To Cocoa City
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Thu 21 Apr 2011 22:48
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To Cocoa City, Florida,
USA
    No sooner than the
anchor was up, we were back on the ICW for the thirty one mile journey to Cocoa
City. The blogs on the trip to New York could all end up looking identical and
become very boring so we are trying to give each one a theme. This one is mostly
about the people we've seen. However, the Osprey nests seemed to be on each and
every mile marker, each with chicks I happened to say out loud as I was
musing - "I wonder how or why an Osprey chooses one marker over another when
they all look the same but they do seem to favour the green ones". Ahhhhh they don't you know; it's the wise owl that allocates
them.
Check Pepe for warning signs.
Have you ever seen
a spiral bound Chartbook of the ICW hurled with such force.
Bear
has
Duck Bear,
Duck.
  One of the dads off to catch fish, watched by a couple of
friends having a great day out
    We have seen boats in all shapes and sizes but surprising
to us - no commercial traffic at all
  One
particular bird caught our eye. He swooped in handed over a
fish and off he went in a split second
    We saw three
sailing yachts today, each one as they passed came on
the radio for a chat. We were pleasantly surprised that big
motor cruisers slow down to overtake us or radio with their intentions.
One chap in a powerful motor catamaran told us that he intended to pass at
fifteen knots unless we wanted him to pass slower. All very thoughtful as some
boats can make colossal wake and wobble us all over the place.
We have often had a good laugh over
some radio conversations, we had one today. A side note is: Why do American
Coastguards speak so fast, anyway, this is what we heard.
"This is US Coastguard Sector
Jacksonville sailing yacht Carriacou your last position given puts you on dry
land can you confirm".
Maybe that's
why the said vessel is calling for Boat US then pipes up you know
who.
There were no commas in
the Coastguard transmission as they don't stop once they get started.
I must have got used to them as I used to get quite cross. Any serious messages
where they say "Keep a sharp lookout" and give a Lat and Long, no way can you
write it down quickly enough.
    We go under one of those
enormous bridges, turn right, keep going about a half a mile until we have point
five of a metre below us and anchor. We are now on the outskirts of Cocoa City.
Skipper Bob says it's a two block walk to West Marine Chandlers or a bus ride
east to a massive Mall which includes Sears and Macy's, further on the bus to
Wal-Mart. no sooner the word than we were in Baby Beez and heading ashore at
half past four. The only place we could see another dinghy parked was in front
of a bar cum bait shop, in we went to ask permission. Did we get a Southern
welcome or what. "You be comin' from England y'all. Your tender be fine thar".
We get this a lot now, seen as a novelty. I was somewhat alarmed though, at
these little chaps in their thousand being sold by
the pound for bait.......... in vast shallow tanks.
 Next door was a restaurant with
this massive crab sign, complete with vulture - just
in shot (top left).
  Across the busy main road, we stood
at the bus stop for ten minutes. Got on our first American bus, complete with
bike rack at the front, drop suspension to allow it to be level with the kerb
and automatic ramp for wheelchairs, very fancy. Again seen as a novelty we got
tickets for sixty cents. Fifteen minutes to the Mall and another ten to the
massive Wal-Mart. We bimbled around for a while and thought we could stop at the
Mall. Back on the bus, into Sears for a pair of sandals for Bear. In the food
court we had to have sweet and sour chicken (a must have once a month for me)
and back out to the bus stop. This was where the fun started. We had to get on
the bus as it was the last one. It would take us in a loop back to Wal-Mart,
then back to this very stop at the Mall before it would go west to drop us where
we came from. Well it halted at every stop and being dark, we had no idea which
county we would end up in. All was well and nearly an hour later the driver told
us it was our stop.
  Now pitch black and gone ten o'clock,
we got a good shot of the now lit sign over the Crab
Shack to compare to the earlier photo. By the time we got on Beez it was
time for bed
ALL IN ALL A
VERY FULL DAY
.
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