock finger ready to catch our lines. Lynn, the dock master, was very kind, knowledgeable and helpful which is always appreciated by us transient boaters! Cocoa Village has fixed docks, but fortunately easily accommodated a port side railing exit and entry, even with a stern-in tie, although we did have to step up kind of high from our boat onto the dock finger, when the tide was low.
We all lucked-out and the Parrishes were able to obtain a transient slip at Cocoa Village Marina, so we were once again dock-neighbors, even if for only one night. Diane called me when Radian Journey came under the 520 bridge, so we walked over to their assigned slip number to wait for them and catch their lines, since the marina was supposed to be closed by the time they arrived late that afternoon. Turns out, one of the marina dock-hands was still there upon their arrival, so we had line-catching assistance. We were very happy to see them again! (Like I said earlier, running into people you know on the water is just on another level, for some reason(?) Once the Parrishes were settled in and showered, we all walked into Cocoa Village to Ryan’s Pizza for dinner. (The Parrishes were already familiar with Cocoa Village, and – in fact – had recommended we stay there, back when we’d first met them at Marlin Bay on Marathon Key.) Cocoa Village is a lovely little town with lots of shops, restaurants, pubs, and historical sites. (Are you starting to sense a trend here?)
The four of us laughed and caught-up with our boat stories like we hadn’t seen each other for years, as we ate dinner. As the Parrishes had promised, Ryan’s had great food and even better service, so our time there that evening couldn’t have been more enjoyable. After we finished stuffing ourselves (and picked-up TOGO boxes – my serving of Stromboli was large enough for 3 people!), we walked around town a bit and Diane decided she needed to stop for some ice cream. The guys weren’t interested, so of course I joined her, because who wants to eat ice cream alone, right? We were all tired after our travel days, so we called it a night fairly early, with promises to meet back up again as soon as possible. We had planned to help them with their lines when they departed the next morning, but they slipped out before we knew it.
Position: N 28° 21.470, W 80° 43.532
Distance traveled: 69 SM
Total distance traveled: 2759 SM
Total marina nights: 177
Total nights at anchor: 21
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27