It’s Sunday 9 December we are anchored in Titusville Florida and, after two attempts and 4 days of waiting, it appears that NASA can’t afford the overtime that would get the Shuttle launched today and have put it of until January! So having whiled away the last few days enjoying the sunshine, avoiding shuttle related Viagra jokes and the very limited facilities of Titusville, we shall sadly pack away our Star Trek outfits and head further south to Fort Lauderdale.
Titusville seems to actually make no contribution to the US economy at all – The bus driver, who was surprised when we boarded her bus to make the 4 mile trip to supermarket, as she normally drives it around Titusville Route #1 empty (there is of course only one route), so when quizzed on what went on in Titusville she thought that nothing ever really went on – she a resident for some 20 years.
However, every cloud has a silver lining and on this occasion it has been in the form of Manatees. Louise, having threatened Mark with an expensive Manatee Safari in Guatemala, has had her fill of spotting these shy, apparently rare and endangered creatures! Let us let you into a Manatee secret; there are loads of them hanging around in Titusville Municipal Marina, photographic evidence below.
So it’s back to the ICW for a day trip down to Fort Pierce to fill up with the now not so cheap diesel before heading off into the Atlantic to complete the trip down to the end of Florida. Fuel incidentally has gone up by over 20% since we first arrived in the US, we now pay something like 40p a litre – so it’s still quite a good deal but 25 times more than Venezuela!
Tuesday 11 December we had a bumpy sail to Fort Lauderdale in 25 knots of wind, which stopped Mark falling asleep on watch and Louise falling asleep in her bunk, but are now safely tied up at Bruno’s Zoo (ie Bruno’s front garden which he rents out to us yachties). So we have our last week of fixing things or essential pressing maintenance as Mark refers to it - Incidentally a trim and highlights are apparently essential pressing maintenance. Also a last opportunity to stock-up on those luxury food items that make the weevil pasta dish almost palatable when it is has been over 3 weeks from the last fresh food source.
We then plan to do and overnight sail to Key West, check out of the US and then on to Islas Mujeras, Mexico in time for Christmas Day – were we hope to discover if we have been naughty or nice? | 