Day 5&6-Our first Beer and BBQ stop 😉

Wednesday, March 24, 2021.
Weather: Temp: 80/60, Humidity: 87/45%, Top Wind: SE7mph, Precip: None, Miles Traveled: 52

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We got up around sunrise time and got ready to go. The dew wasn’t bad this morning, so that made things much easier that the last couple of mornings. 😉. We were tied to a fairly short pier, so we untied our criss-crossed stern lines from the main dock, and I took my lassos off of the two front pilings at the bow, then the side tie spring line off, and away we go!

This really is a nice secluded marina, protected from the ICW and much of the wind. Look at that calm water!! The last time we were here, it was Suntex Marina at Vero Beach. Now it is changing back to Loggerhead Marina at Vero Beach. It is interesting how marinas change corporate affiliation more often than you might think.

Here is the channel out to the ICW. It seems odd that the sun looks so high in the sky only one hour after sunrise!

There were some really beautiful homes along the waterway. We were surprised that it seemed the majority didn’t even have docks! I guess if all your money is wrapped up in a beautiful home, there’s no play money left for a boat. Or the water is just too shallow in a lot of places to get to shore.

We saw hundreds of these jellys. We’d never seen this kind of blobs before so I consulted with the Google. It says that they are cannonball jellyfish. I can just see kids picking them up and throwing them at each other. 😳

This was our view a lot of the day. Just a wide bunch of water where you have to stay between the markers for enough depth. Just like our side of the state around Sarasota, it seems such a shame to have all this water and have it be so shallow that you can‘t enjoy all of it. Just stay in the marked channel. And sometimes the channel markers are waaaay out there, beyond normal vision, so it’s another good reason to have the trusty binocs handy.

This big bridge welcomed us to Cocoa Village. We are very near Cape Canaveral, and we just missed a SpaceX rocket launch this morning at 4:30! Darn!

We got all settled into the marina, with a bow-in docking. That is really rare for us, but the the piers are 50’ long…. and the dock master kept saying “bow in, starboard tie”. So we assumed that “bow in” was the best way for docking here. Come to find out, we could have backed in if we wanted. But hey – the pier is long enough, so it worked out just fine. Usually it makes more sense for us to back in so that the power and water connections on the boat are close to the main dock where the hook ups are generally located.
We arrived here at 2:00, so we got to kick back and relax for a bit, and chat with the couple on the neighboring boat sharing our pier. They are 80 years old and just sold their previous 50’ boat and purchased this Symbol 45 . They were loading a bunch of stuff on it, and checking out all the systems. Captain Kenny enjoyed that conversation. 🙂. I hope we’re still doing life like that when we’re 80!
Then after awhile, we went to check out a brewery that wasn’t here three years ago – Bugnutty Brewing Company. It was an easy walk from the marina – just a few block. They had an interesting dark IPA nitro… and the first taste resulted in a “Wow! That’s pretty gnarly for an east coast beer” from the beer taster in our crew. 🍺

It was a fun place. We were there pretty early, so not many people yet. They had a good assortment of food on their menu, but we had a different idea.

When we checked in at the marina, the gal (Karen) told us that Crydermans BBQ was good, but they close pretty early in the evening – or whenever they’re out of meat for the day. We think that is a sign of a good BBQ place! So from the brewery we went to Cryderman’s Barbeque, just a couple more blocks away. Sure enough – open Tues – Sun, 11am-630 pm or whenever we’re sold out.

They only had outdoor seating, and took our order at this little table. There were so many great things to choose from, so we ordered an assortment of different meats. Since we were here at about 5:00 on a Wednesday, they weren’t out of anything yet. We were surprised how many people we saw come by to pick up “to-go” orders. I think the folks in this town know good BBQ!

Wowza! Would you look at that?! We got plastic silverware (normal for a good BBQ joint), and “sharing papers” instead of plates. Ribs, pulled pork, brisket, turkey, smoked baked beans, tater salad, pickes, coleslaw, and a minty fluffy dessert with chocolate/toffee crackers on top. 🐖🐄🦃. Everything was amazing! The “smoke ring” on the outside edges of the meat was at least 1/4” thick. And the turkey breast was like nothing I’ve ever had. It was SOOOO juicy and moist. I can’t believe it, but we ate ALL of the meat, and most of the sides. Dude – we literally waddled back to the boat.

As we got back to the marina, we spied the cute butt of a Bayliner. That’s our Girl!

And guess what?! Tomorrow is SLEEP IN DAY! We are staying here for two nights. We ordered a new coffee maker from Amazon that is supposed to show up tomorrow. If it doesn’t make it, we’ll stay another night. There are worse places to be. Cocoa Village is a fun little town with LOTS of restaurants and places to wander around.

Thursday, March 25, 202

Ahhh – it was so nice to not have to wake up to an alarm clock. 🙂. However…. there was no coffee to be made in the boat, and the marina has their captain’s lounge closed (due to covid precautions), so we had to go on an adventure. We found the little bakery (Da Bake Shop) that makes donuts and other yummy stuff.

We ordered a couple of lattes and some very expensive donuts.

And I was so sad to discover that their apple fritters are not longer “as big as your face” like they were three years ago. 😕. But yay for this little local shop for still being in business!

We headed back to the boat to enjoy our goodies, and then captain was captured by a sugar coma and took a long nap. We hung around and figured out where and when we want to go next, and made some reservations for the next few stops and days.
Our Amazon package was tracking right along, and actually showed up around 3:00 or so. That was good – now we’ll have coffee on board again, and we can continue on our way tomorrow.
Then we got the bikes down (no simple task), so that we could ride to the Publix grocery store about 3 miles away – OVER that big Cocoa bridge. The wind was really blowing and gusting today (one of the reasons that we knew we’d be here more than just one night). Up on that bridge, we could either ride in the traffic lane, or on the raised (like 8-10” high) sidewalk. With traffic flying by…. I walked my bike across along the sidewalk. I could just see me flopping over off of the raised sidewalk in front of a bus and ruining a whole bunch of people’s day. 🥴. Kenny rode all the way across on the sidewalk, so he had to wait several minutes for me to come over the crest of the bridge and realize that I was still alive.
We bought some groceries, filled up our trusty saddle bags on the bikes, and headed back across the bridge. Coming back, there was no raised sidewalk, and the wind was not nearly as gusty. We had about a two foot wide shoulder to ride on, at the same level as the car traffic lanes. This time, I just cracked open the throttle on my trusty e-bike and zoomed right across. I was wearing my high visibility pink shirt, so people could see that I was a crazy ol’ grama on an electric bike, riding like I stole it. And I discovered that I was way less squirrely when not peddling in a wind storm!

Safely back at the boat, I got a notification from our credit card for $84.87 from Elitesingles.com. WHAT?! I get notifications for any charges to our Capital One card. This was about the same amount as our coffee maker, but that was from Amazon. So Kenny checked it out, and called the credit card company. Sure enough, we got hacked somehow. So now that credit card has been shut off. And we need to figure out where to have the credit card company mail a new one to us. Hmmm. 🤔

We realized that it was dinner time. The choice before us was another brewery (that we’ve been to before) or pizza. When we’re eating out, we like to get stuff that we don’t make on board. I let Kenny choose, and pizza won. So we went to Ryan’s Pizza & Pub. We’ve eaten there before, but pizza sounded really good. And it was.

Tomorrow we’ll be on our way again.