"ICW Trip 2001 Leg 25 Titusville" Top 5 Page for this destination Titusville Travelogue by grandmaR

Swing bridge from 2002

7:15 am Charlie and Sandy helped us push away from the dock because they put a boat quite close in front of us. There is a guy who polishes the big power boats, and he's been doing this one.

We went through the Main Street Bridge behind CAROLINA (whom we first met in Belhaven - they were anchored out - and then met again at Barefoot Landing), and then through the Memorial Bridge with them and another boat.

Manatee

All the bridges in Daytona except these two have been taken out and replaced with fixed bridges.

We went past Seven Seas Marina and I took some photos of it. (See Port Orange.) The current was at least 2 knots here, probably because the river squeezes down narrow - there was almost no current at Caribbean Jack's Marina.

Manatee with a barnacle'd back

Saw a power boat named JOB SITE, and then several with names like RELATION* SHIP, FRIEND * SHIP, and PARTNER * SHIP. Talked to PARTNERSHIP on the radio - they used to have their boat in Solomons. There are almost as many people who used to have their boats in Solomons as Canadians.

Passed the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Marina, but the marina apparently no longer has a phone. Saw several porpoises leaping and playing in Brickhouse Cove. I reached behind me to get the chart book, and didn't realize that Bob had put the binoculars on top of it. They fell on the floor. Bob says they are broken, but he's put them back together. I don't know if they are as good as they were.

Came through the Haulover Canal, and going down the Indian River saw someone anchored that Bob thought was anchored in the channel. They were pretty close but not actually IN the channel. Got to Titusville Marina by 1445. I actually managed to LASSO the stern piling by MYSELF!!

We walked up to Azteca (Tex-Mex restaurant) for dinner.

Sunday: We hung out at the marina watching the manatee (taking pictures of them is difficult, but I tried). Bob said he saw one with a calf, but I didn't see that.

Osprey on top of mast

We intended to stay here 2 days, but we decided to extend the stay because the space shuttle was supposed to take off on Tuesday, and Titusville is one of the best places to see it. CAROLINA was here for a couple of days, but left today.

We visited Patrick on VAYA CON DIOS (which is a beautiful CSY and is for sale), and took photos. Also took pictures of an osprey on the top of a mast and a green heron that was sitting on a dock line (top picture).

Alligator captured

The Natural Resources folk shot an alligator that he become 'aggressive' i.e. people were feeding him and he started going after dogs. They trapped him and shot him by the sea wall, and then he was too heavy to get out of the water, so they towed his carcass by boat to the other side of the marina and pulled him up on the beach. They said he probably came over from the wildlife reserve over on Cape Canaveral. We have never tried to visit the Cape. The Wildlife reserve might be interesting, but I'm just not that interested in the space stuff.

Alligator being taken to shore

Joan and Gordon from the Brewer in the slip opposite us (they are here for the winter and know where everything is - so they said that was the best place to watch) and Bob and I walked over to the park to see the shuttle launch, but the launch was delayed again. We all walked to KFC and had dinner.

Bob got on his bike and rode around the area quite a bit. He bought two lighted angels (he has not been able to find reindeer although he did find a sleigh) to put up over the staysail boom. He also replaced the crazed glass/plastic cover over the instruments in the cockpit, and put up the CO detector in the aft cabin.

Titusville Swing Bridge

Pushed off with Gordon's help and went through the Titusville Bridge(which doesn't open during space shots - ditto the Haulover Bridge and the NASA bridge) with 3 power boats and 7 sailboats on their 1st or 2nd opening of the morning (they don't open until 7:15 am). Then went through the NASA bridge although that bridge divided us up into two groups of 5 - we were the first boat in the 2nd group. He got 5 close to the bridge and then let them through, and then closed again and waited until the 2nd groups was all at the bridge, cleared traffic and opened for us. Bob did quite a bit of sailing as there was a strong east wind.

That night we anchored off Melbourne