Telemar to Titusville

We're heading north, slowly but surely.  Left Telemar Bay Marina, in Indian Harbour Beach (Melbourne) on a Wednesday, just after noon, and went 36.1 miles up the coast to Titusville.  We decided to take a mooring ball, just outside where the marina was located, then pop into the marina early the next morning.  Thad is learning to love mooring balls! 



You get the idea here of a mooring ball

And why not:  it is similar to anchoring out but you are attached to a secure ball and do not have to worry about the boat drifting or dragging anchor.  You just sidle on up to the ball, grab it with your boat hook, bring the line on board and secure it to one or both of your bow cleats.  Plus it is a heck of a lot cheaper than a slip at a marina.  In the case of Titusville Marina, since we were coming in the next day, they did not charge us for the ball.  A free night - yippee.

But wouldn't you know it, our skills at coming into a slip, stern first, would again be tested.  We passed the test, but just barely! 



See how easy this looks?  It isn't!

This is what you DO NOT want to do!!



Darn it, Cindy should have looked over the section in her notebook she entitled "Lines by Paul," where Paul Brannon (the boat's previous owner) had told her just how to do the lines when coming either bow in or stern into a slip.  Hindsight is always 20-20.  Cindy is NOT good at getting the loops over the pilings.  If the boat would just hold perfectly still!  But it was another learning experience and the lessons, so far, have been soft ones.  

Titusville was interesting.  Let's put it this way, the town is trying hard.  It seemed a little rough around the edges, but did have some nice homes.  We actually had a good time here.  We rode our bikes on "real" roads, the kind where the speed limit is 45 but the cars are whizzing by you, like right by you, at closer to 60 mph. Eeek.  I had procured a Brevard County library card while in Melbourne, and had a library book I had not quite finished when we left Indian Harbour Beach.  Finished it the first night in Titusville so we decided to ride to the library (we were still in the same county - a 5 hour trip but, remember, only 36.1 miles away).  You know, your phone's navigation works really well while riding your bike -   you just have to turn the volume waaaaay up so you can hear that little voice telling you where to go.  Thad and I had not really ridden bikes, other than around the neighborhood or on a bike path for, say, 35 years, so this was a tiny bit of a challenging experience.  Bike helmets, though you look nerdy, are a definite YES.  The next day we got even more adventuresome and decided to ride 4 miles to Saturday evening Mass.  Got there in the nick of time, hot, red-faced and hauling our water bottles in with us.  I grabbed wet paper towels in the ladies room and cooled off with those on my face and back of neck. 

And since this was the evening of the Preakness we had to pop into someplace to watch the race.  Mass was at 5, over at 6:10, and post time was 6:20.  We rode our bikes furiously, found a

local Moose lodge, used the secret code/handshake to get admitted, found the bar, getting there at 6:19, watched the race which lasts all of 2 1/2 minutes, walked out and went on our merry way.  As we rode back through Titusville a little restaurant caught Thad's eye.  Larry's Café.  In we went and had a delightful dinner of appetizers, making new friends of the owner and his wife.

Oh, I forgot to mention the dinner we had the night before, at a local landmark, Dixie Crossroads, where they believe in serving dessert first!  We had the most delicious shrimp there.

They call them corn fritters, but I call them mini elephant ears

At Titusville Marina the water is a very peculiar shade of brown, not the "clear" brown you often see from tannic acid in the water, but a muddy brown.  But they had numerous manatees, so you know the water can't be that bad. 

Here's a manatee drinking from the neighboring boat's water discharge


We had two other fine dining experiences, both right there at the marina, courtesy of the local Power Squadron.  On Saturday morning we enjoyed their pancake/sausage breakfast and then decided we just could not pass up their delicious, nutritious hot dog lunch.  Just doesn't get any better than this!

As we were leaving the marina we saw someone who must be a long-lost relative and waved goodbye as we headed back out: 

Maybe we'll see these folks again as we continue north up the ICW