Stuart, FL to Cocoa, FL
June 5th – June 10th
Total trip: 10 hours, 85 nautical miles
So, I’ll tell you the original “plan”, then tell you how it actually went down.
This plan was concocted by Capt Steve himself. It was a beautiful plan. I love a good plan. We all could NOT wait for this trip. Here’s the original:
Day 1: We get to the boat in the afternoon, relax, provision, and eat before heading out for an evening cruise to anchor 1-2 hours up the coast.
Day 2: We get up early, boat 5 hours to an awesome anchorage right off a tiny island with a beach, meet up with my brother (who lives on the East Coast of FL) with his fishing boat; swim, fish, and relax on the beach.
Day 3: We end our trip in Titusville/space coast and chill (and clean) before heading home Mon morning on Day 4.
So here’s what really happened…
Day 1: We got a 4 hour late start commuting in because of weather. Landed near our planned pick up location in Titusville, anticipating the “car shuffle” on the front side of our trip. So then we had to drive 1.5 hrs into Stuart, FL where our boat has been at the Haborage Marina. We didn’t get in until 7:00pm. At this point it was way too late to cruise to our anchorage, we all were starving and kids were super antsy from the long travel here (frankly so are we).
Ahh, at last, finally to our boat….but the feeling of 95 degree stale air engulfing you as you board the boat, is anything but comforting. All of the AC’s were on the fritz. UGH!! Capt Steve gets right to work cleaning some of the AC strainers. Poor thing is sweating profusely as he tries to work quickly. I’m pretty sure my legs have melted off and lil monster is down to a pile of goo himself. Capt finally gets 2 out of 3 decent enough to get us through the night, without sweating our tails off. They will definitely need more tinkering on tomorrow though.
We booked it off the boat as soon as possible. We swam at the Marinas pool, ate dinner poolside and waited for our provisions from Publix to be delivered. I ordered them during our 1.5 hr drive and it ended up being perfect timing. By the time we got back on the boat, temps were tolerable. Capt and I called it an early night (at midnight 😳)
Day 2: Nothing really to see hear folks. Yep… long story short, after Capt Steve messed around with the AC’s and got no further than the day before, we decided to take a break and re-group by the pool again with the kids. I took this chance to run a few errands before returning the rental car and Ubering back to the Marina.
Talked to my brother and told him we’re not gonna make it to the island today and can’t meet up this trip. I was super bummed.
Back to the boat we go after lunch. Capt is all out of ideas for the AC’s and we throw in the towel. We see storms rolling in and weigh our options for what to do. We decide to hang tight, once again, at the marina and get an early start (I swear) tomorrow morning. Capt and Big sis fish off the bow of the boat, we grill burgers on the aft deck and sip cocktails as we consider options for the next day.
Day 3: We got underway at 8:15, an hour later than we wanted, but Lil bro woke up just as I was finishing up my shower, so I couldn’t help the Capt prepare to get off the docks much at all. Thankfully the dock master at the Marina was just getting in and helped us untie lines and get off the dock safely.
About 3 hours into our cruise, coming up on an ocean inlet, a storm rolls through. This is where the red/green intercoastal channel markers get crazy because of the ocean inlet leading out. Usually red is on the left through the intercoastal (ICW) going north, but it’s on the right returning from the sea. Not the best time to lose basically all visibility. We can’t SEE which side of the channel markers were on 😬. We draft 3’6”, and if we go on the wrong side of a marker, we could hit bottom. And if that wasn’t enough to make you wet your pants, our Right engine decides to alarm during this nail biter (it’s overheating so Capt had to shut it down) and of course that wakes up the lil monster. Seriously?!?! Maybe we’re cursed to never make it to this island.
After we’re in the clear, a boat goes passed and because the channel was so narrow, Capt couldn’t cut the wake enough and we got rocked pretty hard. We heard things banging and crashing down below.
Two more hours up the river…..We have our island in sight. Btw, it’s name is Serenity island. Just perfect, given our day. But, like our luck so far, more storms are building all around us. We waited 30 mins before deciding to anchor right near the island in the pouring down rain. We’d attempt to anchor closer once storms cleared. Thankfully lil monster went down for nap #2 about 30 mins before. Big sis wanted nothing to do with the rain (or thunder), so she stayed put in her room watching a movie.
After 3 hours and dinner on the back deck, Capt Steve re-anchored and tied our stern to a tree on the island.
Just in time for the sunset.
They should rename this island Pelican island. I’ve never seen more…..perched throughout the treetops, fighting each other/slapping beaks, for a branch to call home for the night. Capt and Big sis checked out the island before the sun fully set, while I was entertained by the Pelicans.
Day 4: After breakfast, we walked over and played on the island for a bit, then went around with a garbage bag and cleaned up trash other visitors had left. Saw a dolphin swimming just beyond the shallow shoal where we were hanging out. No less than 30 feet away. Too cool for words.
Packed up and left around 1:00. Storms rolled in shortly after leaving, so we were lucky we left when we did. Ol’ Righty only made it 1.5 hrs before it overheated and Capt had to shut down. Its been leaking coolant/water and Capt still couldn’t find where from. We still have (2 hours) 15 miles to go, storms are popping up everywhere and we’re down to 1 engine, so Capt decides to changes plans and stop at a closer Marina in Cocoa, FL. Only issue is these boat slips are privately owned and owners have specific requirements AND its prime hurricane season, so the office manager needs to approve a last minute transient slip for us. And guess what? The manager isn’t in today. Dock master had to call him on his cell and plead our case for us. So here we are waiting for the dock masters call to see if they’ll take us. Waited for almost an hour.
Thankfully they had a transient slip for us and will let us stay for a month. YAY!! It was super tight getting in, but Capt Steve did another amazing job navigating between 2 huge catamarans and squeezing into our narrow slip.
We were a few blocks from historic downtown Cocoa. Walking distance to shops and restaurants. We ate at a cool southern restaurant, Murdock’s with live music.
We are desperately low on our provisions, but there are no grocery or convenient stores we can walk to, so we picked up bottled waters (and dessert) at an ice cream shop as we walk back. I then poke my head into a wine shop, The Wine Lady, that’s “closing” (they left the door unlocked…heehee), and nicely plead for them to let me buy a bottle (or 2) of wine. They saw we had 2 kids in tow and gladly obliged. Funny thing is, I never made it to the wine. Called it an early night. We all were exhausted.
Day 5: Don’t get me wrong, we love cruising the coast. It’s our happy place. But by day 5, we are ready to just chill and relax at our new Marina, explore the city, and tidy up. Yah know what’s crazy? I grew up in FL, going to Cocoa beach all-the-time, but I had never been to downtown Cocoa. It’s a cool historic little town that I never knew existed. Anyway, the boat is a mess!! I did something I rarely do, I left a pile of dirty laundry (mostly towels and linens) on the boat from our last loooong trip across the Okeechobee and now I’m regretting that. So, I take this time to make a date with the laundry facilities at our new home. $4 in quarters later, laundry is D-O-N-E.
So while The Capt scrubs the last 4 days off the boat and lil monster sleeps, Big sis and I take a walk into town to shop.
We get an early dinner because a local mechanic is coming to check out our engine leak situation and give us his opinion.
It’s always good to get a second set of eyes. Capt Steve (almost) always does his own work on anything with an engine. A little bit is money, a little bit is pride. But another pair of eyes is worth it in this case. The mechanic found a split line on the backside of the R engine. Capt didn’t see it. Relief! Easy and non-costly fix, that we’ll address next trip. Now let’s enjoy the night walking the docks, like we typically do. Beautiful end to quite an adventurous trip.
