ICW Drawbridges Have Their Ups and Downs



We declared Monday, Nov.8th “Bird Day”, the reason being that we saw more birds and variety of birds on this day than any other on the trip. Shortly after leaving Daytona we passed an island called Pelican Island and it was full of them. Not far from them was a white egret rookery. While motoring through Haulover Canal later in the day we saw several types of herons looking for their next meal. Then we passed a spoonbill pelican rookery. They are pink and from a distance look like flamingos but when you look through the binoculars you can see they are not.



Barge at Nasa Railroad Bridge

 Around 2:45 PM we reached the NASA Railroad Bridge which is normally open, however, today there was a huge barge blocking the channel. After numerous calls to the bridge from numerous boats we found out that they are working on the bridge and that it would be closed until 4:30pm! No announcements by the coast guard or any other warnings on the radio which seemed a bit ridiculous. They only open at 12:30pm and 4:30pm. So by the time the bridge opened there were at least a dozen boats, anchored and ready for the signal that we could pass.

We finally got through and went into Titusville Municipal Marina for fuel and then anchored outside of the marina with numerous other boats.

The next morning we had to go through another bridge not far from the marina called the Addison Point Bridge. When the bridge went up only one section went up all the way and the other one got stuck three quarters of the way up. You are not suppose to enter until the spans are all the way up but finally one brave captain called the bridge tender and said with his permission could the boats pass through because there was enough clearance. Unexpectedly, the bridge tender allowed us to go through, thank heaven, because no one wanted another long wait! A little further down another bridge was having trouble but when we got there it was working. So bridges do have their “ups and downs.”



Cocoa

  We arrived at Cocoa after a decent sail where we anchored and had lunch. We then took the dinghy to the town dock where Al headed to the famous SF Travis hardware store. The largest old fashion, have everything hardware store. I of course headed to the boutique shops in town for browsing. After we got our fill of “eye candy,” hardware for Al and clothes for me, we headed back to the boat for a quiet night on the hook.

We decided to stay another day because it is a great place to ride bikes. We took the bikes in the dinghy to town. We then biked several miles south along the wonderfully scenic River Drive. We stopped for lunch in town because I was craving pizza and found a great place with outdoor seating. After lunch, we biked several miles north on the River Road which was just as pretty as the south section. The weather was just perfect for biking with sunny skies and temps in the high seventies.

Back on board Blue Heaven, we did a few chores and waited for our sailing association friends, Toni and Dave Mershon on Sequence to finally catch up with us. And catch up we did, on our past month of sailing experiences we each had over a drink and some munchies. It was good to see two familiar faces!

Sequence at sunset.