Closing the Loop is Around the Corner

The next stop after Melbourne was Titusville. We only had a few lift bridges to go through and most of them were open on request (these bridges used to be listed as open on demand, but I guess some boater took it too far and felt they had too much power, “I command you to open”. So, they changed the terminology.). The landscape in this part of FL is much different from that of south FL. There is a lot more open marsh land. I was looking forward to passing by the NASA launch center on the way to Titusville. It is an impressive site to visit. From the water, it just looks like a big building. But, since I have toured the facility, I could see in my mind the cords dangling from the launch tower just waiting to be connected to the next rocket to go into space.

We ended up staying in Titusville two nights. Not what we planned. A cold front has come through the area and there were frost warning for areas just north of Orlando. The cold weather didn’t bother me so much as the 15-25 MPH north wind that was predicted. I could see the whitecaps out on the bay, it would have been a nasty day. So, we took the bus to the local shopping district and did a little provisioning. When we got back, we walked the downtown park that is dedicated to the space programs. I believe the local economy took a hit when the space shuttle program closed, there are a lot of empty shops in the downtown area.

We left Titusville on Thursday and headed for Halifax Harbor Marina in Daytona. On the way to Titusville, we heard on the VHF radio that there is bridge construction just past our stop in Daytona through Thursday and the waterway would be closed from 7 AM to 5 PM. Now that we are not going through that area until Friday we won’t have to get up and be through that bridge before 7, yeah for that.

It was an uneventful trip, just the way we like them. We saw a lot of dolphins. Theresa got to see them swimming beside the boat. We were taking it all in and thinking about the extra time we had in the morning. Maybe we can go get breakfast somewhere. I heard the announcement about the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge. I thought yea, yea we know about that, but just for something to do, I flipped over to channel 22 (don’t get me started on the 2 2-alpha thing) and listened. Crap, the bridge closing has extended though Friday. I guess dawn will come early on the boat again.

We had a nice stay at Halifax Harbor. It is a huge marina, but easy in and out. We saw fellow Loopers Joe and Rhonda on Bandwagon at the marina. I went over to say hello and they were working on the windless of the boat. I offered to help, and we were able to track down the issue and repair it. We discovered that we were both going to St. Augustine the next day.

We were too late to see the Daytona 500 and too early to see the Indy car race at Daytona, so we settled on dinner at what turned out to be a great Italian restaurant. It was so good that we brought back leftovers. I normally do not bring back leftovers, because the refrigerator is small, and I normally don’t want to make room for leftovers. This was an exception to my rule.

With our early departure from Daytona, we arrived in St. Augustine about 2 PM. We got fuel and a pump out and we were in the slip tied up, clothes changed and headed to explore the area by 3:00. We went to the street and turned left. We waked for a while looking at the old houses and buildings. We found a big Convent House. But little in the way of shops and dinning options. We walked back toward the marina, I have to say I was a little disappointed in St. Augustine. We kept walking past the marina toward the fort, Castillo de San Marcos. That’s when we found it, the Gatlinburg of St. Augustine. An area with artisan shops, fudge shops, ice cream, dinning, wine, and souvenir shops. After touring around there for a while we headed back to the boat. We are going on a trolley tour on Saturday, so we will see more of the town then.

We met up with the crew from Bandwagon and Destination ?? (Carol and Tom) on the dock and exchanged stories about our Loop experiences.

Now for the exciting news. If all goes as planned, we cross our wake (complete the Loop) on Sunday.

NEBO Log Melbourne to Titusville

NEBO Log Titusville to Daytona

NEBO Log Daytona to St. Augustine

Lesson Learned: Always listen to the radio announcements, even if you already think you know what they are going to say.