Back in Florida for the next adventure...

So... Our adventure continues.... 

We arrived back in Titusville on December 12th after a lovely Christmas visit with our kids in Kelowna.  We will be in Ontario with Al's family for about 10 days over the holidays this year.  Something we haven't done in some time - so definitely due.

Our boat was, incredibly unscathed after her run in with Hurricane Irma.  A couple boats here at this marina had some minor damage,so considering how many other boats in Florida perished, we were very lucky. 

She's in one piece!!

We spent the first couple days getting her inside and outside clean so we could become live aboards until she is ready to splash in the New Year.  We have a few big jobs, and of course as she's a grand older lady there are bits that are always wearing out that need updating.  First off her batteries had totally worn out - the new ones were a challenge hoisting up into the cockpit - when she's on land... we practiced our man overboard hoisting system - which worked just fine.  I successfully hauled in three 50+ pound batteries without drowning them... 

In the midst of all the cleaning and buying of stuff we stopped long enough to watch the launch of one of SpaceXs' unmanned rockets take off from Cape Canaveral for the International Space Station. What was truly amazing was watching the booster rocket land itself back on one of the launch pads to the right of the take off pad. (photo  on the right is the return)  We were a long way away, so the clarity isn't great.

Resident Osprey

We have a lot of birds hanging around this marina, from ospreys, crows, white ibis, and pelicans to name a few.  Thankfully they haven't chosen our boat for a perch so far, though there have been a few mishaps from flyers by that landed on our deck.  There are a couple boats that I'm sure have a very dirty slimy fish gutty deck.    The only thing louder than them is the sirens that seem to happen lots here.  Fire trucks, first responders, police ambulance.  Across the highway from here is a landing spot for helicopter medivacs from close by highway accidents. 

Next door, right off our stern actually is a lovely park that is very popular with the locals.  There is a festival of lights at the far end that includes a hayride... pulled by a pickup!!!  You'd think they could have found a couple horses.  The lights were very pretty, there is a bit of music that goes with it as well that we sort of can hear from our view point.  We did walk through the light show and donated as required to enter - its for charity.

We went to Ontario to spend the Christmas season with Al's family this year.  It was verrrryyyy cold.  Of course we didn't pack our winter parkas with going to the sunny south for the winter, so felt the cold right through every layer I had on.  And of course, this winter had to be the coldest on record....carma I guess.

Jess & Jeff

Merry Christmas

Tom & Chris

We headed back to the boat on December 31st, and the standing in line started right off the bat.  We couldn't get our boarding passes to print so had to stand in line for assistance - then customs, which wasn't too bad.  We got to the gate to find out that our plane had been 'randomly' picked by Customs to be swept for contraband of whatever sort, which delayed our departure by an hour. We finally got on board and away from the gate then proceeded to drive through the airplane car wash for a de-icing enroute to the runway.  The flight was fine, not too much disturbance even with going through the outer edge of the nasty cold front line.
On our descent into Orlando we could see little flashes of light all over the place of folks setting off fireworks.  Looked like little fire flys all over the place, interspersed with bigger fireworks displays.  It was quite spectacular to watch.  Once out of the airport we could see fireworks off in the distance along our drive to Titusville, they don't wait until midnight here.  

We made a pit stop at Walmart to get some breakfast food and a bottle of bubbly and hurried back to the marina and our boat by 11:30.  Al popped the cork and filled our glasses as we wandered around the marina and found the hard core cruisers who were able to stay up past 9 pm. They had a bonfire going, though nearly out, it was warm out and not snowing... We celebrated the incoming year with Auld Lang Syne playing on an i-phone one fellow had.  All around us in the distance there were great bursts of fireworks at the appointed hour.  Happy New Year!!!

Now today... well its definitely another day - but not like any other Florida day we've experienced.  It's cool, with wind up to 60 kms, rain showers off and on some coming down sideways at times...  We were out and about long enough to get more groceries, get a few things out of the storage unit and to drive to West Marine, only to find out it wasn't open today.  We're back, have the heater going and are snug in our cute little boat; it rocks at times... and we're not even in the water yet...   Tomorrow the rain is to ebb, so we'll have to drive to Cocoa Beach and check out the big waves, they say they're 9 - 12 feet.

We'll be working on the boat until she is ready for her big splash - likely within two weeks - we're sticking around here until the 12th anyway - we got tickets to go see The Moody Blues 50th anniversary tour concert in Orlando... can't wait.

So... until next time... best wishes to you all