Titusville continues to hold lots of possibilities for exciting and full days! The marina has already proven itself a safe place for Sea Star when while we were away during a thunderstorm a few wind gusts of 74 knots blew through without mishap. It was because of our dockmates that no harm came to our boat. Titusville Municipal has great staff and friendly cruisers, and those like us who have cruised some (or even for years) and have decided to stop for awhile.
So what has changed since I last reported on February 14th after Bonaire? Well, we are doing a bit of driving in our all-wheel drive Subaru. Two trips to New England; one to visit and the other…. I’ll get into THE SECOND TRIP soon enough.
Merritt Island Reserve
Beside the long trips we needed to take to New England, it’s great to have a non-water vehicle again and drive to the grocery store or to the hardware store, never getting lost because of the car GPS unit. One of the exceptional places we can drive to is Merritt Island Wildlife Reserve, a short five miles away where we are like little kids, agog at seeing alligators, their shiny scales, long, swishing tails, and very beady eyes ominously appearing many times when we’ve stopped to use our binoculars to achieve a better view of some new to us birds. In the Reserve we can usually see a Bald Eagle high on its nest on a radio tower, Scrub Jays, an endangered species quite lovely with subtle blue feathers, many shore birds and ducks; Plovers, Grebes and four varieties of Herons; Great blue, Little blue, Green, Tricolored all available on excellent paved roads – without going more than twenty feet from the car unless we want to. I walked up the road only twenty feet to grab these poor pictures of Roseate Spoonbills. I wish you could see all of the birds through binoculars- some pics of Jays and alligators didn't come out at all so I can't post them.
The spotting of shore birds is very easy, low Florida scrubby bushes, no trees to get in the way when checking the banks of canals for what they may provide, or scanning wide open grassy marshes for the hawks or harriers swooping or riding the air currents. There are many sightings of Bobcat reported in the park, although the Reserve closing at 5:00PM makes seeing these elusive creatures difficult. We have not.
THE SPACE PROGRAM IS ENDING
Titusville is on what is called “The Space Coast”, obviously because of Cape Canaveral and the part of the US Space Program at Kennedy Space Center involving the Space Shuttle located on the same island I just described! The two times we witnessed rockets being launched from Cape Kennedy the importance to the community and entertainment value of the launches were obvious. The volunteers at the Reserve suggest the wild life and the rocketships can co-exist just fine.
The morning Sea Star was to enter the marina back in November, Dan looked up into the sky while I was pulling in our anchor because he saw people pointing and he heard voices from the boats anchored around us. We saw a small trail of smoke growing larger in the early morning sky until what was a rocket had loudly boomed a few times, then trailing the launch signature white, puffy smoke, the sight mesmerized us until it disappeared and the smoke evaporated slowly. A pretty spectacular Florida arrival, we thought at the time after our long, cold slog up the coast from Key West after crossing from Isla Mujeres on Thanksgiving Day.
Another evening just at sunset we and others were sitting outside on the bows of our boats when an even more impressive rocket was launched into orbit. We certainly watched and listened but we had already been spoiled when we saw Discovery launched a few weeks earlier.
The largest extravaganza was when Discovery was being sent to the Soyuz Space Station. That was an incredible local event with people invading the area from all around filling the hotels and restaurants, some crowding to line up along the pedestrian walkway of the newly opened Space Bridge (adding a new 66 foot bridge for travelers on the Intracoastal Waterway) to gawk at the trailing smoke, hear the massive engines roar to life and feel the vibration from the huge booster rockets as the staging fell and Discovery was off for the very last time. There was a 20 minute delay, but basically all went as planned. The crowds yelled, clapped and partied ‘til late all around town. We boaters had almost “the best seats in the house”. From the comfort of our own lawn chairs on the decks, we could enjoy the spectacle.
ECONOMIC ISSUES IN FL
All is not well in the Titusville area and the Space Coast. I’ve heard over the past months and especially now, thousands of space employees are losing their jobs as the Space Shuttle completes its last launch in April. The devastated economy is seen in the amount of Real Estate that is available with prices already low. Homes, condominiums and businesses are for sale with no prospects. Obviously this is the “coffee shop” talk all around us. Dan went for a haircut and the barber was moaning about his business dropping, “fewer haircuts and nobody gets a shave.” Apparently some private corporations are coming into the area, one aircraft builder, I think from Brazil, that may be able to employ a few of the highly trained workforce, but many will pack up and move to where ever there are jobs. There are not many jobs in Florida with its 8% unemployment figures.
In walking distance from our boats are local parks. Nice places for the tourists and locals to enjoy the Florida sunshine. Dog runs, ball fields and climbing structures are provided. Last weekend there was the Indian River Festival at the park nearest our marina. I guess it was like a mini fair with rides, events like bull riding and go-cart races; just a nice family event.
Daily Florida temperatures have risen since our arrival back and today and yesterday I felt like I was in Guatemala with temperatures reaching the 90’s! Beaches are open. We haven’t gone swimming yet as the locals say the water is too cold but it’s no colder than the best days at Block Island, RI in the heat of the New England summer, so basically it’s very confusing. What do I get up and put on in the morning? Right now it's cool at night, very cool early morning then the sun starts to beat in on the hatches so we close them and go onto air conditioning about 2:00Pm if we're about the boat. We broil til about 6:00PM and then it's often very cool by bedtime, 10:00PM or so. Bugs have not been bad but I hear they may get worse soon.
DAN’S NEW ADVENTURE
Our SECOND trip to New England was planned around two things. Dan had a specific day for continuing education for a contractor license and we went to AJ’s Cycle shop to pick up our new BMW motorcycle, that was ready for us March 26th.
Somewhere out in Panama, Dan started thinking about how much he missed riding on a cycle; the wide open feel and surroundings, as well as the need for speed after Sea Star’s average 6knots with just a little acceleration in wind gusts! He wanted to ride again, and I agreed, as I had not yet seen any of the western US and friends told us we were missing a lot. For this adventure, we needed to return to the United States and find a safe place for Sea Star as she is our moving home base.
So here we are in Florida now with the new bike after trailering it here from New England. Our plan includes a visit to Texas, probably to Big Bend National Park. We will drive out on route 10, trailering the bike and see where we decide to explore. We’ve read about some VENT birding tours that travel to where we’d like to go, so we will include our interest in birding along with the renewed motorcycling experience. We have light weight gear for camping and we’ll try that again, too. Here we will be in the middle of RV land, but on the ground. Unless we choose to use a hotel for greater comfort sometimes.
The last few months have been spent “gearing up” and the last few weeks practicing the riding; first, no gear on the bike- just Dan, then add Me and get used to cornering and stopping/starting with the extra weight. Next we added the side saddle bags and made our two helmets connected so we can speak with eachother and Dan can hear the GPS traveling directions. Soon we’ll add the top rear case, which we need for “stuff” because I have no interest in a bike of my own so that we could carry even more gear.
It’s exhilarating to ride again. Here the roads are open and straight unless you look for the “twisties” or “sweepers”. It’s been 31 years, however, so we are conscientiously practicing starts, quick stops, U turns and “wigglies”, like S curves. Dan even took a class to refresh his riding skills and said he learned a lot of tricks to improve his riding.
Dan and I are connected by an intercom in our helmets, guided by GPS and entertained, (should we care to use it while driving) with FM radio, Sirius radio or Ipod, so there has been a bit of learning curve on those items, too. Today we spent two hours on the phone straightening the intercom issues out and downloading new software for our Scala Rider Power sets. Very high tech but wearing full face shields, we really can't just holler to each other. We've read a lot and despite the lax helmet rules in Florida (many wear NO helmet, just a tee shirt and many girl passengers are seen in fip flops) Dan and I will wear full protective gear.
Dan and I keep up with the blogs of friends we met cruising. We hope to keep hearing their news and about the exciting places they are roaming. We miss Braveheart (now off their boat) on newly purchased farm land in West Virginia, Tregoning on their way by Morgan sailboat to Hawaii after just leaving the Galapagos Islands, Windsong living and climbing in Korea while teaching there, friends living and playing in the Bay Islands of Honduras, Cormorant maybe still in Italy, so it goes on.
Soon we’ll be on our way again too -and our sailing blog will become a trip report like other motorcyclists write, if and when there is time and internet.
Enjoy the three types of pictures: Around the marina, family visiting and the new BMW, and the long trip back to Florida.
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| Around Titusville Marina |
