CS'ta Time Odyssey

March 29, 2015

We set the alarm for 0600 hoping to leave Vero Beach anchorage around 0700. Boy it was cold in the morning! Neither Jorge nor I wanted to get out of bed. We had to add the bed spread as extra covering. We were successful in pulling anchor and getting underway by 0710. We had decided to exit the anchorage via the north route (a short cut) out of Vero Beach. The channel was not marked although the chart plotter (not in great detail) showed adequate depth. Wrong! We ran aground three times with Jorge doing some fancy wiggling of the boat to get us clear the third time. We decided to go back into the anchorage and exit via the south channel which was marked. Lesson learned . . . don't try to be too adventurous! We lost about half an hour. We also decided to pull the dinghy rather than lift it onto the davits. Another no-no, dragging the dinghy really slowed our speed. We also had stiff winds (at times) and waves against us adding to the slowness. We arrived in Cocoa just before 1900 hours, still light enough though to anchor easily.

I think this was when Jorge suggested we do a 180!

So much for happy hour on our boat with the two couples from Vero Beach. However we got an invite for dinner from one of the couples, (Shawn and Leanne) who took pity on us arriving so late! We gladly accepted and spent a wonderful evening with them. We managed to throw together some appetizers, as well as a bottle of wine, some olive bread and a pound cake as our contribution. An impromptu potluck - the best kind!

March 30, 2015

The morning was again cool but it warmed up nicely and by mid morning we were peeling away layers and were into shorts and t-shirts during the afternoon. We dinghied to the east side of Cocoa. We're up to our old tricks again, running out of cash. Today's boat job was to find an ATM and withdraw some money. We then dinghied back to the boat, picked up some munchies and some beer and went to the west side of Cocoa where we sat in a park and had an early happy hour. Just off the dinghy dock, there are antique shops, boutiques and artsie type stops. We strolled through the area and visited some of the them. We enjoyed this little "village" very much on our way south and enjoyed it again today.